Another News & Notes Post

We have two posts in one day. I know, don't hold your excitement back!

R Heat Lightning is out of the Kentucky Oaks. Bruno has been tweeting about her fitness since last week. if you follow twitter, the question is "what took them so long".

Dan does a fabulous job on his polling numbers for thoroughbred racing here. Really good article folks!

Charlottetown Driving Park is rolling for the season. On May 7th they have the national driving championship and it's available on HPI. It looks like they will be available this season on several US ADWs as well. Let's see if they can get handle up, because for the casual player, it's a good product. The drivers try.

Life is different today. Bin Laden's death set a twitter record.

Speaking of twitter, we'll see what happens with the Canadian election. Apparently if you tweet results from the east coast before polls close you can end up in the slammer. There is a website up trying to test that theory.

Someone from the states asked me what type of parties we have up here, just in case they want to follow and/or bet the election. Well, we have the conservatives. They would welcome a guy like MA Sen Scott Brown - they're right, but the aren't crazy nuts right. We have the libs, who would attract someone like a say, Joe Biden. They are generally not nuts either, but they are in trouble because their leader is connecting to voters like I connect with the takeout-doesn't-matter crowd. The NDP is a party that Michael Moore might be booted out of for being too far right. The kids in college who never paid an electric bill are threatening to go vote for them this time in big numbers - if they can get their parents to drive them to the polls. The Bloc is a Quebec party with a  leader who looks like your crazy uncle. They don't like immigration or Canadian people. Last is the Green Party. They have no seats and probably never will, because I think they want to outlaw dams, cars, streetlights and most other things that people use. Oh, I saw a guy in the Park last week pulling a wagon with a big picture of a marijuana plant behind him, so I think that party is on the ballot in some places. He had a beard and looked pretty high.

That's it in a nutshell. Enjoy!

Gene is the bomb! Check out his Kentucky Derby article here.

Adults bet thousands on kiddie football. No joke. H/t to O_Crunk.

Cantor Gaming's new in-running betting device is now rolling. Nice little machine/interface. H/t to Robin Howlett.

Ok, I'm done now. Have a great evening!

Churchill Doing it Right

When racing makes news it shows, for both insiders and newbies, it's still alive.

Churchill Downs Inc. is often criticized in our sport. Being a public company it must focus some of its activities on growing the business for shareholders - and that means trying for more and more gaming. In addition, horsemen are not overly thrilled with the twinspires platform because to several of them, the internet is a bad place for bettors; all of the monster rake is not paid to purses. However, the world is what it is, not what we'd like it to be and Churchill is living within the new reality.

Saturday at their flagship track a night opener was tried and it was successful. Events like this can not work everywhere, but in a place like Louisville a week before the Derby, it can. The Kentucky Derby can be expanded to "Derby Week" quite easily with promotions and ideas like this.

Churchill, although focusing on many issues for their business, knows the Kentucky Derby brand is a money-maker and they are promoting this event like no other in racing. Their twitter feed, media liaisons, press releases and more are all top-notch. I saw someone tweet the other day that it's interesting to see the energy for the event and that 'people are unaware racing even happens' the other days of the year. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Luge happens once every four years, but the Olympics is not too bad an event, is it? 

Say what you want about CDI (and I am no shill; I am as critical as anyone on the blog about them in some instances), but they try as hard or harder to push the sport of horse racing than any track in North America.

News/Notes

Carryovers are the bomb. Calder, who has had some trouble getting interest in their product, had a great day in their carryover pick 5 yesterday with $100k bet. 12% is good value. 12% with a $25k carryover is a must-play.

Pimlico's carryover was similar, with $71k bet. This track gets less than $10k in their pick 4 pools, so $71k is huge. The heavy-chalk sequence paid $200.

Escape the Wind Retires. 100% racehorse with  62 wins and $2.1M in the bank, at age 11. For those who think it's the breed that is changing at times you have a point, but I think most of it is horsemen changing. Roger Mayotte is a top horsemen who races horses like they are a living breathing being, not a piece of machinery. This is the 4th horse he has had race several years at a top level. This does not happen by accident.

Yes, you are looking at a freak. Pace makes a race, and when internal fractions are staccato and a fast final time is run, it marks brilliance. Frankel is a star. H/t to Sid Fernando.

