“Some of the weakest tracks got slot machines,” Waldrop said. “Those tracks probably should have been out of business a long time ago. So we’re taking a well-known, widely distributed product with a great brand and replacing it with a less well-known, less widely distributed product. Horseplayers are not gravitating to those products.”

"Citing a drop in its famed horse auctions (more than 50 percent in 2009 from 2006) and in betting last spring (down 7.8 percent while attendance was down only 1 percent), Keeneland eliminated two stakes and trimmed others to absorb most of the cuts of what it said in a release was 'a little more than $1 million.' The track also cut stakes by $600,000 during the 2009 spring meet and $275,000 last fall."

... explain so well the emphasis on 3YOs. "Even without the UAE Derby, purses for graded prep races in the U.S. will be worth $11-million this year, a 32.3% increase from a decade ago. Deflated total purses in North America declined 13.6 % from 2000 to '09."