Player at Belmont today, looking like he just got kicked out of the P6 (Jason Moran)

You may think that the only thing I blog about these days is thanking sponsors, and you’d be right, in part. I’ll cover a few other items but not without thanking sponsors first!

NJSEA, the folks who run Monmouth and Meadowlands, have decided to continue to use the Hello Race Fans Ad Network to promote their summer activities. I’m happy to report that I’m still Surviving at the Shore (narrowly) and hope to make a trip to Monmouth this summer… and you should too! Check them out (by way of clicking on their ad) as they have a whole summers worth of cool stuff to promote.

Sam Houston loves all of Texas, and the Hello Race Fans Ad Network! They’ve widened their current geo-targeted campaign to include all of Texas, so all you fun-lovin’ Texans should check them out (by way of clicking on their ads!).

And finally, we welcome Churchill night racing to the network! They kick off their Friday night racing with a little disco. Of the many genres of music that I love, classic 70’s disco is the top of the list (I was singing Odyssey’s Native New Yorker to my dog just the other day. Inner Life’s Caught up in a One Night Love Affair (which I’m NOT having!) is also in high rotation on my ipod). Why go to some stupid bar on Friday night when you can stay home and play Churchill? Or, better yet, play Churchill from the bar, unless, of course, you’re in the Louisville area. In which case you should boogie on down to Churchill.

But seriously, many thanks to our sponsors. If you like the blogs and sites and in the Hello Race Fans Ad Network, you should occasionally click on the ads. Every click helps!

In other news, you’d be surprised how many people search for things like “how to bet horse racing” or “learn to bet on horse races”. It’s heartening to see HRF getting decent search traffic from these sorts of searches after the Triple Crown. Here a few of the search terms that led folks to Hello Race Fans! today:

learn to bet horse races
reading a tote board
how to bet on horse racing
simple tote
what to look for in horse behavior in post parade
filly triple crown
how to interpret horse racing forms
playing superfecta
horse lineage terminology
horse race lingo

Also heartening was that Rachel Alexandra going to the Fleur Di Lis was picked up by AP (via Lane Gold).

Finally, you can support your fav racing bloggers (or at least some of them!) by going to the first, presumably annual, Horse Racing Blogger Awards and voting. Voting closes June 21.

Posted by dana on Jun 09 2010    
Filed Under: Jason Moran, Twitter, 2010, Churchill Downs, Monmouth Park, Ads, You Can Help, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

No Comments »

(wendyu) The Homeboykris crew on the walk over, the embodiment of cheerful!

Sure, I could focus on all my horrid plays yesterday and how I stupidly left Ice Box off my tickets, especially since 1) I deliberated between using him and Mission Impazible and 2) I had Paddy O’Prado on my tickets, but I’m going to choose to be cheerful today, after all, it’s not often one calls the Derby winner publicly (so I’m going to enjoy it while I can… and sorry for the long sentence).

Since I’m not blogging a much these days, here are some things I had to say elsewhere about Super Saver… over at Twitter there was a discussion going on re: Super Saver and at least one esteemed colleague (@o_crunk) wasn’t buying him. My thought was this:

SS could pick up the pieces if he rates like he did in Ark Derby and there’s a pace meltdown. least that’s how I look at it

Reading Val’s piece for Hello Race Fans! on pedigree and Derby Distance + the reports out of Churchill that he was looking good in the morning definitely informed my thought process. Over at the other evil social media site, Facebook, I commented to a friend about my choice:

The services of one Mr. Calvin Borel aren’t too shabby either… but more than that, I think he got something out of his last two races and looked to me be getting underway at the end of the race last out. From what I’ve read his breeding suggests the distance should be no problem, which lines up with how I interpreted what I saw. I’m pretty jazzed about his odds too! (editor’s note: before they went south)

(Note: Facebook is so evil in fact that I can’t even directly link to that post!)

So, while I would have liked to have turned that into a nice score, my future wagers kept the weekend from being a total blood bath… and my parade play of Le Grand Cru in the Westchester. I’m now one for one at Belmont!

Also cheery making is that both Oaks and Derby handle were up, despite the massive AmTote crash that effected XpressBet, TwinSpires and a few tracks. On the bright side, at least it was clear on TwinSpires that a bet had gone through or not! On the downside I’m still annoyed over TwinSpiresTV blocking the Churchill simulcast signal. I’m still trying to find out more about that, so far I’ve gathered that Churchill was broadcasting it’s signal and leaving it up to the individual outlets to decide what to do with it, but nothing specifically about TwinSpiresTV.

