Why Do We Love Racing?

..... because it's breathlessly bizarre. It's tough to make heads or tails of just about anything in our business.

Preakness handle was up this year, which I guess is good.

Preakness viewership on the tube was down, so I guess that's bad.

We have a horse going for the Triple Crown, so that has to be good.

But the horse who is going for it is trained by a dude who keeps getting asked questions about Milkshakes - not the variety I got yesterday at DQ, but another kind - so I guess that's bad.

NYRA seemed like a mess, so maybe some new blood will be good?

The new blood are political appointees in one of the most strangely run States in the Union, so that's gotta be bad.

Betfair got ransacked in the Courts in Australia for paying for purses on gross profits, so that's supposedly good, right?

To pay for the new fees, they raised their takeout and are encouraging people not to trade. Customers are pissed; so fewer customers enjoying the sport is surely bad.

Mario Guitierrez parties are in full swing at Hastings Park, last weekend bringing out 5,000 fans, so that's good.

According to the track head, none of them bet, so that's for sure bad.

With the Belmont Stakes coming, media from all over the world will be writing stories about racing, so that's good!

They might not be able to get credentialed, so that's surely bad.

Welcome to another weekend in Racetrack-ville.