Yesterday I watched the racing in Trinidad on TVG. Maybe our attendance would improve, along with TV coverage if we had those mostly naked ladies and guys on stilts?
When I was in Panama this summer I was surprised to find on my final night there that I was able to watch/bet the races at Lone Star! This was at one of the MANY "casinos" in Panama City that are associated with the major hotels. There was a virtually identical casino literally just a few blocks away at another hotel and I got the feeling that these were sort of a 'franchise' or chain operation. I wondered if each casino had to pay for it's own simulcast or if they shared a signal purchased by a single 'owner' of multiple casino outlets? The small (max capacity 40 -60 people) sport book area featured futbol (of course!), baseball (including some sort of IRM based on baseball that seemed particularly popular amng the Panamanians) and about 1/2 to 1/3 of the room was betting the ponies. (Another area which I didn't choose to venture into, twice as large or more was devoted to slots and table games, mostly to various slots/poker machines. I wonder if Texas could tweak the marketing of its Thoroughbred equine product by making a concerted effort to sell our signal to outlets/users in Central America/Carribbean nations? It might also be a great place to market an interest in our equine product, albeit on a small scale for export purposes. (I'm basing this largely on the HUGE success the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has had over the years building up a viable relationship with ranchers/breeders from the various nations south of our border with their "International' hospitality committee. What began as a very small effort has forged longstanding and every growing commercial ties that are based on friendship/mutual appreciation. TAMU has also reached out to Central/South America with numerous extension courses that are marketed to ranchers, farmers in nations to the south of our border. Equine sports are very much alive and well in the Carribbean/Central/South American nations with hispanic influences and a ranching agrarian sector. Although Panama's area suitable for and devoted to the breeding of TBs is small they have some decent stallions, a very well operated, first class operation that cannot possibally provide all the horses needed to fill races (so - I am assuming they import from Ven, Columbia, Peru and Argentina, etc. - perhaps some from US?) and racing is popular with locals as I saw multiple large billboards announcing that live racing would soon return to P.C'.'s "Hippodromo". Does anyone posting/lurking here KNOW if any effort to increase our ties to Central/S. American breeders/trainers/owners is already being done or are all track simulcast signals necessarily sold as 'bundled' services, etc.?
A final question: When I recently rejoined TTA after a few years' absense I was solicited to provide questions/suggestions for a planned 'live' online forum of the TTA Board/membership but haven't heard anything back as to when this is scheduled/received any link for joining. Does anyone here know if this effort at communication is going to happen or not, and if so, when/how to access it? Did I somehow "miss" the date for this event?