McCarron

I’ve selected the Mile as my Breeders’ Cup race to cover for the next three months since it’s a race that is always enjoyable to watch. There is usually a bit of intrigue in the Mile and the major reasons are three-fold:

 
1. It combines the American emphasis and current strength (until synthetic tracks gradually reverse that trend) of speed with the European domination of Turf racing. Unlike other races that clearly give one side of the pond an advantage over the other such as the Sprint (U.S.) or the Turf (Europe), the Mile is generally wide open with an intriguing field. U.S. based horses have captured 13 Mile titles compared with 9 for the Europeans.

 
2. It requires a good trip to win with up to 14 horses traveling a relatively short distance around two turns.                     

 
3. Each Turf course is distinctly different in a manner that moves certain horses up or down accordingly. In addition, the condition of the ground on Cup day is equally important.

 
My most memorable Mile highlights:

-Leriodesanimaux entered the 2005 renewal of the BC Mile as heavy favorite, but was narrowly defeated by Artie Schiller. An early announcement on BC day confirmed that Leriodesanimaux would be fitted with a Bar Shoe, usually the sign of a foot issue. Despite running over a northeastern Turf course (shipping from SoCal) with a foot problem, he still ran his guts out to narrowly miss.  

-Six Perfections, trained by Pascal Bary who also won the race with Domedriver in 2002, wins the 2003 Mile at Santa Anita. An important handicapping hint for this race on a regular basis is to watch video replays of the European races. I watched Six Perfections run a fantastic Prep overseas and was instantly sold on the horse. It’s tough to base your selections on current form alone when handicapping the races from overseas. Six Perfections is also a half sister to two time BC Mile winner, Miesque.
 

-Domedriver upsets the heavily favored Rock of Gibraltar at odds of 26:1 in the 2002 event at Arlington Park. The European exacta returns $152.60. I was at Arlington sitting in the makeshift grandstands near the final turn to the homestretch where the Shadwell Mile winner Landseer broke down during the race. It was one of the saddest turn of events I’ve ever seen on track. It was a hellacious looking injury and the poor animal still ran as far as he could with a fractured cannon bone. There were people in the stands crying, it was just plain awful. Anyone that thinks racing fans are a group of heartless gamblers is full of crap.

 
-The 1999 race proved why this race is so much fun to watch. Four horses, Silic, Tuzla, Docksider, and Lend a Hand were within a length of one another in a blanket finish at Gulfstream Park.

 
-1998 will be remembered as one of the greatest training accomplishments in modern times. Michael Dickinson, the “mad genius” enters Da Hoss, the 1996 Mile champion. He missed the entire 1997 campaign and used a single prep race in the fall of 1998, which was an allowance race at Colonial Downs. Da Hoss encountered a fierce stretch battle with Hawksley Hill and prevailed by a head to win the BC Mile. Amazing.

 
-Spinning World wins the 1997 Mile in 1:32.77. That’s right, 1:32.77.

 
-Lure fails to win his third BC Mile in a row in the 1994 Mile when Barathea wins easily.

 
-1991: Opening Verse pays $55.40 under a great ride by Patrick Valenzuela.

 
-1988: The brilliant French filly, Miesque captures the title for the second year in a row

 
-1986: Last Tycoon pays $73.80

 
With an average $2 win ticket paying $21.07 over the history of the race and the compelling handicapping issues, this is a fantastic race to wager on and watch. The next entry will cover the early favorites.

Good News: According to a column today by Richard Eng in the Las Vegas Review Journal, the National Handicapping Championship (NHC) has found a home at the Red Rock Resort, January 24-26:

http://www.lvrj.com/sports/8757607.html

Bad News: It's the same weekend as the Horseplayer World Series (HPWS)

This puts the contest player in a predicament if they happen to qualify for both tournaments and will hurt the HPWS much more than the NHC. In fact, the NHC as a pure qualifier will be unharmed by the overlapping date, whereas the HPWS with an open enrollment will see a dramatic drop-off of entries.

