Playing chess with myself

Is not a euphemism for anything lurid, although Bishop to any "G" spot always make me chuckle. I don't play chess with myself because I am not smart enough to throw myself a head fake.

An article on Bloodhorse.com posits Pletcher could have eight starters in this year's KD. Eight starters! If the man had half the field, I would still make it better than even money against him winning it.

It's easy to make fun of his lack of success in the KD, the man doesn't have to prove himself to anyone as a trainer-Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl and he would be on the top of my list, a dirty nose separating him from Montana-but at what point does the marginal utility of having him as trainer start to work against one as an owner?

From what I gather, the man is a perfectionist. That level of dedication to his craft is commendable and to be emulated but it cannot be maintained in the weeks, days, hours and minutes leading up to the race. If he saddles eight, or six or five, that is time he is not devoting to his other charges.

For a race such as the KD and all it promises, one cannot afford to overlook anything. Who knows the difference between winning and losing? A girth too tight or too loose? A stray grain of sand, perhaps, under the saddle cloth rubbing the horse the wrong way and making him lose interest before the windows close?

Horse fitness is not a zero sum game. Horses are not chess pieces and in theory he could win the eight horse blanket photo but life never does seem to work out that way.

I don't imagine he cares what the press writes about his "0"fer, he probably sleeps well at night and if nothing else, one has to admire his Sisyphean resolve. I also imagine he wants to win this race, badly, but it probably doesn't haunt him-yet.

Insiders know things, better left unsaid for public consumption. He knows what horses are legitimate and what horses are running for ego. Owners have egos and I imagine Pletcher is adept at navigating the Scylla and Charybdis of narcissism and pettiness his job engenders. Even then, strange things happen in a horse race. I guess that's why they created an institution around the event.

He will have them all as fit as he can make them and roll the dice. But there is a moment, after the dice are cast and before they land where a stray breath or random shaft of light can affect the outcome of the roll.

This supernal tightrope is where he pays his bills and why owners are willing to let him give them a run for their money.

How attenuated do they want him to be?

Yes, but...

Nokia started out as a paper mill company. They expanded into electricity generation and merged with a rubber galoshes manufacturer.

The obvious infrastructure for a multinational telecommunications company.

I imagine, at multiple junctures in their corporate history, someone had a pretty good reason for not doing something different. They probably had SWOT analysis and market research indicating the problems associated with expansion or alternate thinking.

Racing has plenty of reasons for not changing anything.

All parties remain entrenched in the way things have always been done and people just don't change the way they drive home from work. It's just not done.

Seth Godin, in a recent post, vents at 'everyone'. Everyone that says things are they way they are and they cannot change. Everyone in racing is what is wrong with the game.

Flowing Data links to a few sites willing to search for data, for a fee. Seems like a good opportunity for someone to pay for a search of all PP's for all horses running in the last few years and start an open source site for race horse PP's.

A mechanism must exist for making PP's free. Once the database is generated, the trick rests in maintaining it. Google must have a thing in Beta where they can generate running lines with a laser pointer or something. A camera with points of call Google mapped into it and a stopwatch. I mean the solution can't be all that hard.

I think the control of PP's is why racing is so resistant to embedding horses with those RFID tags. It would then just be too easy to make your own running lines and compete with Equibase.

I also think the guy who feeds the Loch Ness monster had Kennedy taken out and kidnapped the Lindbergh baby.

Reasons abound for not doing anything. It proves easy to say no. Everyone has reasons.

Not everyone wrote King Lear. Not everyone gets to pilot the VSS Enterprise.

Fees bleg

Is the percentage of purse monies, paid to jockeys, negotiable or mandated?

Could a jockey charge less?

If it is mandated, could the authority set a lower fee for claiming races? Or any race for that matter?

If jockeys can charge what they want, they could compete on price and maybe the unknown jockeys could get a few more mounts out of the deal. Owners would, I imagine, take the offer from a jockey who can ride.

Elite jockeys would be in demand in the bigger races, where the marginal utility of their services would provide greater return.

I don't know of any studies and I imagine the competitive nature of jockeys skews this theory but would not the opportunity costs of riding in a low level claimer outweigh the potential return from any race. I think Jerry Bailey understood this concept.

If unknown jockeys can charge whatever they want, "elite" jockeys would probably reconsider riding that claimer for the same amount, focusing their attention on the higher purse races.

In theory.

Form Monkey

This is my tribute to Jonathan Coulton's epic, Code Monkey. (The song is released under Creative Commons license and I take it to mean I can steal and alter at will.) A version of the song is at bottom for you to sing along...

