Wanderin’ Boy is a GbG fav and the equivalent of a big foot sighting in racing as a 7yo HORSE. I always wondered about that and now feel enlightened thanks to an excellent post by Steve Haskin over at his Bloodhorse blog.

It’s always refreshing to see big fancy deep pocket owners keep their horses in training, particularly when fate provided so many opportunities for retirement! Wanderin’ Boy really made big bad Curlin work for his win in the JCGC. Go on with your bad Wanderin’ self (and stay sound and healthy while you’re doin’ it)!

Also from the “right on” department, Crist has a fantastic column this week about the BC gender division tom foolery entitled “If you must fix what ain’t broken…”

Proponents of a Filly Friday and a Studly Saturday are difficult to locate outside the Breeders’ Cup offices, and most fans and pundits seem to hate the idea. The most frequent criticisms are that it is inherently sexist (and renaming the Distaff the Ladies’ Classic sure didn’t help) and that it marginalizes half of the racehorse population by relegating it to second-class status and a much smaller television audience. Shouldn’t racing be showcasing the likes of Lady’s Secret, Personal Ensign, and Azeri on its biggest day rather than on a Friday afternoon?

He goes on to propose some viable, and less alienating ways to divvy up the races over two days. Hear, hear.

Posted by dana on Oct 01 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Take Back the Race, Impressive, Steve Haskin, Wanderin' Boy, Breeders' Cup, Injury, You Tell 'em!, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Share This

4 Comments »

Fans at the 2004 Belmont (wallyg)

As mentioned before, Jessica and I have been working on a little project called the Self Appointed Fan Committee.

I hope you’ve gotten your list of grievances, ideas, rants and raves together as the Committee is now in session!

See you there…

Posted by dana on Jul 07 2008    
Filed Under: Industry, Self Appointed Fan Committee, Take Back the Race, 2008, You Can Help, :), Fans

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Share This

4 Comments »

I’ve been elsewhere the past few days! Belmont (Aint No Joke)

My lack of posting is due, in part, to a hectic week which includes working on this so it can be ready by July 1. So far, so good!

In lieu of posting I’ve been doing a lot of commenting… mostly on the extremely active post regarding Jeremy Rose’s suspension. It’s a great, lively, civil conversation mostly (at this point) centered around how to determine if a suspension is excessive. One person’s excessive is another person’s just right is yet another person’s not enough. In my mind this begs for national standards around ALL suspensions.

Speaking of which, Val has a great post (that of course I commented on, because that’s all I do now) about the double standards in the suspensions of Asmussen and Dutrow. She also discusses that national standards are needed in drug suspensions.

Jessica posts the news of Suffolk’s new zero tolerance on slaughter (yep, I commented there too) and points to a related post that alludes to a more holistic view being needed to actually solve the problem as opposed to just applying a band-aid. (Note - I agree that Rose’s suspension is a band-aid for addressing issues around the whip, there needs to be better rules to actually address the overall problem).

And, in another great post that I commented on, Teresa uncovers a bit of of a historical precedence for the protest of sexism in the pursuit of racing marketing! Go sign the petition!

Posted by dana on Jun 28 2008    
Filed Under: I'm Procrastinating, Industry, The Whip, Take Back the Race, 2008, Fans, Drugs, TBA, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Share This

2 Comments »

No, this is not related to Brooklyn Backstretch’s earlier post. (SA Steve)

While it seems like it started with the hearings, it really started much earlier, at least as early as the Breeders’ Cup / Ladies Day / Take Back The Race Petition where we ask the Breeders’ Cup to “Create a fan committee representing the diversity of the racing audience to provide ideas and feedback on proposed changes and marketing plans to the Breeders’ Cup” (among other things).

Not too long after the Preakness, Jessica @ Railbird and I were enjoying some Friday afternoon hot dogs at Old Town and discussing all things racing. At one point we agreed that we should start our own damn Fan Committee because it was clear it was probably never going to happen otherwise.

Mid last week I was thinking fondly of two mid 90s pioneering sites, angry.org (the original) and kvetch.com (the one that got more attention). Both were very basic sites that allowed users vent and complain. Both also displayed complaints, which were incredibly fun to browse/read!

I printed out a bunch from angry.org and still plan on framing them! One was about the snotty sales assistants at a Calvin Klein store, another about an old lady who was a frequent annoying shopper at a grocery store. Most of them were just eh but a some of them were FANtastic.

With this in mind I registered selfappointedfancommitee.com and emailed Jessica. This also coincided with her sage observation that fans and players are not viewed as stakeholders in the industry that we support with our capital.

After a few emails, some comps and a bit of coding, we had a plan… The Self Appointed Fan Committee was born! Our working tag line is “Our only agenda is to make sure you’re heard!”.

We’ll be launching the first full version of on or around July 1st… stay tuned, and get your list of grievances together!

Posted by dana on Jun 22 2008    
Filed Under: Industry, Self Appointed Fan Committee, Take Back the Race, Internet, You Can Help, :), Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Share This

7 Comments »

Thanks to all for the whopping 92 votes in the last poll… and a special thanks to equidaily and the NTRA for increased traffic!

The majority of you, 34 to be exact, thought Kent D’s ride didn’t really matter one way or the other because Big Brown didn’t show up. 20 of you, myself included, had mixed feelings about the ride, 16 of you felt it was prudent and you were glad he eased him, 15 of you thought it was a bad ride all the way around and 7 of you went so far as to say the ride was unsportsmanlike.

The new poll takes a look back… 1988 has been in the air lately. I first noticed it at Brooklyn Backstretch in a post entitled Phipps and Shug. The post features 4 races of the undefeated champion Personal Ensign, including her win against Gulch in the Whitney.

Then, news of Ocean Colors, daughter of Winning of Colors, breaking her maiden prompted Patrick to curate a little Winning Colors retrospective over at TBA site.

Winning Colors was one of only 3 fillies to ever win the Kentucky Derby. As I commented over at Brooklyn Backstretch, “Seriously, Winning Colors and Personal Ensign are all anyone needs to know about why fillies CAN run against colts”.

One of my all time favorite races was Winning Colors absolute romp in the Santa Anita Derby. While you can view the Distaff either at Brooklyn Backstretch or the TBA video section, I wanted to include it here, with a reminder to sign the petition to Breeders’ Cup about the name change of the Distaff… does this look a Ladies Classic to you?

Posted by dana on Jun 16 2008    
Filed Under: Take Back the Race, Rivalry, Poll, TBA, Fans, Inspirational, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Share This

7 Comments »