Weekend Happenings

Busy weekend out there! The weather is getting warmer; and so is the racing. Here are a few notes and random thoughts.

First up, Paul MacDonnell rolled out to Truro, Nova Scotia and trained Somebeachsomewhere in 2:05. He reports that the horse looks good, seems sound, and is ready to get things rolling. I am very, very excited to see him. We should be able to tell pretty quickly if his year will be one for the ages.

In thoroughbred action, how about Curlin? Not only does he win the world’s richest race, he absolutely cruises. The next time we hear an owner speak about retiring a horse early, we should all send them to this youtube video. I love watching great horses, I don’t care if they are standardbreds or thoroughbreds.

Big Brown is another we spoke about below. I loved his poise and attitude in shrugging off challengers in the Florida Derby like they were 10 claimers. Is he another Derby horse? He sure looks like it.

In other news, the Standardbred Wagering Conference is scheduled for this month. Standardbred Canada has been pushing it, as they should. If work can get put on hold, I would really like to go this year to see what the whole she-bang is about. Is it going to be a bunch of people sitting around telling each other that they can’t do things, or will there be talk of actually doing something? I sure hope it is the latter. Here is the schedule of events for the conference.

Bob Marks let’s his thoughts be known about listening to customers at this conference.
This part made me chuckle was his note below, as it is like a dad telling his son who never listens, to actually listen. The bizarre thing, is that he is telling a 130 year old business something they should have done for, oh, about 130 years.

Since the purpose is to ascertain just why and where the handle has gone, it is advisable to encourage any players in attendance to testify with total candor. Or don’t even bother. We may or may not be able to specifically address all the dialogue expressed but at least we’ll have some idea where we stand in the grandstand.

Of course there will be a tendency to dismiss much of the banter as mere rhetoric from disgruntled and/or degenerate gamblers. But that would be like the prevailing ostriches pompously dismissing colloquialisms as not credible when offered by acknowledged racketeers in a mob trial.

I find that funny, and very accurate: “Degenerate gamblers”. Calling a few people I know that, who bet millions with the precision of a doctor doing open heart surgery on the Queen, is like calling Tiger Woods a weekend hacker.

Last up, Darryl Kaplan has a nice little opinion piece on being a horse racing customer. Give it a read, you’ll enjoy it, because I know you are all that: customers. You’ll especially enjoy it if you are a Toronto Maple Leaf fan.