Saturday Shockers

Darlins Delight tried this week (unlike last week), and unsurprisingly jogged.

There is some chatter lately about the Kentucky Oaks being on Bravo. Ray Paulick explores this tonight. I have no idea what to think about that, other than the simple fact is the sports channels are ditching this sport, so it being on any channel is better than the alternative. Heck for some tracks I can not even get streaming video.

A little bit of news from Woodbine today regarding their participation on Sirius Radio's Down the Stretch. I would surmise they spent some cash as a sponsor or something. They do similar to get the product on the Score for both harness and the runners.

Further, they have changed their simo-screen a little bit. The camera work is better and uncluttering the screen allowing for less noise is a good thing. In my next wacky thought, I would like to see some innovation using TrackUs and ADW. One day, and I think it is not far off, I believe that we will be able to tag a horse in our ADW and have it flagged so we know where it is. In a 14 horse turf race at Woodbine t-breds, where the start is like two miles away, it would be the coolest thing in the World. One thing I like about harness is that the horses are much easier to keep track of on a TV screen, or even at the track. It sure does not help our handles any, though.

Watch for some changes in the Breeders Crown this year. I'm thinking something might be up with Pennsylvania. Just a guess, but to go along with the obscene exotics takeouts, they have like 100 gazillion dollars of slot money to spend.

Speaking of Pennsylvania, at the Meadows they have experimented with the starting gate, allowing outside horses to start up to 14 feet ahead of the inside horses. We need this now at London, or Grand River or Woodstock. Completely change the way half mile track races are run. What have we got to lose. I think the daily handles at Woodstock are even less than the annual sales of a BJ and the Bear collectibles store at Ebay.

Speaking again, this time of Grand River, Kelly tries to promote as much as possible, and she is at it again. This time with an edition of Harness Cribs. She goes to Paul MacDonnell's house for a visit, and tapes it.

Aaron Merriman drove his 1000th race tonight of 2009. In comparison, I have worn about 150 socks so far this this year. Imagine if he before the year, started some goofy charity thing where he has to, say, eat a hot dog before every start? He would need a titanium race bike, built to seat a grain silo. Anyhow, that's a whole lot of drives.

My buddy Jeff Platt of Jcapper and the Horseplayers Assn of NA was interviewed by Case the Race this week. Jeff's a good guy and usually has something interesting to say.