I started to turn this announcement of a new fantasy horse-racing game into a blurb for the FSB News page, but then I realized that it’s really worth more than that.

DerbyDreamer.com, which was launched a week ago by Vinery Farms, isn’t just trying to be a quick, free game to drum up some interest in the “sport of kings” as we move toward the Triple Crown races. Its founder seems to be heading into this venture with his sights set on building the next Fantasy Fishing.

“Tom Simon came up with the idea as a way to draw more people into the industry, and it’s a passion of his, so we’re really doing it for the good of the game,” Tom Ludt, general manager of Vinery, told Bloodhorse.com (referring to a co-worker, I assume). “As you know, our business is losing more and more media and fan attention, so hopefully this is a way to draw in the younger generation and anybody that likes the fantasy games.”

The way this game will seek to draw in that expanded audience is by awarding $10,000 monthly prizes to top scorers and $120,000 to the full-season winner. It’s not the million dollars that FantasyFishing.com blew into town handing out, but six figures is a pretty big deal for winning a “fantasy stable” contest.

Also unlike the fishing example, Derby Dreamer opens as a pay-to-play contest, requiring $12 per entry. Obviously, any entry fee is going to drive away the more casual fantasy set (the majority of the market). Twelve dollars, however, is a low enough fee to entice the kind of player who will put in a little time and effort to vie for the big prize — low enough to get many such players to buy multiple entries.

That money-spending player, of course, is the valuable relative minority in the fantasy space. Among other things, “he” is attractive to potential advertisers and sponsors.

Most importantly, it appears as though the company is behind this concept and willing to give it some time to see if it’ll grow.

“We’d love to get to the point where we’re profitable and can (tie it to a charity), but we’ve got an enormous amount of money invested just to make this happen,” Ludt told Bloodhorse.com. “It will be very interesting what kind of response this gets over the next three or four months. Hopefully it catches.”

Will it? We’ll see. According to the site’s leaderboard, the game has 243 entries so far. Competition opens in the month of March.

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– Users are no doubt already aware that Yahoo! has launched its 2010 baseball commissioner product. This year, the system has added support for auction-style drafting.

– It’s not easy to find on KentuckyDerby.com unless you already know the name of the game, but the “official” Derby site presents a fantasy game called “Road to the Roses” to accompany the Triple Crown events.

– The Fantasy Football Librarian just got back from a busy trip to Miami for Super Bowl XLIV — thanks to her win in the Buffalo Wild Wings bloggers league — and has some photos and details.

– You already loved Motorcycle-USA.com, and it can only get better with a new section devoted to fantasy. Real fans of two-wheeled racing can also play for a trip to this year’s U.S. Grand Prix.

– It’s not related to fantasy, but the San Diego Chargers are looking for interns for the coming summer, with a focus on college students. How many of us have envisioned working for a pro sports franchise at some point? Gotta start somewhere.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– MLB Advanced Media announced this week a deal with STATS that makes the latter the “official real-time data licensor” for MLBAM statistics and information. It’s a multi-year deal that extends to baseball’s minor leagues. It can be tough to really understand just what this kind of deal means, but federal courts have told us in recent years that stats exist in the public domain. Ultimately, then, such a distribution agreement would seem to cover only the “official” MLB stats. Anyone attending or watching a game, though, can compile the same numbers.

– Recent FSB.com profile subject got a writeup from The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino this week, in which he suggested that American fantasy-game providers could learn from the site’s graphical model.

– As part of its in-season Weekly Lineup Challenge, FantasyFootballStarters.com has donated $1,000 to NFL-sposored charity Play It Smart on behalf of winner Alan LaFollette.

– Socaltech.com reports that NASCAR.com has contracted with Rotohog to produce a stock-market style game for this season.

– This AP story purports to be about rising female participation in fantasy, but it’s actually just a fun read about a few women who like to challenge the men in their leagues and their lives. (Let’s just hope that the Kansas University alum who fancies former Jayhawks for her fantasy hoops team has at least tended to get Paul Pierce.)

– If you can lead the field in “stable earnings” through April 17 in this new fantasy horse-racing game, you can win a trip to this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).