Monday, January 9, 2012

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Happy Monday everyone!

There was quite a bit of chatter last evening on Twitter about the Jonathan Roberts 90 day suspension for "lack of effort" with his drive at Dover Downs. I have watched the race on youtube a half dozen times and I can't see any problem with that ruling. Greg on twitter informs us that the horse stayed eligible to a lower class by not winning that race. The next time he suited up for battle he was an easy wire to wire winner - with Mr. Roberts in the bike.

Hat tip to Racingbeard.com (a new harness aggregator) for that story.

Writing about a new Triple Crown on HRU this weekend (pdf) it dawned on me how often I heard you (and me) the fan speak of it over the years. Remember the "unofficial" Canadian Triple Crown? The Queen City (now NA Cup), the Prix d'ete at Blue Bonnets, and the Confederation Cup at Flammy. I am going to wrte more about it this week. Give the article a look if it's something you've thought about in harness racing.

Standardbred found left at Wal-Mart. No you can't make this stuff up.

Did anyone catch So Cal Thoroughbred Rescue's Caroline Betts on HRTV this weekend? Someone hire this woman to devise and run a new national horse retirement strategy please.

Yesterday was a fascinating example of why we like competitive sports. The Broncos-Steelers playoff game was entertaining and interesting and had more storylines than any novel I've read. Driving the storyline was, of course, Broncos QB Tim Tebow. On paper he seems to have little throwing talent, but somehow he throws for 316, rushes for 50 and is a fantasy players dream. Oh, and he helped his team win.

The striking part of it all are quotes like this:
  • Tebow said he "tried to go out there and play hard, play fast and be aggressive and trust my teammates and trust the line, trust the receivers and give them opportunities, and they make me look a lot better than I really am."
That, in itself, makes him stand out in the professional sports world - he's a Purple Cow. And every sport or business needs a Purple Cow.

We wrote an article on Tim Tebow and Zenyatta last month, looking at both phenomenons from a business perspective. It's here on page 8 if you hadn't seen it.

Enjoy the day everyone!

3 comments:

kyle said...

The similarities I find fascinating between Tebow and Zenyatta are the resitance, nay hostility, they both met from the "establishment," and the inability of said "establishment" to see each's "Black Swan" nature necessitating in both cases the need to explain away victory after victory (winning in both cases became inconsequential; what we were told mattered more were things like speed figures and quarterback rating.)

Anonymous said...

I am with you Kyle.

Tebow = Zenyatta

Ryan Leaf (or any other perfectly built QB with all the skills) = The Green Monkey.

I'd take Tebow and Zenyatta in my virtual stable.

Caroline said...

Thanks for the rec PTP! (Though I need another job like I need another hole in the head :))

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