I'm a sucker for tradition.
It's why I still haven't completely gotten over the NBA moving the first round of the playoffs to seven games, even if it means more chances to watch Kevin Durant. Plus, "Tradition" is the best song in "Fiddler on the Roof" (1964) ever since Gwen Stefani ruined "If I Were a Rich Man." Sure, maybe it is simply because I hate change; I'm still frustrated that I haven't figured out what I am supposed to call Puff Daddy after all these years. But traditions are meant to be lasting, and I have a hard time accepting anything different.
Which is why I am having trouble moving past the fact that Saturday could mark the last time that one of the best events in sports occurs before an extreme makeover. By the first Saturday in May next year, the Kentucky Derby could be run under the lights at Churchill Downs. If not next year, it will occur soon. Famed trainer D. Wayne Lukas described the move as "inevitable."
Why did I spend so much time talking about tradition? There is no other event in sports that is marked more by that word than the Kentucky Derby. Forget the Masters and its "Tradition unlike any other" slogan. You can raise me Augusta National and its green jacket and I will counter with Churchill, "My Old Kentucky Home," mint juleps and hats so outrageous that it puts any trucker ensemble Ashton Kutcher could have ever worn to shame (and me to shame, as well, for another ridiculously outdated pop-culture reference).
It isn't like running the Derby at 9 p.m. is going to change all that. I'm sure that you will still get the same drunken crowd in the infield and celebrities in the grandstands. But it won't feel the same. It is obvious that the move to primetime is about nothing more than greed.
Horse racing is always trying to promote itself to a larger audience, even though the Derby has steadily increased its viewership over the last few years, including last year when Mine That Bird came out of nowhere to win the race as a 50-1 longshot. But after the success that the NFL draft had with its move to primetime, it seems logical that other sporting events might follow suit.
Still, the Derby is different. The NFL already has a large fan base that is invested in its sport. In my mind, you aren't going to increase viewership on a Saturday night. Early trials last spring at Churchill may have brought more spectators for racing under the lights, but I don't think they will add to television revenue.
It is a gimmick move. Anything that is new and novel will sell well early, but I would bet that eventually night racing won't be as much of a spectacle. Once that novelty wears off, all you will be left with are the same issues without the sunlight. And as someone who has lost way too much money at Suffolk Downs, I can tell you that the weather is my number one excuse for going there every time.
I have no problem with wanting to attract more fans to the Sport of Kings. But what makes horse racing what it is are traditions like what you see at the Derby. Dressing up for the Derby during the day is like going to church, only with more drinking and gambling. If you move the Derby to the nighttime, it is just like another outing.
And it shouldn't be. The Kentucky Derby may be the nation's oldest continuously run sporting event, but if it wants to be the real "Tradition unlike any other," it has to stand by what makes it special. OK, so there is nothing really wrong with change. But why mess with a good thing?
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Ethan Landy is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at ethan.landy@tufts.edu.
