Interpret As You Wish

It's certain things said, done, lived experienced that just make you feel (good). More and more music has become that for me.

A few weeks ago I lamented mildly that it has become harder and harder to participate creatively through this blog. Here's my first effort in a while.

Interpret this as you wish:

Is This "Climbing Up To The Moon?"
Or Is It Bailing Out Too Soon?
I Hope We Didn't Wait Too Long.
All That I Wanted To Say - Words Only Got In The Way.
But Then I Found Another Way To Communicate.
Is This "Climbing Up To The Moon?"
Or Is It Fadin Out Too Soon??
I Know We Didn't, I Know We Didn't Wait Too Long -
Cause Anytime's A Good Time To Move On.
Things I Could Say To Myself - I Could Never Say To Anyone Else.
But What Madonna Said Really Helped -
She Said: "Boy - You Better Learn To Express Yourself!"
I Know We Didn't, I Know We Didn't Wait Too Long.
Cause Anytime's A Good Time To Move On.

credit here

Some items including post-SPA decompression

It's a amazing that as slow as this blog has been lately, I just received a comment from a post dated April 3rd, 2008 - that's over 4 months ago for those of you keeping score at home!! These inner-tubes of ours never cease to amaze. Anonymous wrote:

I found a Triple Crown logo (the horse racing TC...right?) at http://allpro.stores.yahoo.net/trcrme1.html. When you click on the
'2007 Triple Crown Pin Set', a picture of the items will come up. One of the pins is (I think) the TC logo.

I went and checked it out, but still couldn't find anything resembling a Triple Crown logo. Maybe it's me? Either way, thanks for checking in and trying to offer some insight into this post way back when.

Just got back from my final leg of a summer track tour which started with Belmont and Monmouth in early July; Del Mar opening day in mid July; Santa Rosa/Sonoma Fair late July; and the amazing, beautiful and historic Saratoga - the perfect cap to an unforgettable summer.

Want to give public congratulations to fellow TBA-ers and former TBA-ers who will be dropping Web 2.0 knowledge this September at Red Rocks Casino in Vegas. Maybe you guys can rent the private, VIP bowling lanes at the Red Rock and have a little thingy??

Testing Out FeedBLitz

This post is more geared toward testing out a new feature I just added to the blog that allows you to get email updates every time I post on this blog.

I'll throw in a link here about Curlin's announced Woodward placing.

Also adding a link to the lamest story of them all by using a straight URL: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp08/news/story?id=3520064

Wordle TBA

Updated with Facts: ANOTHER new wager offered..

Not sure if this one was offered last year, I'm sure Alan would remember if there was.

Once again it is the NJSEA making a nice move out of the ordinary. Here are some highlights about the Hambeltonian/Haskell Daily Double wager to be offered this weekend:

(edited for this blog)

•Select winner of both the Hambletonian (Saturday, August 2 at Meadowlands Racetrack) and Haskell Invitational (Sunday, August 3 at Monmouth Park).

•Minimum wager is $2. $1 wheels available.

•New Jersey Racing Commission rules and regulations will apply.

•Takeout: Normal Daily Double takeout of 19%

•Wagering will cease with the start of the Hambletonian Final on Saturday, August 2 at approximately 2:43 p.m.

•Host Track: Meadowlands Racetrack

Although this won't change the world (of horseracing) it is nice to see brains working on alternative, attractive wagers for Players. Now if NYRA and others (including my company, but excluding Arlington who already does) would introduce $.50 trifecta's I would be VERY happy!

Funny though, I don't see it up on The Big M website as of 10:30pm Pacific time, Tuesday night. I could be missing it, but I would figure it would be a news story located under "News"?

UPDATE: Thanks to the headsup from Power Cap. Looks like this wager HAS been around for a few years. I still like the concept of this wager, though.

Warning: This Video Will Make You Laugh Out Loud and Possibly Spit Out Your Drink

This needs to be viewed multiple times. I think the SportsCenter guys just got showed up....

Hahahahahaha!!!

Now this is good stuff you just can't make up!!

A New Wager Debuts This Weekend

I didn't see a mention of this anywhere yet this week, so I thought I would get the press rolling with some tidbits on the new "Sixty Minute 6" wager brought to you by the NJSEA.

-The wager begins this Saturday covering six races from four different tracks.
-All six races will take place within an hour - usually about 3:30pm Eastern - 4:30pm Eastern
-The wager is planned to be held every Saturday through Aug. 30th
-$2 min. wager
-1st week guaranteed pool of $100,000
-25% takeout rate

You can get the full details at the official Sixty Minute 6 website right here.

