Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Jamieson: "I've never seen a horse like him in my lifetime"

As Cup XXV gets closer, the Globe and Mail has a piece on Somebeachsomewhere.

Driver and co-owner of Santanna Blue Chip (post one) says this:

"This horse is just a great horse," Jamieson said of Somebeachsomewhere. "He's a creature. I've never seen a horse like him in my lifetime. I don't think the people that are coming to the races right now may ever see another horse like him. I guess they'll say that Niatross was the same kind of horse, a dominant kind of horse, but I never got to see Niatross race. But I've seen Somebeachsomewhere race, and I'll tell you, he's an absolute great."

The accolades just keep coming. Lucky Beach is a horse, because if he was a human, he sure as heavens would feel some pressure.

This weekend, at Mohawk Racetrack - in my opinion the most beautiful harness track to watch a race on earth in the summer - who knows if history will be made. Who knows if we see a 1:47 mile. Who knows if the horse comes up short and reminiscent of the 1919 race between Man o' War and Upset is the result. But one thing those of us in the area should not do, is miss it.

Harnesslink Blog - Investigative Reporting

I have been remiss lately. The blog at Harnessracingblog.com is doing some fine things - weekly roundups, interesting stories. And I simply have had too much going on to mention it. For this last story they have gone and done some investigative reporting on something close to us - getsulky.com.

They are looking into some of the responses left on websites promoting the site. We have gotten a couple of them here, in fact. I believe (full disclosure as in the next piece below - I am a partner in a marketing firm) that they should take a look at this and make a decision if this is what they think they should be doing. If harnesslink is correct, I do not think this helps us much. If the organic ranking for getsulky goes up with posts about their social media tactics it will hurt not help. Promoting websites via social media is a very, very fine line; and like walking a tightrope. It can snap.

Anyway, only my opinion. To formulate your own opinion read the article and let me know what you think in the comments section.

Also, check out getsulky.com and let me know what you think as well. After all you are customers. Your opinion is needed.

Here is the Video, You Decide

Handicappers who played last night's Georgian Downs racing were flummoxed at one of the results. Paul MacDonnell, driving Wholly Louie drifted off the rail, or pulled the deuce, which the end result of which let a stablemate (Tigerama) out, who won the race. Some were saying he did what Trond Smedshammer did in the Hamletonian (youtube video here)

For the race in question it is posted on Youtube.

I am going to add some full disclosure here. I like Paul, like him very much. He has driven our horses. He is a class individual. His integrity has always been beyond reproach. My judgment would be clouded on responding to this due to that bias. Also, in harness racing we tend to eat our young and crucify people with imperfect information; and throwing people with impeccable records under a bus without knowing said info is completely insane (a reason that I think judges and drivers and trainers should explain to bettors what happened with some performances.... I think it leads to making people feel like we are forthright and it attacks those out there who think we cheat all the time). So, I am not comfortable commenting.

Anyway, I leave this post like this: You decide.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sure does look brutal. The horse was under urging to keep from gapping the pocket and he pops? Tough to explain.

Who was the American Viking letting out? I thought he had Herbie and Mr. Pine Chip?

Pull the Pocket said...

Georgie Brennan had another Trond horse in there. He got the benefit.

I can't remember what Trond got for that. I think it was 45 days and an 18k fine? Something like that.

Anonymous said...

I would question why the judges didn't post the inquiry sign. It looks to me that Tigerama forced his way out and Paul MaDonnell didn't want to end up in a collision. Being it is a stablemate, it wouldn't be smart to post an objection (something that rarely happens in harness racing), but the judges should have flashed the inquiry sign.

That being said, I would love to have seen the patrol video footage.

Anonymous said...

The three Trond horses were Here Comes Herbie (the one Trond was driving), Blue Mac Lad (Brennan) and Mr Pine Chip (Sears).

The belief has always been that Trond may have knocked Mr Pine Chip off-stride with his move to the right, but I don't think the horse was particularly good that day anyways. Seemed to be hanging pretty badly.

Trond received a 35-day suspension and an $18,000 fine on appeal...it was 45 days and no fine originally.

Anonymous said...

Ahh no kidding. Don't remember that.

I don't think he knocked Mr. Pine Chip off stride. He looked rougly gaited before Trond headed right.

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