I qualified for both contests last year and would certainly choose the NHC over the HPWS, a viewpoint I suspect many others share. I've qualified for the HPWS this year, which includes airfare, hotel, and contest entry, but certainly would pass on it if I were forutnate enough to qualify for the NHC at a later date. This is a regrettable situation that no player should be faced with. 

This is akin to the lack of cooperation we see as players on a daily basis with account wagering services. Coast Casinos and the HPWS would be wise to change their contest date since a number of NHC players would pony up the $1,000 entry fee should the two major events occur on different dates.

Race 1: Optional Claimer over the hurdles featuring "fat" jocks at 145 - 156 lbs.  

 
Race 2: A logical second time starter wins going wire to wire for Asmussen in a field of seven, five of which were first timers. The D. Wayne Lukas trained Cozy Mesa was a complete non factor for the new partnership of Marylou Whitney/Lukas.

 Race 3: The longest price on the board, the Patrick Kelly trained Precise Lady makes a five wide move from last to first to take this state-bred sprint Stakes. Gold Like U and Hoosick Falls drilled each other to submission, while the chalk sitting in perfect position failed to fire.

 
Race 4: Queens Full made a furious final 1/16 move to take this Maiden Special on the lawn with Gomez up. The second time starter from Clement out of Indian Charlie was a square price at 4:1.

 
Race 5: Pay Attention easily took the 1 1/8 mile Optional Claimer for Scott Schwartz and Javier Castellano in a race without a standout. He paid a generous $22.60 from the outside post.

 
Race 6: This evenly matched field was tough to separate (I went 4 deep in the Pick 4). Giant Storm just got up to defeat the game 71:1 longshot Al Sheetahn. The lightly raced gelding was dropping out of the tougher Maiden Special ranks and was trying turf for the second time. Out of Giant’s Causeway, his future is on the weeds. Another nice price, paying $16.20 to win.

 
Race 7: Truly Blushed went off as a huge overlay at 14:1. She was the speed of the speed in a 5.5 furlong Stakes on the sod. Trained by Scott Lake, her figures were strong, running style was useful in the spot, and made a ton of sense. The post time odds on this filly made me think that perhaps something was amiss, but I suppose it was due to her relative class coming from less contentious stakes at Delaware and Philly.

 
Race 8: The Pletcher trained Ready’s Image looked unbelievable in the paddock prior to the race. The son of More Than Ready ran just about as well as he looked, smoking a strong field of fast two year olds by four at 4:5. One to watch on the Derby trail is The Roundhouse, who closed nicely and should improve with more distance out of FuPeg also for Pletcher.

 
Race 9: Follow My Dream takes the nightcap for the previously 0 for 31 trainer Colum O’Brien. Follow My Dream entered the race 1 for 15 lifetime and is a deep closer. Despite rather average fractions, she was able to close effectively and put an end to a decent run at the Pick 4……Another solid payout of $15.20 at the graveyard of favorites.

Contrary to the speed biased opening day of the Spa meet last year over the main track, today was slightly slanted against speed:

Race 2: A number of first time starters kicked off quality racing at Saratoga with a front running outcome. Both the winner and the place horse ran around the track 1-2.

Race 3: Won by Lord Snowdon (a certified Presser-“P”) after Scorpius under Garrett Gomez fired off a ¼ in :21.54 and ½ in 44.21. During the previous Saratoga meet at 6.5 furlongs, 39% were won gate to wire with an overall speed bias of 61% (races won by “E” or E/P” types).

Race 6: Won by Again and Again who raced in the middle of the pack after the ¼ and ½, closing to 3^rd in the stretch before drawing away by 3. Again and Again is an “E” type, but there were a number of faster early speed horses drawn in this heat. The ¼ in 21.84 and ½ in 44.81 was fast for $20,000 claimers. This was a logical result given the early fractions.

