When I was 12 and I wrote multiple essays on what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wanted to train thoroughbred racehorses. Of course, I never dreamed that one day I would be so blessed to actually work in the horse racing industry. I was just a girl with a Daily Racing Form and a dream.
So there I was last weekend, spicy margarita cocktail in hand in the backyard, cheers to the end of an era in Thoroughbred horse racing, watching the finale of what was once TVG or horse racing television games on the t.v in the backyard. It may be summertime but the days are not feeling sunny this week.
Of all of the losses and the life changes of the past few years, this one genuinely hurts.
There was a time when horse racing had its own television home. TVG wasn’t just another betting channel—it was where racing fans spent entire Saturdays. You’d wake up with The Morning Line, spend the afternoon listening to handicappers like Jeff Siegel, Todd Schrupp, Mr B, Matt Carothers and the rest of the crew break down races from Santa Anita to Saratoga. This was simply part of my morning routine. Coffee in hand, cats on my lap, trying to convince myself that this was finally the day I’d beat the Pick 5 instead of donating to it.
Of course, us degenerates would leave TVG on in the background for the next eight hours because there was always another race coming up somewhere in the world that you couldnt miss. In 2022, TVG was rebranded as FanDuel TV as its owner shifted focus toward the booming sports betting business, promising horse racing would remain an important part of the network. Instead, racing slowly became just another line item on a sportsbook balance sheet. Now FanDuel has announced it will wind down its dedicated horse racing studio programming before ultimately shutting down the cable channel, leaving racing to mostly raw simulcast feeds with Muzak while continuing to operate the wagering platform.
For a sport already fighting declining attendance, shrinking television exposure and an aging fan base, losing daily personalities, storytelling, analysis and live studio coverage feels like ripping the front porch off the last house still inviting new fans inside. Racing doesn’t just need betting apps. It needs people who explain why a maiden special weight matters, why a pace meltdown creates value, why Del Mar and Saratoga in the summer feels magical and why all of us fell hopelessly in love with this ridiculous sport in the first place. Betting alone doesn’t create fans. Television personalities do. Storytelling does. If horse racing becomes nothing more than another wagering tab squeezed between NFL parlays and same-game bets, this may not be the final nail in the coffin—but it’s hard not to see it as one of the biggest swings of the hammer.
I started out as just a horse racing fan and years later, I had the surreal privilege of working at Santa Anita Park, hosting many of these analysts and television personalities in the suites. You know what surprised me most? They weren’t celebrities with giant egos. They were just genuinely kind, funny people who loved horse racing as much as the rest of us degenerates.
That’s why today is so heartbreaking.
I’m truly gutted that my horse racing-obsessed BFFs, Alicia and Johnny, did not live to embrace this tragic day with me. I could use one of Johnny’s patented “No fucking way” right about now.
It’s about the people
It’s easy to complain about corporations and rebranding, but behind every TV camera, production truck and broadcast desk are real people who devoted their careers to promoting a sport they love. My heart breaks for everyone who suddenly finds themselves lost, floundering in a world being taken over by AI, without a job. Horse racing has already been fighting for every fan it can get. Losing experienced broadcasters and passionate storytellers doesn’t help the sport—it hurts it.
Let’s be honest, though. The writing was on the wall the day TVG was swallowed up by FanDuel. We all hoped racing would benefit from the bigger company, bigger audience and bigger budget. Instead, it often felt like horse racing slowly became the side dish while sports betting became the entrée.
So today I’ll raise one of my favorite Santa Anita Spicy margaritas to everyone who made those broadcasts feel like family.
And yes… until further notice, my hashtag is officially #FuckFanDuel.
Because somewhere out there, a racing fan just wants to hear people passionately debate the fifth at Los Al instead of being reminded for the 437th time that there’s a same-game parlay on a Tuesday night baseball game.
Thanks for decades of memories, TVG. You deserved a better finish than this.
