(CHICAGO, IL – March 8, 2010) It is near impossible to determine at which point horse racing is on the continuum of frustration to anger to abandonment. But this is certain. The sport is being assaulted in every which way from every direction, and the fallout from the fans’ vitriol is stinging.

Wagering fell again in the month of February and bad weather was blamed. Last fall, the excuse was the economy. Yet, horse racing has been trending seriously downward for more than a year…well, heck, for nearly a decade. On the other hand, the way it has fallen in terms of the respect that its fan base is giving the sport traces much further back and, in one sense, is considerably more troubling.

A discourse that is civil may ensue when a turf writer sticks to predicting the finish or covering the results of a race. But when he comments on the manner in which the sport manages its business – in other words, on how the areas of operations, administration or legislation are being tended to by the horse industry’s leaders, the readers break loose with a tirade of comments that could make a ruddy-skinned man with high blood pressure blush.

“It’s extremely painful to read,” said Alex Waldrop, CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, about the feedback he gets from horse racing fans and horseplayers to his own blog when he addresses such matters. Waldrop noted also that “the fans have many points of contact” and serving all the issues existing at all the touch points isn’t possible in an industry where consensus is the only form of management.

Speaking in a telephone interview on Friday, the NTRA president acknowledged that he realizes the extent to which many people are unhappy. He sees what they write and think about horse racing’s problems. Moreover, he believes other leaders read the same complaints as he. “It’s hard for anyone to look into the mirror. Sometimes I must force myself,” he candidly admitted, while implying that the practice needn’t begin and end with him.

Two weeks ago, after Waldrop posted an NTRA.com blog about a speech he gave at the University of Arizona in which he emphasized that the future of racing was the Internet, the first reader to comment on what he wrote was a man named Russell Weber who accused him of listening to the fans but not answering them.

“There are two ways to handle comments,” Waldrop offered. “One way is to be responsive, and the other is to let people react and don’t get into it,” he explained. Often readers left to mixing in their views with the views of other readers who make comments on an issue can be more productive than complicating your own views with more of the same, he intimated.

“If I enter the space, I’d better be prepared to line up for its consequences,” Waldrop said about his own Internet writing. But he didn’t offer much in the way of explanation to Weber who commented that he wasn’t, and he didn’t shed much light on why industry leaders who don’t blog are reluctant to engage in dialogue by commenting on criticism or acknowledging ideas.

“It’s not smart on the part of leaders to disregard their public,” warned Dr. Charles Kenny, a clinical psychologist whose company The Right Brain People researches human emotion and its effects on business. “An old idea in psychology called the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis holds that when people don’t have their frustrations addressed, they act out their anger. In business, the frustration can lead to anger when customers feel that they have been insulted,” Kenny said.

“We have noticed from our work across many categories that the American people feel betrayed by just about every segment of leadership,” said Kenny. He believes that today is not a good time for leaders and, in fact, it’s a particularly bad time for leaders to avoid listening to and acting upon what the public wants. He cites MoveOn.org and the Tea Party as examples of movements that have grown out of the establishment’s practice of acting the way it wanted instead of the way its constituency advised.

In addition, Kenny knows from research he has conducted for the racetrack industry that losers can be made to feel like winners when patrons are recognized for their worth and when they have their ideas played out in policy.

“A fan’s team represents who he is. So when a fan goes to a ballpark and his team wins, the fan is rewarded; he becomes, in effect, a winner, too. But winning does not happen regularly in gambling, so the horse racing fan puts more emphasis and invests more emotional energy in the experience at the racetrack and looks to the surroundings, the amenities, the staff and the management for affirmation of his self-worth,” Kenny postulated.

If Waldrop’s right that horse racing is entering a new age of engagement on the Internet, then Kenny’s theory about serving fans and horseplayers with the validation that they’re not chumps is a challenge. Likewise, if Kenny’s right that one way to keep fans involved is to make them feel like winners, even when they are not, then Waldrop’s colleagues in the establishment better start dialoguing with and reacting to the public to figure out ways to accomplish this.

To its credit, the NTRA seems to understand what’s necessary. Its effectiveness in convincing the sport to ban anabolic steroids and the formation of the Safety and Integrity Alliance to which nine racecourses have already prescribed, as well as its current efforts to bring about an industry compact, are developments that grew from a groundswell.

Now it’s time for the individual racetracks, the Breeders’ Cup and The Jockey Club to say what they’ve done to engage their benefactors. Remaining mute when fans call you out, allowing the discord to grow and seeming to be “hard of listening” when the whole world around you is shouting is just fueling a rage that’s unnecessary, and nihilistic, to boot.

Vic Zast comments on horse racing daily at Twitter.com and Facebook.com. Keep tabs on Alex Waldrop’s bi-weekly blog at NTRA.com. Dr. Kenny’s new book is "The Right Brain: Drive Your Brand with the Power of Emotion."