My apologies to the man.

Form Monkey wake up get coffee.
Form Monkey bankroll fine.
Form Monkey checks the late scratches and the morning line.
SA canceled due to rain again.
Turf off, game stink.
'Capping not functional or elegant,
What do Form Monkey think?
Form Monkey think maybe takeout too high he play goddam slots instead.
Form Monkey sick of shout it out loud.
Racing execs stupid and proud.

Form Monkey like supers.
Form Monkey like tri and pick six too.
Form Monkey very simple man,
with big, warm, fuzzy secret heart.
Chantal likes you. Chantal likes you.

Form Monkey hang around at off track.
Think sports book nice.
Form Monkey like the four at Monmouth
but he can't get his price.
He say no thank you to the track cause,
entry cost big hit.
Anyway toilets on overflow,
Nowhere to shit.

Form Monkey have long walk back from window,
stewards take down mortal lock.
Form Monkey not thinking so straight,
Form Monkey not feeling so great.

Form Monkey like supers.
Form Monkey like tri and pick six too.
Form Monkey very simple man,
with big, warm, fuzzy secret heart.
Chantal likes you. Chantal likes you a lot.

Form Monkey have every reason
to get out this place.
Form Monkey just keep on punting.
Make it up last race.
Much rather go home have a beer.
Take bath, take nap.
N-2-L standing for fifty-k,
such a load of crap.
Form Monkey think someday he have decent pools even off-time odds be true.
Form Monkey just waiting for now.
Form Monkey say someday, somehow.

Form Monkey like supers.
Form Monkey like tri and pick six too.
Form Monkey very simple man,
with big, warm, fuzzy secret heart.
Chantal likes you. Chantal likes you.

That's what you get for waking up in charge

Alex Waldrop posted his latest statement regarding last week's NTRA Live! fiasco. A few excerpts:

'The end result was a disappointment to many'...Please identify those individuals who were satisfied with the end result.

'I was not a pleasant person to be around at 6pm last Saturday -- and for most of the three days thereafter, for that matter. Like many of you, I was disappointed that I didn't get to see the races like I was promised, but what made matters infinitely worse was that I felt we had let so many of our most passionate racing fans down'...Anytime someone goes out of their way to tell me how much hell they raised or how they called people to task on my behalf, it makes my ass twitch.

Of course you expressed anger. Of course the result proved unacceptable. Expressing any satisfaction with the product would prove you are the feckless mouthpiece, some, this blog included, purport you to be.

Make the damn thing work. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Or, as the august dilettante, Katy Perry, once said.

Shut up and put your money where your mouth is.

The road not taken

On occasion, I like to indulge in hypotheticals.

If every trice is a node in the space-time continuum, then infinite branches of singular events are possible. A transcendent butterfly effect, if you will.

What if Zenyatta stayed retired?

There is no Apple Blossom showdown. Rachel Alexandra has no reason to prep in the Ladies Stakes, or, at the very least, Zardana doesn't ship in to keep her honest. Rachel crushes the field and preps as Team Jackson sees fit.

The summer rolls along, the male competition slugs it out in diminishing stakes, since Belmont and Saratoga are decimated. Rachel takes her shots, if they don't just keep her running in restricted company, targeting the BC UniSex-Classic.

Quality Road is cleaning up but he aggravates his quarter crack, which, you know, isn't the most improbable thing and doesn't show up for the big dance.

Shirreffs, having a clue Zardana might be something, keeps her away from Rachel but targets the Classic.

They run the race and, let's just say, dimensions phase and echo in the Kentucky gloaming. Zardana and Rachel finish 1-2. (The Europeans won't be a threat since the race is on dirt. O'Brien will still have half the field, with this year's version of the greatest horse he's ever trained. A truly genuine harse)

Who gets Horse of the Year?

Seek not the favor of the multitude

Who knew Seth Godin was an avid reader of this dusty, forgotten corner of teh interwebs I call home. An excerpt:

That's where the first trend comes in... the artists, idea merchants and marketers that are having the most success are ignoring those that would rubberneck and drive on, focusing instead on cadres of fans that matter. Fans that will give permission, fans that will return tomorrow, fans that will spread the word to others that can also take action.

It's worth being one of the few who actually read the whole thing.

Science and surplus

A recent article by Clay Shirky (ht Seth's Blog), discusses the cognitive surplus society pisses away watching TV.

