[baymeadows3408]

I'm not a horseracing fan myself, but Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita are still running, albeit with no spectators at the venues.  I have to imagine that the minimum number of jockeys, trainers, grooms, officials, etc necessary to run a day of racing is well in excess of those needed to play a basketball game.

I used to work in horse racing (including at Golden Gate Fields), so I'm going to share my take on the situation.

It does take a decent number of people to put on the show in horse racing, but most people are kept in groups that don't interact much with each other.

I'll start with track workers. The stewards (lead officials) and placing judges are isolated on the roof. The starting gate and track maintenance crews don't interact with other employees. You don't need concession workers and only need a small number of betting clerks (to take bets from trainers, owners, and grooms and hotwalkers). 

The jockeys stay sequestered in the jockeys' room during the race card. They are only interacting with each other.

There is a decent amount of human interaction that goes into the daily care of the horses. Trainers oversee  staffs consisting of assistants, foremen, grooms, and hotwalkers. However, this care must continue because the horses need to be fed and taken out of their stalls to exercise and their stalls need to be cleaned. These people must keep interacting with each other to do their jobs. Most grooms and hotwalkers live in dorms at the track, so it's a fairly enclosed ecosystem. If a trainer and a groom work with each other in the morning, then there is no additional risk to having them saddle a horse together for a race in the afternoon.

I think horse racing can be conducted safely if everybody goes to the track, does their jobs, and then goes home. Racing, however, has two major problems to confront. One: Public perception. Racing has been hammered by bad PR in the past year and it's not a good look to continue operations when everything else is shut down. Two: Although spectators have been barred from the track, people have still been able to bet on races at off-track facilities, which are now shutting down. The revenue stream is about to dry up, and online betting alone can't make up for that.

Things are about to get very interesting in horse racing, which has been in wobbly shape from an economic and PR standpoint. Will the Triple Crown races be held without spectators present? Will the Triple Crown races get pushed back, and what sort of impact will that have on the rest of the racing calendar? Will racing be suspended at tracks this week, and for how long? What will happen to the horses if there are no races being conducted and trainers and owners won't be able to earn purse money? In the worst-case scenario, I can see it getting really ugly for the animals.

[baymeadows3408]

I'm not a horseracing fan myself, but Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita are still running, albeit with no spectators at the venues.  I have to imagine that the minimum number of jockeys, trainers, grooms, officials, etc necessary to run a day of racing is well in excess of those needed to play a basketball game.

I used to work in horse racing (including at Golden Gate Fields), so I'm going to share my take on the situation.

It does take a decent number of people to put on the show in horse racing, but most people are kept in groups that don't interact much with each other.

I'll start with track workers. The stewards (lead officials) and placing judges are isolated on the roof. The starting gate and track maintenance crews don't interact with other employees. You don't need concession workers and only need a small number of betting clerks (to take bets from trainers, owners, and grooms and hotwalkers). 

The jockeys stay sequestered in the jockeys' room during the race card. They are only interacting with each other.

There is a decent amount of human interaction that goes into the daily care of the horses. Trainers oversee  staffs consisting of assistants, foremen, grooms, and hotwalkers. However, this care must continue because the horses need to be fed and taken out of their stalls to exercise and their stalls need to be cleaned. These people must keep interacting with each other to do their jobs. Most grooms and hotwalkers live in dorms at the track, so it's a fairly enclosed ecosystem. If a trainer and a groom work with each other in the morning, then there is no additional risk to having them saddle a horse together for a race in the afternoon.

I think horse racing can be conducted safely if everybody goes to the track, does their jobs, and then goes home. Racing, however, has two major problems to confront. One: Public perception. Racing has been hammered by bad PR in the past year and it's not a good look to continue operations when everything else is shut down. Two: Although spectators have been barred from the track, people have still been able to bet on races at off-track facilities, which are now shutting down. The revenue stream is about to dry up, and online betting alone can't make up for that.

Things are about to get very interesting in horse racing, which has been in wobbly shape from an economic and PR standpoint. Will the Triple Crown races be held without spectators present? Will the Triple Crown races get pushed back, and what sort of impact will that have on the rest of the racing calendar? Will racing be suspended at tracks this week, and for how long? What will happen to the horses if there are no races being conducted and trainers and owners won't be able to earn purse money? In the worst-case scenario, I can see it getting really ugly for the animals.