Wednesday News And Views

There is quite a bit happening in racing of late..... most of it making me grumbly.

Remember last year when trotting filly Crys Dream was suspended in Ontario for 90 days? Up until that point, any horse suspended in Ontario was suspended in other jurisdictions due to reciprocity. The Crys Dream folks challenged the ruling in the courts and they were granted a reprieve to race. Some race watchers felt this left the door open for other owners and trainers to say "screw you" to the Ontario Racing Commission and their bans. Well, that appears to have happened. Checking the entries for Yonkers this weekend, we see a Levy Pacing Series eligible named Reibercrombie in to go.

Guess what? That's the same Reibercrombie suspended for 90 days in Ontario last week for a positive.(h/t to posters on Harnessdriver.com)

***** UPDATE: Harness Racing .com Reports the horse has been scratched.

Reactive versus proactive. If you've been following the NYRA story the last few weeks on breakdowns and claiming rules, you'll notice a lot of talk about purse levels in claiming races, tons of claims, vet passports and all the rest that slots purses bring. NYRA recently changed some of the rules as well. The problem, we talked about it here a month ago, and it's been a topic for years, as it's what happened in Ontario since 1998.

This is suddenly news? My question: Since we knew about this stuff beforehand - even silly bloggers like me knew - why are we only reacting to it now, rather than having policies in place at the beginning to help cure past ills?

NBC starts covering the Derby this weekend. It looks like they are doing a couple of smart things with social media during the broadcast, long what we've been a proponent of here. TV by itself does nothing; you have to engage your watchers when you have the chance.

Paulick took PETA to task today in a good piece. However, I agree with @o_crunk on this.

This is how you innovate. A poker tournament added a hole card cam, and is offering odds on the players hands via in-play poker tourney betting. This not only glues you to watch the match, it also allows you to take some chances and play along while it's going on. Hmmmm, notice there is no talk of poker players holding out for a bigger slice of the betting, and no talk that one of the players might intentionally throw a hand so someone that's betting him to lose can profit.

Have a nice Wednesday everyone! Even though I am grumpy today, you shouldn't be!