In the article, he writes about a professor in Brazil who started a Wiki page where locals can label exact locations of committed crimes. This community effort allows people to see, at a glance, where the more dangerous neighborhoods are, without having to wait for some bureaucratic process to get the ball rolling. The information is real time and relevant.

Seems like racing could use a similar system to track horse breakdowns at specific tracks and use that information, along with whatever isn't hidden or altered, to determine causal factors.

Getting honest reporting is another matter.

In The Science of Horse Training, Bill Pressey tirelessly fights the battle to bring a little science to the game. He posits a horse that can go a mile in under two minutes, with a heart rate below 200 beats per minute, possesses stakes calibre.

It would be interesting to see what his methods could produce from some legitimate race horses, at any level.

System timed out...

Epic fail.

A missed opportunity.

The NTRA Live! experiment, while well intentioned and a positive development, signifies the inadequacy of that organization's management capabilities, given the server meltdown.

With an eager audience and one clamoring for an opportunity to view its stars in an open medium, the NTRA underwhelmed in its promise to deliver anything worthy of this game. The shortsighted nature of this organization has become monotonous in its pathos.

I don't blame the IT department-and by department I hope I am not referring to Waldrop's nephew; trying to handle that amount of traffic on a Commodore Vic20 is an Augean task. I understand the NTRA is underfunded and probably short staffed-Alex Waldrop might want to consider cutting his salary to funnel cash to the server acquisition department-but to so disappoint a captive crowd heralds the time for this game to look elsewhere for its promotional wing.

It reminds me of the French revolutionary who looks upon a rushing crowd and says, 'There go my people, I must find out where they are heading, so I can lead them.'

Boolean query: Anyone with a Mac and a dotTv domain could have pulled this operation off with fewer glitches?

What would it take for a small yet dedicated cadre of knowledgeable individuals to form a legitimate marketing/promotional organization, at a fraction of NTRA's operating budget, to give this game the professional face it deserves?

Conan O'Brien is looking for work. He recently Twittered he was going to follow some random person and she went from three to over 20,000 followers!!

He has a captive audience and knows how to marshal it. Why not throw an obscene amount of money at him and have him host a weekly show? Get Randy Moss as the straight man-he can't be happy with the way ESPN is treating the game.

Signal rights and what not might be a challenge but if this past weekend proves anything, it is people want access to the game, will allocate their attention to it and follow it with their cash. Tracks should be champing at the bit to get their product out into the mainstream-don't they teach that in Marketing and Business 101?

This platform could allow tracks and the game at large to cater directly to the customer and provide them with what they want at marginal cost. This study, while probably biased, seems to indicate just that.

Maybe the NTRA will learn from this. Maybe they will beef up their servers or steal a Linksys connection from the local Starbucks. Maybe tracks will realize the potential for growth through cooperation and the free distribution of their signal.

Maybe they will connect on their next opportunity but maybe they don't have too many of those left.

Because if you miss enough of them, that's the ballgame.

Tipping my hat

I like hats.

As a rule I don't wear them but I like the idea of them; on rare occasions I reserve the right to break my arbitrary, sartorial brocard and wear a tweed Ivy cap.

Love tweed.

I like fedoras too but have never found one that I wear well, plus everyone is wearing that stupid ass hat Jason Mraz wore a while back, so that killed it for me right there.

Anyone interested in hats and horse welfare might want to read this article at Bloodhorse.

The point of this post, however meandering, is not to wax philosophic on the practicality or elegance of a jauntily tipped chapeau but to commend the NTRA for its decision to carry the RA/Zen prep races, on its 'NTRA Live!' site.

Well played, gentlemen. Well played indeed.

Dance with the girl who brung ya

Is Vic Stauffer the Rodney Dangerfield of racing?

I liked him as an announcer. Hollywood shitcanned his ass. OK, their decision, fair enough. I assume they had their reasons.

Joel Rosario has been tearing it up on the left coast and as a measure of gratitude, decides to fire Stauffer.

I respect the free market and believe every person deserves to get paid exactly what the market will bear but Ebanks had Tyler Baze's book and Rosario pwned his ass.

"I got him at the fall meet of Hollywood in 2008," Stauffer said. "At that time, he was 10th in the standings; he ended up second. The next meet was the main one at Santa Anita, he finished third. The next meet was Hollywood spring; he was leading rider. Then was Del Mar; he was leading rider. Then came Oak Tree. He had a chance to tie for the title in the last race of the meet, and finished second.

