Cake, Aussie Reaction, April and Fools

April Fools Day has come and gone. I always forget the date, for some reason, so every year it seems to pass me by. This year I got hoodwinked twice. First, our friends at harnesslink.com sent a note about owner of everythingJoe Muscara. I read the whole thing, thinking, poor fella almost got his scalp shot off. Boy am I gullible.

Then, right on cue Cangamble writes a new blog post telling us about Woodbine dropping takeout to 10%. What a fish I am. I did catch that one quicker though. I mean really, Woodbine dropping rake? C’mon. Give it a read as I found it quite comical. Gosh, our pal Cangamble likes Woodbine about as much as I like eating broken glass.

There is a new racing blog out there entitled “Cake or Death – Thoroughbred Horse Racing & Handicapping Erotica”. What the hell? I shuddered to think I might click on it to find a picture of Andy Beyer in the buff, eating a twinkie. Thank god I didn’t. It is actually a fella who is working a system to make his own power rating, and tweaking it to make it profitable; as well as other ramblings. Check it out if you are up for learning about the world of speed ratings and how handicappers try and make their own. PS: I must admit, my mind was at work hoping that the site was run by by Fair Grounds Handicapper Jessica Pacheco, but it was all just a dream :).

The betfair story we spoke about below is getting some pretty big play in Australia. The comments are pretty much as expected, but the papers are doing a fairly good job of getting some counter-points from gamblers, and gambling businesses who have lived the betfair experience. I think racing is slowly realizing that the world is changing, and that they might want to be a part of it.

The boys over at harnessracingblog have a story up and a couple links to stories about the court ruling. They also have betfair's reaction to some of the information being spread by the old guard. Holy smokes, they even link to our story here. I thought just goofballs like us read this blog. Nice to know someone with some importance does once in awhile.

Last but not least, I had not noticed on the weekend, but Panaramic Art got beat, to stop his winning streak. He sure raced like a bearcat though and did not go down without a fight. He’s a nice horse.