At any rate, I’m still remaining cheerful… and might even do a couple of more blog posts!

Posted by dana on May 02 2010    
Filed Under: Twinspires, Twitter, 2010, Super Saver, Internet, Churchill Downs, Derby Trail, Triple Crown, Calvin Borel, Kentucky Derby, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

No Comments »

“Is blogging dead?” was a question posed by my esteemed colleague John of The Race is not to the Swift. He rightfully points out that other options such as Twitter and Facebook are easier outlets than blogging. Indeed.

I commented that as an example, I had posted several tweets of stuff I encountered while twirling around the web last night and had I not been on Twitter that they would have probably ended up as a blog post. As an experiment, of sorts, here’s what I probably would have written had I not had twitter:

While poking around on Hulu after finding an explanation of a tote board to post over here, I found this interview with Mike Watchmaker on Charismatic’s Triple Crown Bid on Charlie Rose. This made me wonder if Charlie Rose did any interviews prior to Big Brown’s Triple Crown attempt, and alas he did!

Since I didn’t really know much about Charismatic or racing in 1999 in general, I looked a little further. I watched the 1999 Belmont to see if any of Watchmaker’s predictions were right (they were not).

And imagine my surprise when I discovered the Charismatic / Chris Antely story, which I knew nothing about! Upon checking out Charismatic’s wiki page I discovered that an ESPN 30 for 30 episode is currently in development on the Charismatic / Antley story (thanks to @raceday360 for the ESPN link), very exciting! Apparently, there’s also a book on the saga entitled Three Strides Before the Wire (via @BklynBckstretch).

And as if all this wasn’t exciting and interesting enough, Haskin also has a compelling post about trainers who are still working that “once ruled the sport“. A true and proven talent not being able to sell themselves and ending up in relative obscurity is not a new phenomenon and certainly not limited to horse racing. History is littered with examples of artists, writers, musicians, etc who suffered the same fate, but as Jessica put it:

I still look at Turner and marvel, that trainer knows what it is to win the Triple Crown.

Here’s a recent trainee of his, Reforestation, hitting the board at 48-1 in the 2009 Grade 1 Prioress at Belmont.

Turner trains for Castle Village Farms, if money bags owners won’t work with the last trainer to win a Triple Crown there’s no reason why you can’t!

Posted by dana on Dec 04 2009    
Filed Under: Big Brown, Internet, Racing History, 2009, Twitter, Steve Haskin, Legend, Belmont, Triple Crown, Belmont Stakes, TV, Racing

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading ...

18 Comments »

I see #11, #10, #9, #5, #4 and #2! (EVENT OF THE YEAR PHOTOS)

It’s getting to be that time of the year, the time for year end polls! Thoroughbred Times unveiled theirs today and it’s pretty good. Last week they asked for some feedback and ideas on Twitter and my suggestion became question 14!

But the three answers on the Thoroughbred Times poll aren’t the only fan friendly moves that took place this year. In fact, I would argue it was a great year to be racing fan. Plenty of talent racing? Check. Exciting and down right historical races? Yep. The industry remembering that owners and breeders are not their only customers? Indeed and a welcome trend it is.

In no particular order other than as they came to me, here’s what I came up with so far, let me know in the comments what else I’ve missed. There could even be more! I didn’t include Churchill’s night racing because of the complaints of the ticket price ($10). But, if you think it belongs in the poll let me know.

BC saddle cloth standardization
Some people didn’t like this while others gave it the big “eh”. This is actually my vote for most player friendly move. I know it helped me to be able to tell who was who both in the warm up and the races.

BC ticket prices
It’s always nice not to be gouged! This move received plenty of positive response in the form of “it’s about time” (the horseplayers version of positive feedback?). It seems to have worked since attendance was up 11%!

BC online ticket sales
It seems so simple yet so few do it, moving ticket sales online might have also helped with the attendance increase. Should I be filling out my Saratoga form yet? Where’s that pen?

CD/KEE/FG in HD
Several tracks started broadcasting their simulcast signals in HD this year and Allicansayiswow! Seriously, this game was meant to be broadcast in HD and not to harp on a point (stage whisper) all the other sports are doing it.

YouBet My ROI
If you don’t have a YouBet account you’re missing out on some serious metrics. With a single click you can determine your ROI by track, bet type, surface, race type, breed, distance, trainer and jockey/driver. I seriously hope this feature is rolled into TwinSpires. TwinSpiresTV + My ROI = perfection.

