Friday's Blog Post

I could not think of a click-worthy title today like, "If you bet these six angles you will be able to buy Grenada". I went pretty generic. Sorry, it's all I got.

First up, there were a lot of tweets asking for some help rescuing seven standardbreds from New Holland, PA on Wednesday. I heard this morning that all were purchased, are in quarantine, and will be at a home very soon. The social media push raised over $7,000 in less than a half day.

In HRU today (pdf), Phil Langley is interviewed. In a couple of questions he doesn't sound like a guy who won 38-13, but I guess a pass is in order. He was slammed quite a bit of late. 

I did find his point about an ADW interesting. I have been looking into something like this, but I think my harness ADW plan would look much different than theirs.

On the flipside, Jeff Gural is looked at in DRF Harness. The meme surrounding Jeff Gural at the present time is his self-admitted "kick in the pants" method of operation. This is very common in a business or industry that works with alphabets, and has decisions made through appeasement. When someone steps out of line, the tribe has to rein him or her back in, because it upsets the tribe. I believe the tribe needs to be led, not coddled - we can all agree we've had enough of that - therefore I am not overly concerned about Jeff firing a knee-jerk six-shooter if he disagrees with me on something.

California Chrome's exercise rider was a no-show this morning for a romp around the track.  I don't for a second blame the connections for being upset. They flew him around the world to be there for an hour in the morning and he didn't make it. Pat Cummings mentioned something about him being too late at a party at the Sheik's place (a problem many of us have, of course).

This year, the social media edge for the DWC is big. There are Derby preps galore tomorrow and several big race cards in the Thoroughbreds, but the DWC is taking center stage. This, I think, is different than most years.

The takeout for the DWC card is a very penal 20% WPS, and 27% all other. I have scanned the takeouts, and in a major racing jurisdiction, the only WPS takeout rate I have seen higher is at Turf Paradise.

RMTC came up with a set of cobalt protocols. Over 50 ppb is a class B.

Woodbine announced their mandatory payout for the Super High Five is April 4th.

A note about the big Super High Five pools at Western Fair. This bet should be on the radar.

It looks like handle will again be down in March. One fewer Saturday and fewer races, yes, but it's likely not going to be a great month.

Good luck to everyone at the Horseplayer World Series this weekend. J_dinks, charli125 and Mark Midland are three names I recognize on the scoresheet.

Have a nice weekend everyone. I will be going through the big cards tomorrow sometime later today, so if you want to play some racing tomorrow, I will probably be on the twitter. I think I might play a few.