Race 8: A contentious optional claimer at 6 furlongs, the Patrick Biaconne trained Pauillac (cobra venom off) emerged victorious. Pauillac is a stalker (“S”), a running type that only won 3 of 60 races at 6 furlongs last year.

Race 9: Subtle Aly, the impressive Maiden winner from Churchill, won this by a nose after pressing quick fractions. Most of the entrants showed speed in their previous outings and as lightly raced fillies, their running styles were not completely known at the outset. I Promise, the runner up, looked impressive by re-rallying in the stretch to make it an exciting race after losing the lead late.

Race 10: This is the most telling race of the day. For those of you speed point followers, there was not a single early speed type (“E”) of the 12 runners (the highest number of BRIS speed points for a horse in this field was 3 on a 0-8 scale). Given that set of circumstances, one would expect a front running victory. Instead, a dead heat ensued with two Pressers crossing the line without separation after coming from well off the pace.

Day one is in the books with a rare (and in my mind slight) dirt track bias favoring runners coming from off the pace.

Pletcher goes 0 for the card.

The turf course played fair.

There's nothing better than Saratoga.

As a horseplayer and sports fan, I found an interesting perspective on handicapping tournaments, major golf championships, and the stiffness of competition. Seems like a stretch, but stay with me for a moment.

 
I recall an intense debate on what constitutes the fairest test of handicapping ability for our National Championship (NHC). As a player that thrives on a Win-Place contest format, I like the current structure, but disagree that it is the correct design to truly test handicapping abilities at the highest level.

 
With the blessing of Tevo® in my daily life, I watched just about every second of coverage for both the U.S. Open and Open Championship (British Open), the two toughest tests of the professional golf calendar. What makes these particular tournaments unique is the way they test every shot in the bag. Every ounce of mental energy is necessary, with little margin for error. After all, these are national championship events and should test the players to the maximum.

 
The NHC should reflect a regular day of handicapping, but at a more intense and testing manner. Sticking with the golf analogy, the U.S. Open is a tougher test than the Greater Milwaukee Open (now called the US Bank). It’s the same game, but played under tougher conditions to test the best. While a local qualifier might be a live bankroll anything goes type of event or a win/place format of some sort, the ultimate test at the NHC should include a more holistic offering.  

 
There are a number of contest formats used for local qualifiers. The most common are listed below:

-Win-Place bets (with and without caps), no mandatory selections

-Win-Place bets with caps, some mandatory, some optional

-Live bankroll “anything goes”

-UHI format: starting with a set bankroll, the player must wager at least half their cash on each contest race with all single race wagers available. 

 
Certainly, each is filled with subjective positives and negatives. This has been covered in depth in the previous discussion in January and is not the point of this particular entry. My point is that handicapping is much more intricate than simply a win/place contest or simply a live bankroll contest. The NHC should include facets of all different types of wagers to test the best.

Some combination of both should be implemented with an aggregate score used to determine the winner. I realize some or all of this was previously covered, but the concept is fresh in my mind after participating in a HPWS qualifier this weekend and watching the Open.

Is anyone attending the Colonial Downs NHC qualifier?  

With JP's challenge fresh on my mind, I will lay claim to the original BC Mile (not the new "dirt" Mile) and begin with entries on the subject as soon as possible. The Mile is always an interesting race that usually draws a full field, includes strong European invaders, and produces some fantastic exotic payoffs even with the chalk on top (2000 comes to mind-The Trifecta with War Chant on top paid over $14K).

