Your ad here! (jk+too)

You may have noticed over the past week that there’s a new ad space over there on the right. Not only here at GbG but on several sites. The little tag hanging there below the ad says “HRF Ad Network”. What?

The Hello Race Fans Ad Network is one of two projects Swifty and I have been working on for the better part of a year. After seeing my traffic go up basically every month since I’ve started blogging and noticing that there are new independent blogs and sites continually popping up, we thought it was a good idea to bring as many of them together as possible to 1) create an excellent new opportunity for advertisers to easily reach racing fans and 2) give everyone in the network a stronger bargaining position as we’re more attractive to advertisers as a group than individually.

I’m happy to say that so far it seems to be working! We were lucky enough to get two outstanding charter advertisers, West Point Thoroughbreds and the Breeders’ Cup. Rock out!

Please visit our sponsors by clicking on their banners when you see them on our sites. As individual publishers in the network we don’t get paid any more for you clicking on the ad but it’s a great way to reward those organizations that were willing to take a chance on a new small company AND support independent content creators.

And now a word about our sponsors…

West Point has been an undisputed leader in bringing the ownership experience to an increasingly wider audience. They consistently campaign some of the most exciting horses in training and are always finding ways to support the industry. Their FATE Initiative asks that all of us to try to introduce new folks to racing, a technique that Swifty actually employed on me (so you know it works!). We’re pleased to have West Point continue to lead the way by signing on with us as an advertiser… when you see a West Point ad over there in the HRF ad spot, click on over and check out their current offerings or check out what founder and President Terry Finley is blogging about in his weekly Terry’s Notes.

You asked and Breeders’ Cup listened… not only did they address their ticket prices and structure to be more flexible and affordable, they’re now selling their tickets online! That’s the kind of progress this industry needs and we’re thrilled that they chose the Hello Race Fans Ad Network to promote this new initiative! Seeing an organization like the Breeders’ Cup roll out a new online initiative by advertising it in a new online venue is a great sign that progress is possible in horse racing. If you’re planning on going to the Breeders’ Cup, and you know you are, click on over via the banner and get your seats!

We’ve also donated ad space to 501(c)(3)s such as ReRun, Old Friends, Remember Me Rescue, GEVA and Another Chance 4 Horses as we wanted to make it that much easier for someone to find out about these great organizations. We also promote the weekly HANA Pool Party! If you’re associated with a racing 501(c)(3) charity, please contact us at our network site to find out more information about how to get a free ad in our rotation!

If you have a site about thoroughbred or harness racing and you’re interested in running ads, come on over and sign up! And your site doesn’t need to be a blog either. However, if your site is a blog hosted at wordpress.com, you currently can’t run any ads but hopefully wordpress will change that soon.

The other project Swifty and I have been working on is creating a fan education site, also called Hello Race Fans. We think that fans and players can learn as much from each other as they can from experts. I know I’m constantly learning every time I read how someone decided to play a race or by how they interpreted how a race would set up. With this in mind we’ve assembled some great folks, some of whom you already read, to create a site to make it easier for potential new fans to learn about racing. Stay tuned, we plan on having an initial launch prior to the Breeders’ Cup!

Posted by dana on May 27 2009    
Filed Under: Internet, 2009, HANA, West Point Thoroughbreds, Marketing, Breeders' Cup, Ads, Racing

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Pyro returns to training for his 4yo campaign (Banamine)

While we wait around for some decent racing this weekend and the Belmont jockey announcements a few things caught my eye.

My beloved Pyro is back on the work tab! I had heard that he’s been galloping at Keeneland for awhile but nothing official until now. As if the news of the Belmont Special service being restored wasn’t enough, Pyro will be based in New York with Rick Mettee! Perhaps we’ll get a chance to see him at Belmont before the end of spring-summer meet.

This week’s HANA pool party takes place this Saturday at Canterbury Park, race 8. If you’re not familiar with Canterbury Park, check out Ted’s excellent recap of opening day!

I’m not sure about you but I’ve been enjoying Equidaily’s hilarious new editorial graphic trend… well done!

Are the now seemingly repetitive tote failures the side effect of Mercury Retrograde? We should probably be so lucky as Mercury Retrograde ends on June 14th.

Kennedy has a nice look at some of the current 3yo sprinters who are overshadowed by the Triple Crown while Ghostnapper has an interesting take on how team Zenyatta really needs to step it up.

And finally, buried at the bottom of a DRF post about something else, it looks Channing Hill is heading back east to Monmouth for the summer:

Two jockeys who found California a tough circuit to crack have left for greener pastures. Channing Hill won just two races from 53 mounts in Southern California and has left for Monmouth; Jesus Rios won 13 races from 163 mounts and left for Calder.

Be sure to say hi to Channing while you attend the ReRun 3rd annual Day at the Races Fundraiser at Monmouth on June 13th!