My thoughts:
-I like new wagers
-I like old wagers with smaller minimums better
-I guess I'm not officially sure who is hosting this wager as there are NJ wagering rules enforced, but Philly Park seems to be laying claim to the website development
-I'm thinking the pool might hit $300k this first weekend
-God move for them to only commit to guaranteeing the first weekend wager - we'll see how it goes.
-I like racetrack partnerships. I think the future success of the sport hinges on cooperation from all tracks working together more and more.

Very interested to hear your thoughts...
Playing it?
Staying away?
Love it?
Hate it?

**All CDI races Now on YouTube

(**past 18 months)

A complete library of CDI’s race replays (all 4 tracks, past 18 months) is now available online at www.youtube.com/cdi.

Currently there are over 5,000 races that are all searchable under various tags.

Check it out. I think it's pretty cool.

www.youtube.com/cdi

Would love to hear thoughts and feedback on this.

Is it possible for PETA to make sense?

Here is an interesting listen from SF NPR affiliate KQED.

Nothing earth shattering (as usual), but it is worth a listen for more points of view.

Nothing continues to get done in this industry and Alan expresses this sentiment as I would liked to have. I find myself building up more and more anger (in my belly) as the days continue to move forward.

There is so much to do, and so much talk. WHEN CAN WE DO SOMETHING? HOW CAN WE DO SOMETHING?

It is a shame, disappointing and very disheartening.

What we need is money behind us, to help make a substantial push towards creating change.

I am not a great writer, and would love to put my thoughts into words. I am more suited to verbalizing and look forward to be being afforded the opportunity to express my thoughts in a coherent manner.

BTW, our own Tote Board Brad makes an appearance on the show (first call of the day).

Nice work, Brad.

KQED's "Forum" with Michael Krasny can be found here.

Not Addressing Big Brown Just Yet..

It deserves proper time to put coherent thoughts together, and right now that just ain't not happenin.

In the meantime, it looks like a trainer is taking his game to the Internets and has discovered a site called, "YouTube". You may have heard of it?

This YouTube page, which looks to be setup and managed by West Coast trainer John Sheriffs is a great move and has a ton of possibility.

Major h/t to poster, "Sun Devil" over at DMFF.

F*ck Big Brown.

Sorry, just how I feel. Can't get excited about Big Brown. Not interested in rooting for this horse.

More on that later.

I'm not betting Big Brown in the Preakness.

I can't.

I don't want to.

I won't.

Gayego does nothing for me.

What am I to do.

I'll figure something. Not sure what that will be exactly.

Good luck to you.

Sounds like closers had a big day at the muddy Pimilico course Friday.

Like I said. Good luck.

A Nice Piece Written on Huffingto Post re: Eight Belles/H. Clinton

Check out this piece by my friend, Lucy Carrigan on the Huffington Post today.

Just wanted to throw it into the mix as little bit of a different take by a smart, politically savvy, female horse fan.

Shortened Press Release

This was released earlier today (edited for brevity):

VERNON NIVEN STATEMENT REGARDING TWINSPIRES.COM WAGERING DIFFICULTIES ON KENTUCKY DERBY DAY

MOUNTAINVIEW, Calif. (May 4, 2008) – Vernon Niven, president of TwinSpires.com today commented on difficulties experienced by some TwinSpires.com customers placing wagers on the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands on Saturday, May 3.

“We understand that some of our players experienced issues logging in and making wagers through TwinSpires.com during the 45 minutes leading up to the Kentucky Derby,” Niven said. “We are looking into what caused those problems and hope to have a definitive answer very soon. We deeply apologize for what we consider to be an unacceptable occurrence on the biggest racing day of the year. Our players deserve the very best, and we are working to make sure whatever issues caused them to have difficulties on Derby Day never happen again.”

Derby Picks (only cuz I have to)

Derby 134

Win: Pyro
Place: Denis of Cork
Show: Col. John

Front Page of the (Very) Local Paper

Not sure if anyone had seen this yet, but I sat down the other day to enjoy a morning bagel and coffee and this horse racing story was on the cover of the Palo Alto Daily News.

NTRA Premier Pick 4

Even though Saturday's national Pick 4 races are from "exclusive tracks", looks like most ADW's will be taking the wager on their sites.

So if you normally can't play Keeneland and/or Oaklawn, you will be able to wager on the races featured in that wager.

It does seem a bit strange though that NTRA.com isn't promoting the wager on their site....they did send out a mailer, but maybe an icon or a highlighted news story promoting it?

Maybe I missed it....

