These have been tough times for the staff of FanDuel TV, which learned in March that the network would go off the air in 2027 and that it would be laying off several employees in June. One of those employees was the respected on-air talent Matt Bernier. Bernier joined the TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland this week to give his take on the situation. Bernier was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.Bernier described what it felt like to learn that he and so many others had lost their jobs.“I can't say I saw it coming,” Bernier said. “I don't know many that did. Even if you thought perhaps there was an inkling at some point in the future, I don't think any of us thought it would be now. I've had enough people kind of ask me about it. I'm of the opinion that who am I to suggest what a company should or shouldn't do, or someone should or shouldn't do. If they decided that this was the best move going forward, then that's their prerogative. Unfortunately, for me and some others, we're the ones that will be taking the brunt of it. It happened on a Friday morning when we were in South Florida. There was an NBC show that Saturday as well. I was on-site at Gulfstream and we just kind of needed to regroup a little bit afterward. You have that sort of dazed moment of 'Am I hearing all this correctly?'”Bernier said he was one of many who became a racing fan by watching TVG, FanDuel TV's predecessor.“I was in college and we had a sports package at my parents' house primarily for European soccer,” he said. “TVG happened to be part of it. I was just home one night going through the channels and there was a harness race on. I don't remember exactly which track it was, but I couldn't figure out why certain horses were certain odds. That just sort of sparked my interest. I've always had a little bit of a gambler in me. One thing led to another. You start reading books and you start doing your homework and doing research. Very quickly you realize from a gambling standpoint and an intellectual standpoint, there's definitely that part of it, a puzzle. It's different than just sitting there saying, 'You know, give me red on the roulette table.' There was definitely a little bit of input that went into this about making decisions and how the odds came about. So without that night going back home to my parents' house and happening to stumble across some harness race, I certainly wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have gotten to this point.”Will the loss of FanDuel TV not only mean there will be fewer racing fans going forward, but that handle will fall without the sport having a dedicated network?“The question about handle, that's the million-dollar question,” Bernier said. “I've always been of the opinion that there are so many different tiers of players. There is your very casual player who likes to turn the television on and whatever's on they're going to dive into. Then you've got your far more serious player who is pulling up a track feed, watching Santa Anita, watching Belmont Park, some of your smaller tracks. They're just locked into that circuit and that circuit only. So I'm going to be very interested. I know Ed DeRosa had put a few different things out there. It's still so early to have a definitive answer one way or the other. But the early returns would seemingly indicate that there is a meaningful sort of downturn as far as handle goes.”The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was Phileas Fogg (Astern ({Aus}), who earned a 107 Beyer in his win in the GII Suburban Stakes at Saratoga. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar, which stands the sire Two Phil's.Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the PHBA, 1/ST TV and West Point Thoroughbreds, Randy Moss, Bill Finley, and Zoe Cadman reviewed the opening weekend at Saratoga, which included several stellar stakes races. They also looked at whether or not Jose Ortiz has locked up an Eclipse Award, even though it is just July. The podcast concluded with a tribute to the recently deceased Daily Racing Form reporter Mary Rampellini.Click for the audio version of the podcast or for the video version.The post Matt Bernier Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast Presented by Keeneland appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.