Notes for a Thursday

There is plenty of action this weekend in our sport, but we'll hopefully get to that before Friday. Being busy lately I have to get a few housekeeping items posted.

First, Mike Maloney is not only a good player, he is a decent southern gentleman. He is on the board of the Horseplayers Association of North America, as well as the NTRA players panel. At a recent HANA Day at the Races at Keeneland, he went on camera to speak a little bit about the organization and to present Keeneland with their #1 Track in North America award (their takeouts are very low, and they try hard there to offer good bettor value). Here is the clip from US racing channel TVG. Since many of you are members of HANA (some of you a part of the 30 or 40 initial members), I thought you might find it interesting:



Second up, kudos to the Hambletonian Society. They, along with Yonkers and the Meadowlands created the Metro 6 Shooter, a seeded pick 6 that goes into effect June 5th. We will no doubt be speaking more about that over time, as I know most of you will be trying to hit this baby. There is a story on it here. A big thumbs up to Mr. Cashman, Moira, Seth, and the fellas and ladies at Yonkers and the Meadowlands. That is great work.

Lastly, a friend emailed today and mentioned to me that the Monmouth piece we wrote below was reminiscent of our Breeders Crown 2010 piece we wrote way back in late 2007. I read it again (gosh I know it is pie in the sky, but wouldn't it be great for our sport, and us as fans?) and it seems there are some similarities to what Monmouth is doing. I guess when we write opinion pieces we can let fly, because we don't have to enact any of them. One part while re-reading it made me think of Monmouth, and the Hambletonian Society news:

In Colonialist times sailors would sail from Europe to the New World in search of the metaphorical shining house on the hill. When they reached the Caribbean waters, some would get stuck in the doldrums named the Horse Latitudes. There they would toss their horses overboard to lighten their load, to allow them to use what little wind they had to get to shore.

Harness racing is stuck in the same rut. We can make a choice like those sailors did. We can throw our horses overboard and give up, hoping to get back to port with a few slot dollars in our pockets. Or we can instead implement new ideas and a new way of doing things that allows us to race into port, proud that we are not giving up this great sport without a fight.

I am guessing I had three beers when I wrote that, waxing poetic and all, but it struck me that two and a half years later it seems we are trying to fight for the sport. It is a fight we might just surprise ourselves and win, if recent evidence from Monmouth and the Hambo Society is any indication.