Funday

Monday is here, and with it brings some weekend thoughts.

Racetrack man invites a competitor to the track. Racetrack man treats foe quite well - picks him up, feeds him, introduces him to everyone he knows. It all seems to good to be true. When foe finds out the real reason the competitor invited him, it makes for a belly laugh.

This weekends Breeders Crown elims portend the finals next week at Pocono. There will be a seeded pick 4 and 6 for the event. I am not sure if this signal will be distributed all over, nor am I sure what the rakes will be.

"Until this industry finds a way to fund purses from sales of TV deals (we pay networks millions to show our races every year, not the other way around), Zenyatta T-shirts or Todd Pletcher jerseys, we need to cultivate gambling." - An obvious assertion in a business which seems to argue the obvious.

The Horseplayers Association has endorsed the Ontario horse owner plan for 5% of purses (mostly slot money of course) to be used to increase demand. Horse owners seem to be for this, horseplayers seem to be for this, several industry organizations seem to be for this. The ones who are not? Seemingly only the horseman groups. They didn't support it last month and wrote a press release. Then today, for some reason, they let people know they don't like it again.

In racing one thing you can count on is conferences. At this year's simo-conference it seems things were more mellow. They talked about how rules are different for each country, and that 40% takeouts are probably not the greatest idea in the world. This is different than last year when Gural said racing has to get off the welfare.

Scotty, over at sportsismadeforbetting, says Bodog's odds are changing on the Betfair float. With the recent IPO of an online grocer that traded 20% below market, maybe we will see the opposite here - a lower valuation and then a spike. Regardless, the betting market is more often than not, correct.

The really nice mare To Helen back has been retired. Off to broodmare land, but happily after 5 years of racing.

I twinkied last week that I am getting old. I read there was a new Hawaii 50 coming out, which debuted last Monday. I watched it while I was a kid - I think we got two channels, and it was on one of them - and it was a weekly staple. The theme was the best on TV, so I wanted to watch the new one to see what they did with the theme. Like a horseplayer - we hate change - and change it they did. But the net, and this world is so funny today. There were a bunch of people who thought like I did I guess, and sure enough, up they pop on youtube with edited openings. "The way it should have been edited" are the title of several. In an ode to Jack Lord and other TV detectives who used to wear suits, here is one such clever edit.