Posted by dana on May 21 2009    
Filed Under: 4yo, Channing Hill, Zenyatta, 2009, HANA, Technology, Pyro, Belmont, Come Back, 3yo, Sprint, Racing

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It was hard to find a good pool pic for Iowa (What Makes The Pie Shops Tick?)

Tonight’s Pool Party is the 6th at Prairie Meadow, a wide open 1 mile claiming race for fillies and mares 3 & up.

It’s so wide open in fact that I’m gonna wait until I see the parade to make my picks, although I’m leaning towards #4 Mercy Came Arunnin and #5 Fuhr the Stars.

Regardless of how the race turns out, I sincerely hope QQ has a fabulous first date!

Posted by dana on May 09 2009    
Filed Under: HANA, 2009, Claimer, Racing

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(Simon Bak)

Today marks the first weekend installment of the HANA pool party, which is the 6th at Hawthorne. The Pretty Jenny is $100k 6F stakes race for state bred 3yo fillies.

Today has been all about errand running and attending to things around GbG manor, so I’ve only done the quickest of looks. That being said this is an interesting race, even though sprints are not generally my favorite types of races to handicap.

There’s plenty of speed of in this race and plenty of horses coming off a decent break. A quick glance at yesterday’s HAW races reveals that in all but one instance, horses who sat off the pace in 6F races won.

With that in mind, Lose None, Miss Fontana, Bow Tie Pasta, Cart’s Zenforus and Happy Henrietta all look plausible. B N Graced N Glory also jumps out on paper with 2 consecutive wins at HAW at 6F, but in the slop.

I’ll wait to take a look at them before I make any decisions but I’m most curious to see B N Graced N Glory, Lose None, Bow Tie Pasta and Happy Henrietta, who has won off a break equivalent to the one she’s returning from today.

As usual, you can pick up free PPs, Thoroughgraph data and picks from Hawthorn’s GM and resident handicapper Jim Miller at HANA. Good luck and have fun!

Update: Bow Tie Pasta took the race by several lengths, followed up by Cart’s Linda, Lose None and Tessie’s Tilbury. Yours truly is now 0-4 in HANA pool party having gone with B N Graced N Glory to win and tri box of B N Graced N Glory, Lose None and Happy Henrietta. There was a touch of drama as #9 Cumulonimble dumped her rider out of the gate was loose on the track. After the race the announcer mentioned she was still loose and now going in the wrong direction, although she was never on camera. An outrider safely grabbed her not too long after the race ended.

Another note, the dumped rider was the tall Brandon Meier that appeared briefly on Jockeys, Win or Die Trying. No word on his condition.

Posted by dana on Apr 25 2009    
Filed Under: 2009, Jockeys TV Show, HANA, Picks, Sprint, Handicapping, You Can Help, 3yo, Racing

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Yee Haw, it’s a pool party y’all! (Jacob…K)

Today’s third installment of the HANA Pool Party takes place in the 3rd at Mountaineer in the exacta pool. As usual there are free PPs and other items over HANA and this week local Mountaineer handicapper Mark Patterson offers his take.

I love the exacta, not only is it my favorite wager, it’s also my most successful wager (pretty sure I just jinxed myself!). I’ve been home with a nasty cold the past few days but I managed to look over the race yesterday.

The race is pretty evenly matched and while the favorite, Enter the Lion, did stand out a bit, most notably for winning on the cut back, I’m more than likely going to throw him out. Looking back over the charts for the last days uncovered that front runners and stalkers have done overwhelmingly better than off the pace types. The two races where Enter the Lion has won have been won from the off the pace and while he ran his last two on the pace (as if they were sprints) my guess is that he’ll be back off the pace when in sprinting company.

Currently I’m interested in 5, 6, 7 & 8 and am going to wait until I get to eyeball them in the parade to figure out how I’m going to play it. I may just box them all up if they all look decent and the price is right. Legacy Hunter (#5) has done well at the distance and is cutting back, an angle that’s been fairly successful for his trainer, who’s overall stats aren’t bad. The forecast is also calling for rain tonight and this one has won in the slop, if it comes that.

I’m not sure why Take Aim (#6) isn’t the favorite as he’s the only one coming off a win. Kris’s Honor (#7) has also won at the distance and racked up a string of 5 place & shows usually within a length or so of the winner at the end of last year and Hey Reemer is returning to the dirt and reunited with his winning jockey, one of my favorite angles! All of these horses are on the pace runners so they fit the apparent bias going on at Mountaineer.

I’m happy this week’s pool party takes place at night, so all of us working stiffs that can’t watch from work have a chance to watch/wager in real time (even though I’m home sick today and could have watched any race). As always, good luck & have fun!

Update: the one front runner I tossed, Ameliaslandmissle (#9), won at 14-1 and Kris’s Honor (#7) at 3-1 placed. The $2 exacta, or perfecta as they call it at Mountaineer, payed $136. At least my assessment of the front runner bias was right on… see you next week!

Posted by dana on Apr 14 2009    
Filed Under: 2009, HANA, Picks, Exacta, Handicapping, Racing

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