Be prepared for something different starting Thursday when watching the races.
The Ontario Racing Commission has announced that for a two week period starting Thursday, April 9 the drivers at Woodbine Racetrack will be required to drive the entire mile with a line in each hand.
Let's hope if drivers try other edges it is watched for. Regardless, it should be interesting to see this change, and how it is perceived.
In other Woodbine news, they are still on the ban online wagering bandwagon. I assume because they want relief of some sort from government. This $200 million dollar figure they throw around gives me a slight chuckle. Where did they get that number from? Who knows. All I do know is that in 1999 Sony Music had the same stance ("Well, we didn't want to see the future." said [Sony's lawyer] Mr. Gordon. It turns out the strategy was to sue, not partner and realize the world changed), and we all know how that turned out. As Cangamble noted, I do like this spaghetti analogy by a gaming analyst:
Holmes made her point in an effort to prod lawmakers into creating stiff barriers against online casinos. But OCA gaming analyst Sherman Bradley interprets the data in a different way.
"If you sell spaghetti out of can, and then people desert you and flock to a restaurant that sells awesome homemade spaghetti, it wouldn't make sense to ask legislators to ban homemade sauce. Instead, you'd have to find ways to upgrade your product," said Bradley.
What Sherman does not know is that in racing it is much easier to ask for government help rather than work on our product. This has happened virtually everywhere since the late 1990's and it has snowballed, resulting in stagnating handle and a non-energized customer base.
Most Trafficked, Last 12 Months
-
Auckland Reactor is coming to the US from New Zealand and he landed in the barn of the very sharp Kelvin Harrison. I don't think many w...
-
Have you seen the RCI's recent push to change the narrative on drugs and racing? The story they tell is accurate, and has been for some...
-
Elmer Patzer walked up to a betting machine and started popping in tickets to see if he won. All of a sudden, whamo, he cashed for $6.5 mill...
-
Yesterday on twitter there was a conversation about why some people are withholding money from Keeneland this meet. A simple question, with...
-
Back in the early 1990's I got my first real job. I was a pretty much an office gofer for a mining consortium. One day a gentleman cam... -
Horses opening with 10k to win on them, at smaller venues lately? I have not been playing too seriously the past two days, however I did che...
-
Every time I flip on twitter someone is annoyed that NBC is tape delaying some of the events for prime time television. Columnists have join...
-
Canterbury Park - the small Minnesota track that lowered takeout last year, only to raise it this season - concluded their meet recently. Th...
-
Good morning folks. On Awful Announcing, columnist Matt Zemek tore a hide off ESPN for what he thinks is the dumbing down of tennis cover...
2 comments:
I beleive online casinos are something that racetracks can never compete against unless we go to virtual horseracing; their position is justified.
That being said, rather than an outright ban; I would propose a ban with a sunset provision of five years; at the end of five years the ban is removed. That will give the racing industry five years to figure out a way to compete or at least co-exist with the on-line casinos (like create your own on-line casions).
Just a quick comment about whipping. I never realized it before but over the last couple of days watching racing from The Meadowlands, I couldn't help but notice the race calls included references to the use of the whip. One would think with all the controversy, race calls would de-emphasize the use of the whip.
Post a Comment