When it comes to being at the forefront of cutting edge wagering innovation, you wouldn’t expect to hear much about a small state like Connecticut, especially when you consider the narrow-minded view many of its politicians have on gambling.

To them it’s an outrage to show video of a horse race at an OTB parlor but OK to offer 35 versions of state lottery rip-off, er, scratch-off tickets in supermarkets across the state. Go figure.

Yet Connecticut has nonetheless been a frontrunner in a few ways. It is home to two of the most successful casinos in the world – Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun – and back in the late 1970’s it was believed to have the only teletheater for horse racing outside of Nevada. That was Teletrack in New Haven, which is now known as Sports Haven.

It also gave us what I’ll call the best wager no one ever heard of. It was called Stable Wars, which was a proposition pari-mutuel bet on the Breeders’ Cup that mirrored a fantasy sports game.

It was offered by Connecticut OTB, which is owned and operated by tote industry leader Scientific Games, and it lasted for several years until they lost interest in it when they couldn’t get the Breeders’ Cup to latch on to it and give it enhanced exposure.

I could never understand why the Breeders’ Cup wouldn’t embrace it.

The wager consisted of eight stables comprised of a jockey and three Breeders’ Cup horses. Points were given for 1-2-3 finishes and win, exacta and trifecta bets were available. The payoffs were not potentially life-changing, which probably dimmed interest in it, yet it gave bettors a chance to follow the entire Breeders’ Cup without ripping up your ticket after a race or two.

Personally I had better luck with it than I did Pick 3 wagers on the Breeders’ Cup, so maybe I’m biased. But I frankly don’t see anything wrong with offering a new wager that a lot of people can actually cash a ticket on.

Stable Wars, with the right exposure, also seemed like the perfect vehicle to expose fantasy sports players to horse racing. It’s quite ironic that horse racing’s best fantasy game has faded from sight at a time when interest in fantasy sports is growing like Jack’s famed Beanstalk.

This year, at least, we have something new in a proposition bet involving which jockey will win the most Breeders’ Cup races. It’s not a bad wager, but bringing horses into the mix would make it more of a challenge and reduce the possibility of ties.

Still it’s a move in the right direction and maybe next year the Breeders’ Cup will lengthen its stride and introduce a replacement for Stable Wars. It certainly can’t hurt the sport and maybe it’s time to re-think the huge push behind get-rich-quick bets like a Pick Six. When someone can buy a lottery ticket that could be worth $100 million while they are buying milk and a ham and Swiss sub at their neighborhood deli are they really going to go out of their way to a racetrack or OTB for a chance to win $100,000?

I think less and less people are going to do that and more and more people are going to be interested in a wager that they might actually win and that follows a format, like fantasy sports, that they understand.

And what are your thoughts on brining fantasy sports-type bets to horse racing? Did you or would make a Stable Wars wager?

Oh, and speaking of the Breeders’ Cup, I will be reprising my live Breeders’ Cup blog on both days of the world championships right here at ntra.com. Like last year, I’ll be using a mythical $250 bankroll each day. I had a good day on Friday and sadly gave back the profit on Saturday.  I still find it hard to believe that I knew Tiago would beat Curlin in the Classic, but didn’t cash a ticket on the race.

I’ve been doing my homework and hopefully we’ll fare better this year. Any suggestions on Breeders’ Cup winners would be welcomed.

Talk to you later in the week.