"The next meet was Hollywood fall, and he was leading rider. In 2009, he was fifth in North America in purse earnings, and thus far this year, he is third in North America in purse earnings and the leading stakes winner at Santa Anita this meet, second in the standings, and he's missed 11 days."

I have no idea what the politics of agent relationships are out there, or anywhere for that matter, but how much better will Rosario do?

Harefooted and harebrained hypotheses

JetBlue had itself a little bit of a day, when, on my suggestion, they Twittered they were giving away 1000 tickets to people that showed up at certain locations in NYC.

I really think the tracks should consider marketing themselves to the public. Who knows, people might come...but they would probably need a working toilet.

Would the iPad not lend itself, elegantly, as a platform for ADW wagering? Twinspires and whoever else could make themselves an app and charge, say, $99 as a promotional rate and then a $1 user fee for each wager. Tracks and horsemen could then fight over distribution rights and the FCC could cut off Wi-Fi signals to selected cities. It would be dreamy.

Anyway, just saying.

Kicking the can

A cursory search on the bloodhorse website, as it pertains to wagering reform:

1. "It's a work in progress as far as I'm concerned, but I think we're drawing closer to a cooperative effort," (2001)
   
2. Having discussions to discuss (2002)
   
3. In 2003...'Also discussed technology for the progressive scanning of wagers.'
   
4. 'With regulation, bet exchanges can work'
   
5. Confab to discuss.
6. 'Time has come to not just pay lip service to integrity'
   
7. $50 billion in handle by 2023
8. Then...'Nothing is going to happen easily'
9. 2004
10. Next
    
11. In 2006...'TRPB's efforts in wagering security during the past five years could provide invaluable assistance to any current or future plans by NTRA or RCI, and we are receptive to discussions regarding the retention of TRPB's unique expertise on behalf of those initiatives.'
    
12. 2009...Developing security initiative
13. Independent monitoring systems a 'non-solution'
    
14. 'On a mission...from God'

I'm sure this time, it's different.

Homework is done early

Apparently, there is this place in the interwebs, called foursquare or fourspace or myfour...foursomething. Anyway, in this place you tweet about where you are and what you are doing and businesses have access to this information and they can tailor offers to you based on location. Targeted advertising, if you will.

As I understand it, one can establish a foothold of some sort and earn the title of mayor or proctologist in chief, based on number of visits or promotions earned or how many other ridiculous people one can convince that the soup you are ordering is worth a dam.

Are racetracks clued in to this phenomenon? They could give away betting vouchers or whatever to whoever manages to bring the most people. Free admission and $10 worth of bets...whatever.

Conan O'Brien did a thing where he picked some random Twitterererer and said he was going to follow this person. I guess she had only three followers at the time and soon ended up with over 15,000. Leo Laporte, on his weekly show TWIT, decided to do something similar and found some unsuspecting woman in New Zealand with only two followers, who had twittered twice and the last one read something like I hate technology. He promised an iPad to her and one person, chosen at random, that decided to follow this woman. Within an hour, she had 2000 followers, at last count, she has over 17,000. All because she hated technology.

To think the NTRA was so close to winning an iPad.

How is that for marketing?

What if XpressBet or HRTV or whoever bought a horse at Keeneland or Calder or Ocala and gave away a 20% share, or the whole damn thing plus one year training costs, to whoever registered the most users or Twittererereres?

Get creative.

Anyway...

In Tesio's Breeding the Racehorse, Edward Spinola, in the introduction, relates the story of how Tesio prepped Nearco for the Grand Prix de Paris run over 3000 metres.

He decided to run him against two other three year olds, over the same distance as the Grand Prix. He chose Ursone, 7 of 9 over the distance and Bistolfi, Italy's best miler.

The plan had Nearco and Ursone breaking together and then hooking up with Bistolfi after seven furlongs. Nearco and Bistolfi carried 119lbs, Ursone 108lbs.

Nearco won handily. Not only did he beat a classy horse at his favorite distance while giving him 11lbs, he trounced a miler, at his distance, while running nearly twice as far.

All that to say this. I watched the team pursuit, speed skating thing, during the Olympics and found it entertaining.

It consists of two teams of three, at opposite ends of the rink, skating whatever the distance is. The fastest team wins but the time stops when your last team member crosses the line, so the team is only as good as the weakest member.

What if racing implemented such an idea? Have three teams-team Moss, Jackson and IEAH, to name just a few-enter three horses each at whatever the distance is. I think the longer distances would lend themselves more readily to the event, and when I say longer distances I am not referring to a mile. Run the race over two miles or even...wait for it...longer.