When it comes to discussions of Polytrack, it is imperative to note the nuances of each particular surface, as no two surfaces to date have produced completely uniform results. In general it is accurate to suggest that speed fails to hold up in the same manner as a traditional dirt track especially with regard to sprint distances, but there are differing degrees. While many handicappers focus on the distinctions between dirt surfaces, little thought is given to how each artificial surface compares to one another. Since the Polytrack discussion on sprint distances was brought up from an earlier post by Caesars Ghost, let’s take a closer look at sprints from three current artificial surfaces and two typical dirt ovals at current meets from recent BRIS stats:   

Arlington Poly (6F):

132 races

17% wire to wire

Winners Average Lengths Behind

1^st call: 2.5

2^nd call: 2.4

56% of races won by “E” or “E/P” Types

Hollywood Cushion (6F):

104 Races

27% wire to wire

Winners Average Lengths Behind

1^st call: 2.4

2^nd call: 2.0

62% of races won by “E” or “E/P” Types

Woodbine Poly (6F):

133 Races

30% wire to wire

Winners Average Lengths Behind

1^st call: 2.0

2^nd call: 2.0

65% of races won by “E” or “E/P” Types

Belmont Dirt (6F):

90 Races

44% wire to wire

Winners Average Lengths Behind

1^st call: 2.0

2^nd call: 1.4

73% of races won by “E” or “E/P” Types

Monmouth Dirt (6F)

167 races

41% wire to wire

Winners Average Lengths Behind

1^st call: 1.4

2^nd call: 0.8

77% of races won by “E” or “E/P” Types

Although I do not have the data for Keeneland, we know it was the most biased surface perhaps in the history of racing. This brings up some issues with the impending Del Mar meet starting Wednesday. Will the Del Mar Polytrack allow front runners a fighting chance as we see at Woodbine, or will it be a graveyard of speed ala Keeneland and to a lesser extent, Arlington? I get a headache watching the Turfway simulcast or I would throw that surface in the mix as well. Plus, Battaglia is so dull on the program he makes Ben Stein look like Robin Williams (MB couldn't be a nicer guy). Acutally, it would be a pleasant program to help me fall asleep at night. But I digress....

As to the holistic discussion on the difficulty associated with understanding how the BC Sprint will shape future races, it will definitely make this race, as well as future renewals difficult to handicap as more tracks move to the wax. For now, I’ll take the following mindset:

-Certified front runners that flop on Poly have notable excuses

-No matter how poorly a horse might have run over an artificial surface, at least you can feel pretty confident in the relative soundness of said animal relative to the dirt preps. For the short term, most should have some notable dirt form to fall back on.

-Since the Monmouth surface is playing much like the old Keeneland highway to date, we could see eye popping early fractions in the BC Sprint that are enough to hold off pressing and stalking types.

-The Cushion Track is much fairer to speed than most Poly surfaces, which could aid in the analysis of the California preps for the BC Sprint.

It will be quite interesting to see how things pan out and I agree that the implications could be far reaching…..So often in this game, there are more questions than answers. 

Ron Geary once again gets it right. This isn't posted on their website to date. A friend of mine that works at my local track received the press release this morning, so it should be available shortly:

 
ELLIS OWNERSHIP PURCHASES ALPENA MAGIC FOR NEW CAREER AT ELLIS PARK

Henderson, KY (July 11, 2007) – After scratching from Wednesday’s entries at Ellis Park, track president Ron Geary announced he had privately purchased 17-year-old thoroughbred Alpena Magic from his owner Kenneth Robinette.

“It’s time for a new career for Alpena Magic,” said Geary. “This horse enjoys being around people and the racetrack. His new role will allow him to be our “equine ambassador” for our new Early at Ellis and backside tour programs.”

Retired from racing with over $200,000 in earnings, Alpena Magic was trained by Bill Hicks. Alpena Magic was originally retired at age 15, but retirement didn’t suit him, and he became so depressed those around him didn’t think he would survive. Hicks brought Alpena Magic back to the races and back to a healthy mentality.

Ron Geary was excited to add a new member to his team at Ellis. “I applaud the owner and trainer of this horse for allowing us to give him a new life here at Ellis Park,” said Geary.

Alpena Magic will begin his new career this Saturday as a featured guest at the track’s family-focused Early at Ellis program.

