American Pharoah's Triple Crown Victory Will Not Raise Horse Racing's Profile

The sight of American Pharoah roaring down the stretch at the Belmont Stakes and capturing horse racing's first Triple Crown in 37 years was a memorable sight and sound.

Fans welcomed him to the rare club that includes great names like Secretariat, Citation, Whirlaway, Seattle Slew and Affirmed with a sustained ovation at New York's Belmont Park.

It was a memorable moment, but one that is not likely to catapult the sport back to anything close to the level of popularity it once had.

Thoroughbred racing can be a beautiful sport to watch as powerful equine athletes glide around racetracks across North America, but it cannot recapture the glory it once had in this country.

The era known as the Golden Age of American sports featured four sports: baseball, boxing, college football and thoroughbred racing. The main figures during the era were Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Knute Rockne and horses named Man o'War and Seabiscuit.

While sports fans had a dynamic interest in those sports during the Roaring '20s, sports fans' appetites changed dramatically during the depression years of the 1930s and beyond.

While college football has continued to grow and Major League Baseball remains extremely popular, professional football has been at the top of the popularity polls since the late 1960s and early 1970s, and it has never ceded its position to the competition.

The Harris Poll started its annual ranking of American sports in 1985, and its 2014 rankings had the NFL on top for the 30th consecutive year. It was followed by MLB, college football, auto racing, NBA, NHL and college basketball. 

Thoroughbred racing was nowhere to be found.

There are a number of reasons for that, and let's start with the basics. Horse racing is just one of many gambling options that American sports fans have at their behest. In previous eras, there were no state-sponsored lotteries, and bettors were forced to go to casinos in Las Vegas if they wanted to gamble.

Times have changed dramatically; gambling casinos are widespread across the country, and gamblers have many betting options online. Those entities allow sports betting, casino games, poker and slot machines to proliferate.

At the same time, race tracks have regularly had to engage state governments and ask for permission to run casinos in conjunction with their horse racing business just to stay afloat.

So instead of betting on horses, gamblers have hundreds of other options, and they have chosen to take them instead of sticking with the sport of kings.

One of the reasons for that is that it is a difficult betting option to master. Unlike most casino games, luck is not the decisive factor in horse race handicapping. It is certainly one of the factors involved, but it's not as important as figuring out a horse's ability level. That's done by using a thoroughbred's past performances to judge his capabilities and also by looking at a horse on race day so a bettor can assess how the horse is doing.

Wayne Parry/Associated Press

Some horse players excel at reading the past performances and figuring out who's the best in a given race, while others can judge factors like a horse's health, comfort and poise by the way it looks prior to a race. The rarest of handicappers can use all of those factors wisely.

However, it takes time how to learn how to read the Racing Form and it may take even longer to develop a keen eye for a horse's readiness to run. It's very difficult, and frustrated bettors would rather engage a slot machine or bet on a hand of black jack.

Additionally, sports fans have much more information at hand when it comes to football, baseball, basketball and other competitive team sports. Football fans watch their team play every week, and when the point spread comes out, fans often believe they know how the 49ers will do against the spread when they play the Bears.

It's often an illusion, but when you know the quarterback, the head coach and other star players, it's easy for fans to fool themselves into thinking they know what will happen. It's much harder for the average sports fan to think he can figure out thoroughbred winners on a consistent basis.

American Pharoah has created a frenzy of interest in thoroughbred racing for a short time. However, he's not going to be racing for much longer.

Mike Stewart/Associated Press

This talented horse is scheduled to run through the end of the year and will participate in the Breeder's Cup races as long as he is healthy. However, he will retire from racing by the conclusion of the calendar year and set out to a life at stud.

While this may be profitable for his owners, it means that he will never race as a four-year-old and beyond. In the past, powerful horses like John Henry, Forego and Affirmed would run for years and fans were able to see these athletes run at various tracks across the nation.

That rarely happens any longer, because the greatest equine heroes leave the track shortly after their three-year-old season.

The Triple Crown triumph of American Pharoah will create some short-term buzz, but it will disappear before the first football is kicked off in early September.

Thoroughbred racing may spike for a short time, but it is a niche sport in 2015 and nothing more.