$1.5 Billion Wagered Legally in US in 2007

Very interesting stats posted on Bloodhorse today. $1.5+ billion legally wagered in the states in 2007. I guess the fact it doesn't even take into account the evil offshores and these numbers blow my mind even more.

Triple Crown dot com?

We were talking about a project here at work the other day, when it was thrown out to me to find a "Triple Crown logo".

Several days later, I was able to locate www.triplecrown.com - here's the link, check it out.

At least it's an American Company that owns the domain,right? I mean, the last time I checked, all three legs of the Triple Crown did take place in the United States....um, ok, maybe it's not.

Ever trusty Wikipedia says,

Also, as of May 21, 2005, the VISA Credit Card company officially withdrew its sponsorship of the U.S. Triple Crown, starting in 2006.[citation needed] It relieves VISA of paying the $5 million bonus to the owner of the horse that wins the Triple Crown. Triple Crown Productions is now sponsoring the races, as of 2006. The $5 million bonus remains intact.

Some[attribution needed] believe VISA withdrew its sponsorship as a result of the New York Racing Association's decision to break with the other two tracks on a television contract. On October 4, 2004, NYRA announced the American Broadcasting Company and ESPN would hold television rights to the Belmont Stakes, breaking from Triple Crown Productions' deal with NBC Sports[citation needed]. NBC Sports holds the broadcasting rights to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes until 2010. Triple Crown Productions was formed in 1986 with ABC; prior to that, the individual racing associations made their own deals with the TV networks (ABC and CBS).

Ahhh, so Triple Crown Productions is now in charge of "The Triple Crown". Those guys should have something I can use.....

Let's see what my Google-machine search turns up for Triple Crown Productions: GOOGLE SEARCH FOR TRIPLE CROWN PRODUCTIONS All righty then now we're getting somewhere....Google tells me there is something called, "Triple Crown Challenge", (Carmen SanDiego would be proud) Check out this informative, interactive, 2008-ready website that comes up as the #1 search when looking for "Triple Crown".

A quick Google of the contact phone number listed gives the following results

You know what? I'm exhausted already. Clearly this was a fruitless effort. However, in my quest to live a more positive life, it is the unbelievable "upside potential" of this sport that makes me super excited to wake up everyday and use my brain to assist in bringing this industry up to the top - Where everybody is a winner.

If anyone has (or knows of) a 2008 Triple Crown logo, please feel free to send it along or direct me towards it.

UPDATED: So maybe I'm a little rusty at this blogging thing after being away for a while. I did see there was an email address at the bottom and the domain is @kyderby.com hmmmm. Instead of bitching and leaving it out in the ether, I've reached out via email to see who is on the other end. Maybe there is a light at the end of this tunnel after all...

Arlington Park has a New Website

Check out Arlington's new website.

This follows in the footsteps of the last week's re-design of ChurchillDowns.com.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section. Or not.

A Little AvgReDesign

Just thought I would give the site a little freshening up. Still needs to be tweaked around, but thought it was time for some small change.

As an aspiring and 3-for-3 (3-3-0-0) claiming owner (I even got my Calif. Owners license a few weeks back - thanks to TBB for facilitating that process) I found this post over at fellow TBA blog "Owning Racehorses" extremely enjoyable. Congrats to the Grevelis Team!

Owning horses is super fun and a great way to get more folks involved (apologies for stating the obvious)

Great racing coming up this weekend.....

Poker and Horses..Whowuddathunkit

Most in the horse racing media - MSM AND NMSM - figured this was not worth mentioning. I can understand that it may not be such a huge story (as far as horseplayers on a grand scale go), but it still is worthy of more than just a mention in the Bloodhorse. I'm going to go ahead and post the information myself as I think it is pretty cool.

We repost, you decide:

TWINSPIRES.COM PARTNERS WITH POKER STAR PHIL HELLMUTH FOR ‘ULTIMATE DERBY PLAYER'S WEEKEND'

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (March 27, 2008) - TwinSpires.com, the official advance deposit wagering service for Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ: CHDN) is teaming with 11-time "World Series of Poker" champion Phil Hellmuth Jr. to deliver the "Ultimate Kentucky Derby Players Weekend."

Players who sign-up for TwinSpires.com by April 12 will be entered in a random drawing to win both a VIP trip for two to the 134th running of the $2 million-guaranteed Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands on Saturday, May 3 and a seat at Hellmuth's table at the "Kentucky Derby Poker Championship," a pro-celebrity poker charity event at Caesars Indiana that evening.