Make a series out of it with elimination heats and what not. Maybe some sponsorship like a, you know, commercially sustainable product.

Less can be more

The army has a saying, 'If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.'

I mean, if the NORAD commander in War Games was willing to piss on a spark plug to abort an uncommanded nuclear missile launch, how out there does an idea have to be in order to qualify for galactically stupid status?

The recent announcement by NJ, to cut dates and increase purses, has met with what can charitably be characterized as mixed feelings.

I like NJ; the residents are willing to offer advice from where you should go to how you should greet your relatives. NYC dwellers seem to think NJ is a Shangri-La of sorts and act as the unofficial tourism board for the Garden State, since they seem to encourage everybody to go there.

Why I can't make a damn left turn in the state or have SWAT called down on my ass if I try to pump my own gas is beyond me but I refer you to the saying at the top of this post.

Racing is in trouble, across the board. A change needs to happen in the way business is conducted. Ideas are good and hoping Lucy won't snake the football out from underneath us this time is just asinine. Management (and I use that term loosely to describe NTRA, Jockey Club, TOBA et al.) need to own up to the fiasco they have wrought.

Comte said, 'The intellect should be the servant of the heart but not its slave'.

Racing should be the biggest and the best sport out there. It should be in every strip mall and shopping center near you. It should draw crowds to make NASCAR nation look like the campaign committee for Blagojevich/Paterson 2012.

And my "Great American Novel" should, like Athena, spring from my head but it is proving recalcitrant in that regard.

Five-thousand dollar claimers should be the healthiest, soundest, fastest, flea ridden sacks of bones on the plant. Not the most medicated.

At every level, racing should be about the best it has to offer.

Just because you own a horse shouldn't entitle you to run it well past its useful racing life and racing secretaries shouldn't have to beg trainers to enter unprepared horses in a race just to get a field of six to go.

I am not indifferent to the genuine hardship many will face in the reduction that has to happen but if we tried to save everybody that had skin in the game, we would still have buggy whip makers out there.

Open source and 2.0 are not just buzz words. They are the social expectations of the next generation. The generation inheriting this game, who won't tolerate the nostrums handed down by the old guard.

I think this decision by NJ is a watershed moment. I am prepared to be wrong-I have a lot of practice-but the outcome of this next season will shape the landscape of the game. Surrounded by slot states, with a dysfunctional NYRA next door, NJ will be the test group for how a season should be handled.

If horsemen take the 'I'm taking my ball and going home' approach, if they don't make an honest effort to make this NJ racing season a successful one, they will have their pyrrhic victory and can smirk and say 'I told you so.' the whole time they are circling the drain.

If, on the other hand, they defy all expectations and go where the money is; if they realize that competition is good and cream rises; if they allow for the possibility that bettors like full fields of sound, healthy horses; if they put aside outdated beliefs and reach for the better part of the game, then this game will be a sight to see.

I mean a sight to see.

Quick hits

Offer cash incentives to owners, whose horses compete through the age of five. Scale it to the calibre of horse. Offer bonuses for number of graded races run in a year. Claimers would get little if anything.

TOBA and the AGSC have a threshold, as it pertains to purses, in order for a race to qualify for graded status. What is the problem with adding a medication free requirement? Make it effective in 2012. How hard is that, really? I'm asking.

On Sunday, I watched my first NASCAR race since Earnhardt scraped the paint in turn four, of the last lap at Daytona. I don't care for NASCAR but my father in law had it on, so we watched the last ten laps. Apparently, new to this year, the officials instituted a policy where every attempt is made to finish the race under green.

If the race would finish under caution, a restart is allowed, up to three times, I guess. It is a two lap dash for all the marbles and I have to say, it proved exciting. During one of the restarts, the announcer said something to the effect of 'the fans asked for this and NASCAR responded'. Crazy, that.

In addition and only marginally related, NASCAR allows the drivers to settle things out on the track-this policy, the jockeys at Penn might enjoy.

How racing saved the world

A few administrations ago, I volunteered as a big brother. I am, as a rule, misanthropic and self-centered but I was trying to make my resume look better and, to steal from Churchill, that is up with what I came.

The pissant with whom they saddled me had a good looking mom but even I figured hitting on her would be slightly less than cool. Her sister on the other hand inhabited a gray area which I felt at my leisure to exploit.

The kid was sharp and he saw through my bullshit right away. We got along great. Except he didn't like to read. His thing was hunting.

And when I say hunting, I mean Nintendo style.

