We’re mucked and mired in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Housing, banks, retailers, auto makers and candlestick makers. You name the industry and it’s probably feeling at least a pinch from this global economic downturn.

And sports, obviously, have not been immune.

The Arena Football League is taking at least a year off, and NASCAR is scuffling as sponsorships begin to dry up, resulting in ownership consolidations and job eliminations.

The National Football League and Major League Baseball have or plan to lay off people as well, and have been looking at ways to cut spending.

Except for the New York Yankees. They seem to have a force field around them as far as feeling the effects of this economic mess that most of the rest of us are experiencing.

Anyway, horse racing is feeling the effects as well.

Recent horse sales saw spending go down, with median price averages falling. Many breeding operations are dropping their stallion fees for 2009, citing the economy.

The industry was struggling in many places before things got really bad, and now in some places, things are very, very bad.

Some tracks are cutting back on purses and/or eliminating stakes races.

The Breeders’ Cup was going to eliminate funding the stakes races it sponsors at tracks all across the land, until it felt the outrage that decision created, and did an about face.

However, that organization is going to make dramatic cutbacks in spending on its 2009 marketing campaigns, according to a bloodhorse.com story I read.

I’m sure at some point we will see a corporate sponsor pull its name from a major race because it needs to look at its spending.

It’s got to happen.

With times as tough as they are, the amount of money being wagered on races is already decreasing and probably will continue.

Purses at every track are tied to handle, in some degree, and of course there are tracks that are getting a huge influx of cash from slot machine revenues.

My guess is people aren’t throwing as much cash into slot machines these days, either.

Arrogance, old fashioned haughtiness (of the full-to-the-eyeballs-with-hubris variety), prominently displayed itself this past week, screaming loudly to anybody who would listen (and many did). It should be regarded as one of the conspicuous symptoms of horse racing’s poor health.

The first example was supplied by Michael Iavarone, the co-president of IEAH Stables. In a television interview, he said Big Brown’s loss, or surrender, in the Belmont Stakes cost his group somewhere between $50 million and $60 million. As a Triple Crown winner, Big Brown, he said, would have commanded a stud fee of $300,000.

That set off the old flapdoodle alert. Is Iavarone ignorant not just of the breeding industry but also of the economic downturn of the last six months? Or is he just so arrogant, so feverish with hubris, that he actually believes such flapdoodle? Or does he just want others to believe it? In this market, A.P. Indy doesn’t stand for $300,000.

The Breeders’ Cup supplied the second example when it announced it wouldn’t continue its program of supplementing stakes purses around the country. Never mind that the Breeders’ Cup later reversed itself; the damage was done. And it suggested that the Breeders’ Cup board members would find it easier to empathize with Babar, King of the Elephants, than with the average horseman. And what was the Breeders’ Cup doing putting its money in common stock anyway?

And then there was the Kentucky task force on horse racing that recommended increasing the takeout. The recommendation sounded a little like “Let them eat cake.” The worst thing anybody could do for horse racing right now would be to increase prices, and that includes takeout.

Anyway, most of horse racing’s problems can be traced to the sport’s inability, or refusal, to answer correctly the essential question: Why do horses race? They don’t race just for you, or just for the board members or task force folks.

No, horses race for the lords and ladies of the grandstand who push their money through the windows and who express their full-throated support with each turbulent race to the wire.

Peppers Pride - Any time a horse wins 19 in a row, it is good for the game, even if it is in New Mexico. Her appearances there helped to attract old and new race goers alike, and it proves that people will come out to see hometown heroes. The only negative is that there aren’t more classy, consistent horses across the country that could help attendance at other venues.

Zenyatta - She looks unbeatable, and next year the sky could be the limit. The problem is that the first time mainstream media heard her name, was at the Breeders Cup, where she decimated the field. That is sad too, because her other races this year were just as impressive, especially her win in the Apple Blossom over the always tough Ginger Punch. Ginger Punch is off to the breeding shed and will be missed, but Zenyatta will be back for more next year.

Curlin/Jess Jackson - It has been a long time that a Horse of the Year has returned, or even a three year old male champ (unless we count the geldings). Kudos to the connections of Curlin for even wanting a four year old campaign. Curlin did not disappoint, and rattled off victories in the Dubai World Cup, Stephen Foster, Woodward, and Jockey Club Gold Cup. His try on turf did not result in a win, but he was still very game, and his Classic was not as bad as it looked. His speed figures were still up there with the rest of his efforts. He just got beat by a better horse that day, in track record time.

Larry Jones - We shared his heartbreak over his filly’s tragic demise. He put a human face on a problem that is all too common in the game today. It was hard not to feel his pain, when he was so visibly shaken over the loss of Eight Belles. He showed the game is sometimes not as harsh as it appears, and the humans involved often really do love their equine charges.

