Monday Notes

As we saw with the Derby aftermath, when good horses race bad - and it happens a lot - often times the result is sickness. St. Elmo Hero, who was a badly beaten 8th last week, was a casualty of a high white count.

Uncle Mo ships to Winstar for a recovery. A common sense person might ask if this is the result, why was it not done about a month ago, rather than putting the horse (and everyone else) through the three-ring circus.

My chuckle for the day "What's Osama Bin Watchin'" h/t to Crunk

Why fewer bettors are playing horses. There are some good points here, and it all follows the script of 'ability to win'. The industry's squeeze the lemon has not worked. In fact, that policy never works in any business. h/t to Crunk

Not a very nice break for Arch X 3. It's unable to heal enough to ever race again. I suspect he'd service a book at a little farm somewhere, so it's hard to feel too sorry for him. He's a nice horse.

Read this story on Online Poker, then think horse racing? It does not compute, eh? It does with Betfair, because the mechanism means as much or more than the machine. How many stories like this would we read if poker was held around a table in a saloon? h/t to o_crunk, for the 3rd time.

Define the World got razor sharp and is off to Norway, then hopefully Sweden. Trotters are pretty unique and when they're on they're on, when they're not they're not. A trip overseas can really throw them in a tizzy, so we'll see if this fine horse can get the job done.

Woodbine failed to hit the $100k on the guarantee this weekend (Derby day). It remains one of the better values in racing. If you are a harness player, you can not miss this bet, especially when it does not reach the threshold.

The USTA pick 4's are doing well still. We are getting there in harness. Much more is needed, but things are at least happening.

HANA Harness is supporting the Western Fair pick 4 on Molson Pace day. Western Fair's handles are not too bad, considering it is a small half mile track. Greg and crew are trying. Watch for news from HANA in the coming weeks.

Alan looks at some of the results of the last HANA Harness survey.

Brett Revington at Red Shores reports that handles are starting to grow, mainly due to the expansion of the signal for the Charlottetown track. They did over $43,000 Saturday, which is a large improvement on the $7100 last year.


The CHRB shows some cajones. Jeff Mullins will not use the word "idiot" for 70 days on a backstretch. With falling handles, an RCI push, and general malaise with CA racing it actually helps the board make a common sense move.

Enjoy your Monday and Tuesday folks.