@BH_RaceResults
Oh ye of little Twitter faith are missing a handy Twitter stream provided by Bloodhorse that provides race results from what seems to be every track. Each result also links to a handy race result page on the Bloodhorse site that provides results, payouts, pedigree information and replays where available.

DRF’s Digitized Archive
The beginnings of the DRF’s outstanding digital archive was rolled out by the Keeneland Library this year. Obviously this is an incredible and important source available for all to use, for free… so feel free to donate while you’re whiling away the hours over there!

DRF Ticketmaker
Making tickets for multi-race exotics is a giant pain, but thanks to DRF you can now get a little help! I don’t get that fancy with the multi-race wagers but the few times I did it took freakin’ forever to make the tickets, and that time is better spent making actual handicapping decisions.

Equibase Scratches Today
We have our pals at HANA to thank for the next two entries. Through their hard work and perseverance on behalf of players everywhere, Equibase now provides real time scratches! Another one to file under “it’s about time”.

Bris/Equibase Free Historical Charts
And finally, some free data for the people! Sure one can quibble that Bris requires a credit card AND your social security number to open an account (and to add insult to injury the SS# is for forgotten password verification! feel free to use a fake SS# when registering, just write it down in case you forget your password! FAIL.). But back to the data, say it with me everyone… “it’s about time!”.

Three cheers and keep up the good work to all in the industry who have pushed for and succeeded in getting innovations and change on behalf of fans and players. THANK YOU!

In our last poll about Lava Man being back in training, the majority of you were cautiously optimistic and jazzed about stem cells. This poll started off in a dead heat. Up until about 16 votes in each category it could have gone to any of the answers. He still hasn’t raced so we’ll just continue to be cautiously optimistic and know that at the very least he’s probably more happy training than hanging out in the pasture.

As always, thanks!

Update - Late Entry!

TwinSpires Cancel Bet
I KNEW I was forgetting something! How many times have you wished you could cancel a bet? (and I’m not talking about after the race!) Of course, the first time I used this featured the bet I canceled ended up being the winning exacta, but that doesn’t mean the feature isn’t innovative and fan friendly!

Posted by dana on Nov 17 2009    
Filed Under: Impressive, 2009, Twitter, HANA, Industry, Poll, Fans, Lava Man, :), Internet, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

11 Comments »

(Sarah K. Andrew)

I’m no investigative journalist (or any kind journalist for that matter) however I am a Facebook user. And on Facebook I uncovered (just happened to notice) that a Facebook friend (i.e., someone I don’t know otherwise) who works for a horse transportation charter said their phones were ringing off the hook this morning with people wanting to ship their horses to California.

And who can blame them after how well shippers did yesterday. Cowboy Cal and Gitano Hernando shipped in to California while Court Vision, Diamondrella and Negligee all shipped in to Keeneland for the win.

While it doesn’t look like there are any local preps left at Santa Anita, perhaps Cowboy Cal’s win yesterday has emboldened connections to throw caution to wind against B-list euro shippers such as Gitano Hernando.

Speaking of which, who knows what the heck is going to come over from Europe. This little passage in the Thoroughbred Times Goodwood article hints at what’s to come.

If the Goodwood is an indicator of how the Breeders’ Cup Classic will unfold in four weeks, the American contenders could be in trouble after Gitano Hernando, Group 3-placed in England, turned aside some of the strongest Classic contenders. Last year, European-based runners Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator finished first and second, respectively, in the Classic, and this year superstar Sea The Stars and Group 1 winners Rip Van Winkle and Mastercraftsman are among the potential European contingent for the Classic.

You can always check in here to find out more about the euros.

Since I doubled my money yesterday, primarily because of the Oak Tree races (and a whole lotta luck… parade handicapping seems to be surface agnostic!), I’m looking forward to seeing who and what turns up in California. It should be interesting… that is if you’re willing to look at it the whole affair as it’s own particular set of circumstances. If not, you’re probably going to be miserable and probably not even bet on the Breeders’ Cup… it’s your choice!

And regardless of what you think about any of this, racing got some big time mainstream sports coverage yesterday…

Can I get some love from the racing tweeps. Two Big Time races were part of college football on ESPN yestrday. That’s huge…

And I thought it was played very well - seeing Lou Holz talk about horse racing “trifectas” was an unexpected gem

Huge? Indeed.

Posted by dana on Oct 11 2009    
Filed Under: Industry, Keeneland, 2009, Twitter, Internet, Court Vision, Breeders' Cup, Santa Anita, Sarah K. Andrew, Mainstream Media, Racing

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

5 Comments »