Monday Action 'Round Racing

May, beginning with the Derby, it seems racings season begins to heat up for both thoroughbreds and standardbreds; both here and overseas. Here are a few of the items catching my eye this Monday:

Greg updates the $300k Molson Pace Eligibles on the Western Fair site. Greg brings an infectiousness to that track and was a tremendous addition.

When are women trainers deserving of headlines, even ones that that talk about their looks? When they can train with the best of them. This lady is a top, top horsewoman.

Paulick highlights what's been happening with the Preakness probable starters.

With governments moving more and more into the red, change occurs and for racing that usually means you are on the short end of the stick. It was announced today that accounting changes at the Ontario Lottery Corporation will impact the slots share to municipalities. The cities will not be happy about that, and one can bet that the fight for slot money is game on.

Nick and Jason put on a nice little pre-game show yesterday at Tioga. They spoke of industry issues and the chatter was pretty heady.

Hec Clouthier - known to many of you as a man who lives and bleeds harness racing - took a stab at the seat in the Renfrew-Pembroke area of Ontario, during the Federal Election May 2nd. Hector, a former Liberal, ran as an Independent. At times that can be a blessing, at times a curse. With the economy doing rather well, and things seemingly moving forward, it seems to be not one of those good times - he was beaten by the Conservative incumbent. It was not for lack of trying (he generated a ton of support and came second). I hope he succeeds in the near future because he is one of those voices who has the guts to take on elephant's in the room like entitlement spending that helped sink half of Europe and the big four automakers.

The Elitlopp preps are heating up and North American horses are in the mix. Arch Madness has always been a nice horse and he proved it last weekend with the best named harness driver - Bjorn Goop - in the bike. It is nice to see so many horses excel with so little equipment. Some of our NA training leaders might be lost there!! Video at link.

Kaplan looks at the recently concluded battle for slots money in the Province. At times, I think he makes too much sense to be in our business!

There's some very intelligent chatter on twitter going on between Inside the Pylons and others regarding some bets, namely the place pick 6 at Monmouth, and the 50 cent pick 5 at Hollywood. I agree wholeheartedly the former is a bad bet, because so many things have to go your way to get a longer shot with the absence of a shorter one in the mix. I also agree that the success of the low takeout pick 5 does horseplayers little good in the long run in California. The bet was a no-brainer to get volume, but it helps the status-quo.

We wrote about the potential bounce of Animal Kingdom last week, in non-figure terms. The sheets are saying the same thing, via a story by Bob Ehalt. Trainer Graham Motion is the wild card in this, and when you see how he's handling the Derby winner, he is setting him up not to bounce. He's a good trainer.

Have a nice Monday everyone.