Quote of the day 1: via Kentucky Confidential. 

Quote of the day 2: A double-tweet from O_crunk. If punches are pulled, he ain't one to pull them.

Often when we wake up we feel beat, or not-ready for the day. Who would I like to feel like this morning? George Bush & Tony Blair.

I am not sure I am the only one, but watching school-aged kids on video cheering the death of someone, no matter whom it is, is not something I find good for society as a whole. It's something I expect to see on video feeds from the Arab world. Then again, I am over 40 now and becoming less and less Chuck Norris-like.

Speaking of that, it's voting day today in Canada.  I live in one of the old neighborhoods in Toronto, that is probably to the left of Vladamir Lenin, so my vote is inconsequential for MP, but I voted anyway. I hope you do too.

Sunday Notes - Here Comes Some Value

There is a ton going on in racing and it's a great time of the year, in my opinion.

Carryovers and high value/low take guaranteed pools were something that happened, but seemingly not enough of the time to get excited about. That is changing.

Calder, with their ultra-low rake pick 5 carried over yesterday. Today the pool starts with about $25,000 in it. It's time to handicap because you won't find a deal like this anywhere outside super-rebate land. The track has not been overly biased that I can see (speed seems good like usual), but there is a slight path bias to the inside I find. I have been using the inside posts if they have any go at all.

Pimlico will see my cash today as well. There is a pick 5 carry over there.

Woodbine got $81k in their pick 4 pool yesterday and it was topped up to $100k. I know harness is simply not as popular as it once was (if a pool like this was pushed a decade ago, the $100k would be simply a formality), but this is a must play for everyone each Saturday.

There is some serious buckpassing in California. At this weeks CHRB meeting again there were calls to do something with the TOC led takeout hike.

Mike Wellman, owner, liked the new players p-5 at Hollywood at 14% and .50 cents. He also pointed out that the devastating loss of 120 million at Santa Anita was mostly (80%) due to being down in the exotics where the raise in take was applied. And asked the CHRB to “rethink” the position on higher takeouts.

John Harris and David Israel on the CHRB Board said it is not our fault, the associations and the horsemen can have the take anywhere between 10% and 25%, if they ask us.

Kentucky Confidential has a twitter feed going with some always interesting inside quotes and quotables.

They are doing an excellent job at that website.

Trainer Tony Montini is back on twitter and yesterday he gave some excellent tips. He gave us info on three charges and two of them won, including a 5-1 shot Mr. Saratoga that made up a quarter of the pick 4 sequence. Key him, go a little deeper in a few legs and you have $5000 of the topped up $100k guaranteed pool. Kudos to Tony for the work on Mr. Saratoga. I watched him several times last year and he was very lame and needed time off. He is no longer lame, but full of himself. When you take the time with good horses like that, they pay you back 100X over.

I spoke with my friend who plays professionally, a lot of it on Betfair where he bets UK racing. I did not need twitter to know about Frankel's big win. He noted that when he took the lead in fast splits (something he wasn't going to do) his action in-running was not tanking in any way. Bettors were somewhat worried. He's amazed by this horse. I am too. He's a beast.

I missed the early races yesterday because I had to bring the dog to the vet. I mentioned before we got him from a shelter and he has myriad health issues. The attending vet at the shelter mentioned the ligament damage that was never taken care of when it happened, but lately he's been sore on his right front so I figured we'd take him in and get some Xrays of everything. I was horrified to get the news that at a younger age he broke his pelvis and it was never treated. The vet said "that is likely from getting hit by a car". That made me quite sad. The kindest, nicest dog I ever had who wants nothing from anyone but a meal and a warm bed, left for dead after getting hit by a car. This is why I admire horse rescues and dog rescues so much; these things happen so often and there are very few willing to help, it seems.

Sid and Lane wonder if Uncle Mo has laryngitis. Horse's tweeting is a relatively new thing. I have seen some talented horses in my day, and god knows I love the big brown things, but I am thoroughly convinced they can't type.

Real Nice has always been a real nice horse. He won last night's Levy Final, scooping up half the $495k. Is it just me, or does everyone think that a $495k final at Yonkers just does not feel right? I didn't even watch it.

Our blog friend Eric is part of a new harness racing show. Good job representing the bettors Eric!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone and good luck at the windows if you are carryover hunting.