Born and raised on the 6000 block of Cicero Avenue, this kid's big game adventures consisted of juggling three packs of deli meat from the local butcher.

I tried everything I could think of. I brought him Joyce's Ulysses, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. I even bought him Roosevelt's Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. Nothing.

What was wrong with this kid?

Things were looking gloomy and my chances with his aunt were slipping away, so I did what any self-respecting, hormonally driven male would do.

I punted.

I know about hunting what Bear Grylls passes off on the Discovery Channel, during commercials. So armed, I figured I would take the boy hunting; show him the untamed marches of Kane County. That is how I found myself squatting in a bush, smelling like something they remove from a deer's ass, with a 70 lb test bow in one hand and the next day's racing form in the other.

Waiting.

Because, as far as I can tell, that is what hunting is all about. You're not hunting anything so much as hiding out, waiting for something to walk into your kill zone. Which, in our case, would have involved the animal actually stroking out, right in front of us. When I employed similar tactics to get dates, people looked at me funny.

It was quiet and I had coffee so I was happy with my Form, when he made the mistake of asking me what I was reading.

The next day, we were at Arlington. The kid, his mom and most importantly, his aunt.

Rising to the simultaneous challenge of showing the mom how responsible I was, entertaining the kid and impressing his aunt with my vast knowledge, I bit it hard all day long. Didn't pick a single winner.

I lost my ass and we had a blast.

I got the job I was angling for and for reasons that escape me at the moment I stayed on as the kid's big brother for a couple more years. The aunt and I hit it off but that too faded, as things do.

The kid took to the game like I take to a Dickens novel. I started asking him to put together my exotic tickets.

We kept in touch over the years but he had his life and I had the semblance of mine and communications tailed off until a few weeks ago, when I ran into his aunt. I could tell by the way she didn't remember me, she has been pining for me all this time. She put on a brave face and pretended to take an interest in what her three kids were doing. I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable so I didn't push it.

She told me the kid was finishing his master's in applied mathematics from MIT and was moving to Hong Kong.

I hear the racing out there is pretty good. Decent handles.

So this kid, lost in the soporific miasma of video games and t.v., cashed an exacta one day and turned himself into one of the finest minds of his generation. He found, in the game, a channel for his genius.

I don't know why tracks don't push that aspect of the game, more.

And to think, it was all because of me...

On Caesar's wife

I can appreciate the virtue of an individual's freedom of association; I also object to legislating or regulating morality.

I imagine the recent decision by the CHRB, to turn a blind eye to Ahmed Zayat's association with illegal bookmakers, did not come without deliberation.

A game, reliant on gambling, desperate for patronage, cannot just bar anyone associated with less than upstanding individuals (whatever the hell that means). I mean, what sort of people would it then attract, if all it demanded of its stakeholders was moral rectitude?

The grandstands are deserted as it is.

Wasn't it a couple years ago, the NFL hinted to Mr. McNair, his status in the the league might come under scrutiny if he continued to patronize horse racing? Am I making that up?

I don't have a dog in this fight and I don't really care with whom Ahmed Zayat associates.

I know racing is in trouble. The public perception is not a positive one and perceptions are reality, to the beholder.

I don't know what the legal ramifications of revoking his license might be and I understand the real problem of singling Ahmed Zayat as an example.

I do know, in a time when more and more we come to expect less and less of each other, the demulcent adjudication of setting some minimum bar of expectant behavior, might buttress the morale of whatever hands are left on deck.

Let some corner of the game be above reproach.

You make the call

Years ago, Monday Night Football had a commercial segment thing called, 'You make the call'. Basically, they showed a play from a game archived away, and asked you to make a decision on what you thought the official ruling might be.

This was before Twitter and IM, so there was no feedback or input. You just sat in your La-Z-Boy and bellowed your ignorant, expletive laced diatribe at the screen. After commercial, they gave you the official ruling.

NHL.com, on their videocenter, has a clip of a recent Canucks/Blue Jackets game and a goal scored by CBJ's Antoine Vermette. They ask fans to vote on whether or not they think the puck crossed the line.

What if NTRA put up steward decisions from around the country and asked for input? Not to overrule or change results but just to increase participation? How many hits do you think they might get?

Maybe they should beef up their servers first.

And in the funniest thing I have read today, Steve Munday, on his recent Wireplayer Derby Dozen post, comments on Buddy Saint's FoY:

"Desperate to connect with younger fans, Equibase trip notes for Buddy's Saint in FoY read: 'got pwned'."

A day in the life

This explains what ails racing.