I've decided since the NTRA is having difficulty marketing the game, it would be prudent for them to cover why horseracing is better than selected other sports and activities. Think of it as addition by subtraction. Below is my donation to the marketing effort:

 
Adult Recreational basketball Leagues: Full of has-beens, never-have-beens, never will-bes, and straight up douche bags. If you like getting hacked and listening to guy that would have been cut from your fourth grade YMCA team talk sh*t to you, this activity is a must. If you like playing with a 5’10”, 265 pound dude that would have difficulty throwing a ball in an ocean and thinks he’s the second coming of Michael Jordan, this is for you.

For some reason, no matter where you live or what level of recreational basketball you play, there is always a guy wearing athletic goggles and knee high tube socks diving on loose balls he has no chance of running down. This is the same guy that will bring home the over-achiever quadruple double just about every game: two jump hooks attempted (Mikan hooks and baby hooks are acceptable), two unnecessary loose ball efforts, ten inappropriate comments made to the officials, and two charges taken. As an added bonus, this dude is usually the first idiot to suggest playing zone defense. 

A new rule was quietly instituted in the year 2000 that requires each adult basketball recreational league to have a minimum of one team using the letter “z” as the last letter in their team name. The most common way to adhere to this rule is through fictitious words such as “ballerz”, “playerz”, or “boyz”. If Noah Webster were alive today to witness this unfortunate trend in team names (in addition to being an amazing 163 years old), he’d probably shoot himself.       

Adult Softball Leagues: Although I respect a sport that is entirely devoted to drinking before games, during games, and after the games, I really hate softball. Ten fielders are way too many given the small diamond and the relative girth of the average player. Furthermore, it’s amazing how quickly you can pull a groin or hamstring with the minimal effort it takes to waddle over to first base. My hair isn’t nearly long enough to grow the mandatory softball mullet, so it isn’t a good option for me.

 
Adult Tennis Leagues: I’ve played in a few of these leagues and they suck. Since most if not all of these leagues are self officiated, you can forget about getting any close calls. In fact, forget about getting any balls called in that are within two feet of the lines. I played in a doubles league where a guy threw a fit because I wasn’t hitting it where he wanted in warm-ups. Apparently there are a lot of the assholes that think they are Bjorn Borg. Unfortunately for these guys, they need to realize (1) Bjorn Borg never played in a Minneapolis Public Tennis league and (2) They aren’t Bjorn Borg. Professional tennis players both past and present enjoy one common attribute: they don’t suck.

 
Adult Soccer Leagues: I refuse to waste any cynical or sarcastic capital talking about soccer.

 
Adult Broomball Leagues: This sport is extremely popular in Minnesota and resembles hockey with a few minor detail changes. (1) Instead of wearing skates, you wear sneakers (2) Instead of using a stick with a blade, you use a broomstick with a triangular piece of plastic on the end of it. It’s played on a large sheet of ice with hockey style boards and a net that is slightly taller than a typical lacrosse net and quite a bit wider than a hockey net.

I’m not the smartest guy in the world. However, I know a few basic tidbits about ice. I know that ice is frozen water. I know that ice is cold. Another thing I’ve noticed about ice over the years is that it tends to be slippery. I also know that sneakers aren’t necessarily the best footwear for ideal traction on the ice. If you were lucky enough to be a spectator at the Broomball “rink” in Downtown Minneapolis on an unusually chilly winter Wednesday evening, you’d be able to correctly identify who was a native of Minnesota and who was from the West Coast. One giant backache, one pulled groin, and one jammed finger later, I retired from Broomball with two shifts under my belt.