The Ladies - Were ultra-consistent and exciting this year. Ginger Punch, Indian Blessing, Proud Spell, Music Note, Cocoa Beach and Zenyatta ran their hearts out this year. Stardom Bound (little Z around the barn) doesn’t appear to be letting the ladies down, and is poised to take the reins next year at three. Standing in her way are Zenyatta and Cocoa Beach, who will be tough to beat.

2009 is just around the corner. It brings renewed hope, and the sounds of thundering hooves dancing in our heads. The problems of our sport are being examined, and the feeling is that the winds of change will blow this year. Some will be good, and some may be bad. But overall, the change is needed. The saying of: “What you cannot change, will ultimately change you” could come into play, if the powers that be hold their thoughts and sit on the sidelines and watch.

Anyway, with all of the years of bad news, I wanted to point out the bright spots; the glimmers of hope for our future. Winter will fly by, and it won’t be long we will be sitting around the hot stove talking about things to come.

Five days after it announced it was suspending its North American Stakes program, Breeders’ Cup has apparently reversed itself and decided to fund the program for 2009, according to two members of its board.

The organization has come under intense criticism from breeders across North America, who already had contributed stallion and foal nomination fees to Breeders’ Cup, with the tacit agreement that Breeders’ Cup would help fund 100-120 stakes at about 40 racetracks across the continent, as the organization has done since its inception 25 years ago.

According to the two members who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the funding will come from about $30 million that Breeders’ Cup has in its coffers from nominations collected through the years. Breeders believe it’s their money they have contributed to Breeders’ Cup.

An investment committee of Breeders’ Cup makes the decisions on where to invest funds, and the 13-member board of directors has say over whether and how the funds will be allocated.

Breeders’ Cup senior vice president of operations Pam Blatz-Murff said on Dec. 16th, she could not confirm that the decision to not fund the stakes program for 2009 had been reversed. “As you can imagine, there has been quite a bit of discussion since the suspension, but as of now it is still suspended,” she said.

Members of the Breeders’ Cup board of members and trustees were upset that the decision to do away with the stakes program was made without consultation of the members and trustees. Prominent breeders had threatened not to nominate their foals to the program unless the decision to suspend funding of the stakes program was reversed. In addition, at least one member of the board of members and trustees had threatened to resign, if the original decision to halt funding stood.

In a Dec. 11th memo, Blatz-Murff said the organization was projecting a reduction in overall Breeders’ Cup revenue of more than $10 million next year due to the global economic downturn and a likely shortfall in nominations revenue. It goes on to state that in order to maintain the Breeders’ Cup World Championships purses at their current level of $25.5 million, television and marketing spending will be slashed by more than $5 million. In the last two years, the Championships have expanded from one day to two, and from eight races to 14.

Previously, according to the memo, Breeders’ Cup had committed to allocating funds for 2009 races, but now those allocations are suspended.

The 2008 Breeders’ Cup Stakes program featured 100 races and allocated $5 million in Breeders’ Cup funds to existing stakes across the United States and Canada. For the past 13 years, Breeders’ Cup and 40 racetracks and racing associations, have participated jointly in the program that provides additional purse money to Breeders’ Cup-nominated horses.

Total purses for the 2008 program exceeded $25 million. On the week of Dec. 7th, the Breeders’ Cup board unanimously decided to leave purses for the two-day Championships at their 2008 level of $25.5 million. Some critics suggested the funding for the broader stakes program should come out of purse cuts for the World Championships.

The Turf Publicists of America help to promote the sport of Thoroughbred racing, but on May 3, the Sport of Kings’ found a great ambassador in someone who shared his thoughts on one of the sport’s worst moments.

One day after walking to the winner’s circle to celebrate Proud Spell’s win in the Kentucky Oaks (G1), trainer Larry Jones found himself walking up to the Churchill Downs press box, not to discuss Eight Belles’s runner-up finish in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), but her death.

Jones was patient with the media not only that day, but also throughout the year as the glaring spotlight of the national media fixed on Thoroughbred racing.

“He became racing’s spokesman and its chief defender for all its problems,” wrote Tom Pedulla in USA Today.

For his contributions to Thoroughbred racing, Jones received the Turf Publicists of America’s Big Sport of Turfdom Award on Tuesday, at the Symposium on Racing and Gaming.

Ever humble, Jones deflected the praise of the award to those who had peppered him with questions.

“There is a big difference between sports writers who cover racing and turf writers,” Jones said. “There were a lot of things misrepresented but not by the true professional writers.

“I’m deeply touched by this award. I know some previous winners and consider them my heroes, and now I’m happy to consider them friends.”

“What Larry Jones did on Derby day was legendary,” Dick Jerardi of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote in an e-mail to TPA President Eric Wing. “He was the epitome of grace under pressure and cemented his reputation as one of the game’s class acts.”

Jones said earlier this year that he would scale back his operation leading up to a semi-retirement after the 2009 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. He has trained the Derby runner-up in two consecutive years, and he is an early participant on this year’s Triple Crown trail with Remsen Stakes (G2) winner Old Fashioned.