Spring Weekend

Spring seems to be here, finally. It is sunny and nice today (still a bit brr though), as was yesterday.

Speaking of spring, the Spring Pacing Championship goes tonight at the Bine. The purse is $87,000. I think many of the open events for aged pacers are watered down nowadays. Back about 20 years ago the FFA went for $12,000 around these parts and this series (it was called a few things over the years) always commanded a high purse, relative to the regular FFA. I think we have to start thinking outside the box a little with this, and become a bit more like the Levy. My suggestion? Make the winter FFA's go for $45,000 and pop $5000 each week into a pot. Promote that to horsepeople south of the border and see if we can not get a few more folks up for the weekly FFA. Then at the end of winter run the spring championship with seeded purses. If we can get this series up to a 150-175k final I think more people would participate.

Both thoroughbreds and standardbreds need better aged events. I am looking through the calendar for what is out there and I see millions for 3YO's and not very much for older. A sea-change in this regard is needed, in my opinion.

There is a cool use of Twitter out there for t-bred players - the Carryover twinkle. It lists all the carryovers and alerts players to them.

I think I have an idea for a good twitter page, by the way - the Bad Bet Twitter. It works like this: Each time I go to make a bad bet, the little bird on Twitter comes and pecks me in the face.

Grand River Raceway in the gem of a town Elora, Ontario is opening for their season. Grand River has good racing, and they try very hard there. If you play harness and want to look for a new venue to throw a few dollars at, Grand River is a good spot.

"I told them, 'You need to get somebody out here because if I catch them I'm going to kill them." Those were the words of a Navy Seal to a 911 operator while chasing down the nutbars that shot his dog. If we ever need a little reminder how we in this business must attack the cruelty issues at all costs, that's it. People love animals and want them treated well. The end.

Speaking of issues like that, the Ernie Paragallo story keeps rolling. He is apparently now charged, according to the Paulick Report.

That's it for today. Enjoy your weekend everyone.