Clearly, the opportunities for a fun outlet of athletic competition as an adult are few and far between. What about watching spectator sports? How about spending the weekend attending and watching sports on television or in person. Here is how some of the major current sports break down:

National Basketball Association: Watching huge grown men squander their considerable athletic talents by failing to put forth any effort is not my idea of fun. The average salary in the NBA is $3.7 Million. For that kind of cake, you should be forced to take at least one charge a year. For the equivalent of eighty times the average American salary, I would ask for some bare minimum requirements before I purchase a ticket. (1) Play defense for more than the last two minutes of the game (and that’s only if the game is close). (2) Take a charge. (3) Stop traveling on every possession. (4) Pass (occasionally). (5) Limit complaining to the officials to every other minute, rather than the current trend of every whistle requires a complaint. (5) Please stay on the floor instead of coming into the stands and beating the shit out of me. (6) Pretend to care about winning (7) Listen to the coaches. Coaches in today’s game are basically highly paid babysitters to spoiled rich kids. (8) Don’t shoot me. (9) Set a screen. (10) Take off those silly ass tights.

NBA games are so amazingly boring and poorly played that I’m constantly amazed that people will pay so much of their hard earned money to witness such little effort. Speaking of effort, you hear a lot of references to players giving 110%. I propose a more pragmatic system where the maximum possible effort is equivalent to 100%.

Women’s National Basketball Association: Seriously?

Major League Baseball: Baseball is a wonderful sport that I loved growing up. However, these days, baseball players are so grossly overpaid, spoiled, and lazy, it’s no longer worth attending the games on a regular basis. Ticket prices are so ridiculously overpriced because teams must pay $2.9 Million a year for average players. Granted, these athletes have skills that not many possess and therefore are paid a premium salary. I understand that. But at the same time, below average players are getting paid in excess of $2 Million a year. There are few professions that you can be below average on a regular basis and earn such a ludicrous salary.

There was a time when baseball players weren’t drugged up hormonal machines. The league’s drug policy was a joke for years and to this day remains a farce. The money is so rampant, owners and players have too much to lose to stop the madness. When Barry Bonds dies at 50 from kidney failure and Jason Giambi’s balls fall off, maybe there will be widespread change. Until that point, the hard working American pubic will face a painful reality; paying an average of $21.00 a piece for tickets to watch artificially enhanced robots swat 450 foot home runs that make 74 times the salary as they do (and they don’t even have to be good at their job!).

NTRA's new slogan: "Horse racing, it's not really that bad"

Horseracing is usually filled with bad news, sad stories, and negative press. However, this past week has been an awfully good one:

 
-A record Pick 6 pool at Hollywood in the amount of $10.87 Million. Assuming there was no funny business with a winner using a $2 ticket and $4 ticket (as Silver Charm noted), this is a great human interest story that could transcend pure horse racing news sites and spread to the mainstream press. A $2 investment to make $576,064.40? Quite a story…….I’ve seen plenty of people punch in $2 straight tickets to believe it despite the statistical anomaly whereas one single combination out of over 300,000 is enough to hold a winning ticket. Incredibly improbable, but possible.

-The 4% takeout at Ellis on the Late Pick 4. To make this player friendly wager even juicier, it offers a $0.50 minimum. This could very well be the finest gesture of track management to the player in my lifetime.

-Bay Meadows will remain a thoroughbred horse racing facility for another year. Still destined to become a mixed-use development of some sort, at least the bulldozers will be held off for the short term.

-Lava Man and AP Xcellent provide a fantastic stretch duel in the Gold Cup. There is nothing better in sports than a tight stretch duel with top (well, just about "top" in the handicap division these days) thoroughbred athletes giving their all.

-The NYRA raises Belmont overnight purses by 12% and Saratoga by 13.6%. Sure, the NYRA is still a mess and the uncertainty surrounding the franchise award is disturbing, but this is good news.

-My local track, Canterbury Park, drew a crowd of 14,107 on Tuesday despite bad weather. Pretty damn good for a small operation with mostly low level claiming stock.

-Handle increased at the Golden Gate spring meet and Stockton (San Joaquin County Fair). Patrons found more $$ to wager on Baze/Hollendorfer.
 