The Kentucky Derby Poker Championship, a $2,500 buy-in tournament hosted by Hellmuth and fellow professional poker player Robert Williamson III, will feature several other high profile celebrities and poker players who are scheduled to be in town for the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Derby Poker Championship will benefit the international Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, the Health and Climate Foundation, and the Robby Albarado Foundation, a new organization founded by jockey Robby Albarado that assists homeless and socially and economically disadvantaged residents in the Louisville, Ky. area.

The drawing for the winner of the "Ultimate Kentucky Derby Player's Weekend" will be conducted on Sunday, April 13. New members must sign-up for their TwinSpires.com accounts by April 12 to be eligible for the drawing. New account holders must use the promotion code TSPOKER to be included in the prize drawing.

"I'm really excited to be co-hosting this event which is not only associated with one of the great American traditions in the Kentucky Derby, but will also help call attention to the issue of climate change and other important concerns," said Hellmuth. "TwinSpires.com has put together a tremendous prize package and there is no doubt the winner is going to enjoy the ultimate Kentucky Derby experience."

"TwinSpires.com is thrilled to offer up this once-in-a-lifetime Kentucky Derby experience while also supporting such worthy causes," said Jeremy Clemons, TwinSpires.com's vice president of Marketing. "The combination of being a VIP guest at the world's greatest horse race before going head-to-head that evening with the one of the world's best poker players is an experience that is truly unique. We believe it will be attractive to both horseplayers who enjoy poker and poker players who are interested in learning more about horse racing."

Customers may open a TwinSpires account and wager through their TwinSpires accounts online at www.twinspires.com or via telephone by dialing 1-877-SPIRES-1 (1-877-774-7371). A $50 initial deposit is required to open a TwinSpires account, there is no minimum deposit amount after that. Customers may deposit funds into their TwinSpires accounts at any time via their phone, the TwinSpires Web site or postal mail. TwinSpires charges no fees to register, wager or to maintain an account, and it offers live video streaming of races and free race replays to all wagering customers.

TwinSpires.com (www.twinspires.com) is the official advance deposit wagering service for Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ: CHDN) and its family of racetracks, as well for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks. TwinSpires.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of Churchill Downs Incorporated and offers wagering on races from Churchill Downs, Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Pimlico Race Course, Lone Star Park, Golden Gate Fields, Laurel Park and other popular racing venues. TwinSpires is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and operates a wagering hub in Oregon.

Churchill Downs Incorporated ("Churchill Downs"), headquartered in Louisville, Ky., owns and operates world-renowned horse racing venues throughout the United States. Churchill Downs' four racetracks in Florida, Illinois, Kentucky and Louisiana host many of North America's most prestigious races, including the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, Arlington Million, Princess Rooney Handicap and Louisiana Derby. Churchill Downs racetracks have hosted seven Breeders' Cup World Championships. Churchill Downs also owns off-track betting facilities and has interests in various advance deposit wagering, television production, telecommunications and racing services companies, including a 50-percent interest in the national cable and satellite network HorseRacing TVTM, that support the Company's network of simulcasting and racing operations. Churchill Downs trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol CHDN and can be found on the Internet at www.churchilldownsincorporated.com.

****end release****

The poker world sure has liked this "story" - here, here and here.

Can't Wait to Get Back to Blogging

To many things going on - personally, professionally, etc. - not to start blogging again. I've been away for a while, removed from regularly blogging, and am very excited to get back to posting more regularly.

Ready or not....

Is This Steve Carrell? Updated: Video Link Has Been Restored

You decide:


RSS-ers click here to watch

Sitting here in the Las Vegas airport, delayed (of course) and really only one thing to say, GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS (and the under).

Non-Horse Related, Gambling Article of the Day

Starting with the 2000 season going through Sunday, January 27, 2008, in over 22,000 lined college basketball games, favorites have covered 50.1% of the time, underdogs 49.9%.

This is good news for a lot of people.

(no apologies for shameless plugs)

Unbelievably Cool Photo of the Day (or week)

Check out this cool panorama shot of The Big A. Have fun zooming in and out and playing with this for a little while....

More Breeding "Action"

I've been sitting on this video (for RSS-ers) for about a two weeks now. Just haven't been able to post it up.

As of Thursday, it has had over half-a-million hits and is adding about 2,000 more everyday.

So, now without further ado, I give you a primer lesson in breeding horses (semi-safe for work...)

"This oughtta be good..."

A Breeding Mistake?

Here's a pretty good interview with author and horse-lover Jane Smiley that talks about her history as a horse devotee and experiences as a breeder.

I like Jane Smiley, but never did finish her book A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money, and Luck

I tried hard to get through it, but it never really grabbed me. It sits along with other finished and yet-to-be-completed books in a box in my living room (waiting to be unpacked). I know I'll get back to it one day, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it.