-The NTRA announced positive revenues for 2006. Perhaps some of this operating profit will be reinvested to actually help grow the game.

Sure, Biancone was caught with cobra venom in his barn, but hey, it’s been a pretty damn good week. Plus, it was noted in the Form for one of his recent entries next to Lasix as

Assiniboia Downs: From the root, “ass”…..you see where this is going, need I say more?

 
Colonial Downs: Colonial Downs was formed by a group of British loyalists that didn’t feel comfortable with taxation without representation, but wanted to preserve the characteristics of their home tracks. Therefore, these patriotic new Americans vowed to keep as many races on the lawn as possible. To this day, the families of the founding fathers of Colonial are miffed that the races are run with left-handed turns, but are thrilled with the steeplechase racing and multiple turf courses.

Delaware Park: For those of you less geographically inclined, Delaware is a tiny strip mall and toll way that sits between the Philly and Baltimore/D.C. metro areas. The first state to ratify the constitution, Delaware, with less than 900,000 people, is known as the, “Blue Hen state”. Due to the poor quality of thoroughbred racing at Delaware Park infused with racino cash to keep purses high, the state is considering altering the state motto to, “The Expensive Pet Racing Sled” state. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but has a nice ring to it. Delaware is considering trading the naming rights to the “Blue Hen State” plus a sixth round draft pick in 2009 to Maryland for the Preakness, some crab cakes, and Andy Beyer.

 
Gulfstream Park: Much like Calder, the origin of the name comes from a Latin root meaning “old” or “geezer-like”. However, the entomology of Gulfstream digs a bit deeper. It shows that the complete name actually includes some nomenclature suggesting something more along the lines of, “old people in tiny grandstand with much slot noise and all early speed with overrated track announcer and chalky outcomes especially on the biggest race days, which are not as big as they used to be”.

 
Montaineer: This track, located in “Wild, Wonderful” West Virginia was founded by a couple of hillbillies, Orville and Jimmy, that fondly recall a trip they once took to New Orleans in 1974. They loved the gumbo, drinking, and mayhem associated with Mardi Gras, which they later found out actually meant Fat Tuesday in “Paris talk”. When Orville fell into some money through the unexpected sale of his dirt farm, they founded Mountaineer on a handful of tenets:

(A)  Parties are at night, so racing is at night

(B)   Since Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday in Louisiana English/French, Fat people should be able to come to the track on Tuesday nights and watch live racing

(C)   The party needs to continue throughout the year, which is precisely why the season at Mountaineer is so long

(D)  Since Louisiana is known for good ol’ fashion corruption, cheating is encouraged by all local trainers

Jimmy was a little hammered on Stroh’s when they drew up plans for the oval, which is why the track appears to be on some sort of a bizarre angle. Them boys are somethin’ else, ain’t they!

 
Suffolk Downs: With the picturesque landscape of East Boston as a backdrop, the blue line of the “T” zooming through the backstretch with regularity, track patrons often believe they are actually at Saratoga, Ascot, or Longchamp. Suffolk is named for the region of eastern England characterized by beautiful low-lying wetlands, which is why the track is perched near the Atlantic Ocean. It’s been said that the combination of the visible public transit, empty grandstand, sporadic drunks, low handle, horrid racing, and lousy simulcast signal are all part of the rustic 19^th century Throw-back feel. As a college student in equally beautiful Worcester, MA, I actually mapped the track grounds for a geography course (hey, it was an excuse to use school to get to the track!) and found an additional charming part of the track, the public urination area.

 
Turfway Park: Germanic context meaning, “chalk loving public handicapper/track announcer”. Baron Von Gainingground was instrumental in originally settling the land in Florence, Ohiotucky along with his able surfs, Rölf Ontheoütside and Klaus Andtherehof. This is precisely why Battaglia uses their last names in EVERY RACE CALL.