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Overnights deserves our thanks if not their glory
Tuesday, July 8
Someone somewhere in the blogosphere railed on me recently for being a “stakes” owner and columnist who didn’t care a whit about “ham and eggs” trainers and owners who race “overnights.” This is f...
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Time for owners to accept integrity responsibility
Tuesday, July 1
Twice last week—both in Canada and here in the States—what I like to call “owner responsibility” issues were headline news in our sport. Both cases shed light on the usually-hidden dynamic bet...
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The total truth? Ban steroids now
Tuesday, June 24
There is no avoiding the topic anymore; no more sweeping it away with promises to do more scientific testing; no more silly talk about taking the time—more time!--to get it right.
The quest...
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Time to adopt Canada's horse as our own
Tuesday, June 17
So Big Brown lost and Somebeachsomewhere won on Saturday, June 7. One undefeated racing legend faltered and another one races on.
In a perfect world, good, bad and ugly journalists and report...
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You want topics? We've got topics
Tuesday, June 10
Where to begin over a head-twisting week in the world of harness racing? Should we start with the surprise resignation of Eric Sharbaugh from his post as executive vice president of the United Sta...
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USTA marketing: good idea, bad execution
Tuesday, June 3
You can look it up. I was very much in favor of the U.S. Trotting Association’s (USTA) decision earlier this year to create a new marketing committee to address the monumental problems our industr...
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No bluffing through the stakes season
Wednesday, May 28
Moon Beam and Duneside Perch are down. Lonestar Legend and Bullville Powerful are up. Deuce Seelster and Genuwine are down. Dali and Daley Deposit Only are up. On The Brink and Share The Delight are d...
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Garden State party must continue
Tuesday, May 20
When the New Jersey Racing Commission last week announced the first “positive” test results from out-of-competition drug testing there was, in some circles, an outpouring of both relief and frustratio...
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USTA No-Shows A Lost Opportunity
Wednesday, May 7
The United States Trotting Association (USTA) missed an important opportunity last week to learn more about why harness racing in North America is in trouble--and perhaps what ought to be done to help...
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The small world of harness racing gets smaller still
Friday, May 2
So would you breed your mare to Christian Cullen, the Down Under stallion who will make his North American debut next year courtesy of Kentuckiana Farms? Perhaps more importantly, if you had $40,000 t...
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Racinos: The Turning Point or the Last Hurrah.
Wednesday, April 30
After years of serious illness, you arrive at a Code Blue. Doctors and nurses search frantically for the right medicine to bring you back from the brink of death. Suddenly, an antidote is located and...
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I want to see harness racing in HD
Wednesday, April 16
A prominent consulting corporation, led by a respected executive, has just submitted a long-anticipated “detailed report on the decline of harness racing and its marketing recommendations for a turnar...
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When you wish upon a star
Thursday, April 10
For better or worse, we have set up our world in harness racing so that virtually everything depends upon how our horses do as 3 year olds. The trotting and pacing “Triple Crown” races occur during th...
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New Jersey, You're Welcome To It
Thursday, April 3
New Jersey’s 2- year-old slogan is: “Come See for Yourself,” but I’ve always thought the best bumper sticker for the Garden State would say this: “New Jersey, You’re Welcome to it!” What makes my bann...
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Finding the lost generation
Wednesday, March 26
As we all know, our friends in the Thoroughbred industry are going through a rough patch as well when it comes to attendance at racetracks and fan interest in the sport. In a recent issue of Blood-Hor...
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The commissioners think big
Wednesday, March 19
On the eve of the 74th annual meeting of the Association of Racing Commissioners, several association members, representing different jurisdictions across the country, have been privately discussing t...
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Powerball power dreams
Thursday, March 13
As I’m writing this the Powerball Jackpot is over $275 million and of course I’m convinced (as I usually am) that I have the winning ticket. So let’s just assume for the sake of argument that I win it...
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New Jersey's work begins today
Wednesday, March 5
New Jersey’s harness industry has been given a reprieve by the governor--just as its coffin was being ordered!--but it’s a temporary and perhaps final one. Or fellow horsemen and horsewomen in the G...
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Feeling blue about Bluegrass
Thursday, February 28
Here is the gloomy thought of the week. If Kentucky’s horse-racing lobby doesn’t have the hops to ensure passage of a casino bill that guarantees help to racetracks than what hope is there for New Jer...
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Answer me this
Thursday, February 21
Bob Asher wants to know why he cannot convince officials at Pocono Downs to put live racing on the televisions in the bar and food court of its own casino there. Tom LaMarra worries about why Thorough...
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Out with the old, in with the new
Thursday, February 14
Let me for perhaps the first time in harness racing history quote George Bernard Shaw: “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” The first kind of...
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Your Turn: Vote for Harness Leaders
Wednesday, February 6
In Canada it is called the “official opposition,” but in most countries it’s simply known as a “shadow government” or even a “ghost cabinet.” Its members track, formally or not, the actions of the rea...
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No laughing at Leavitt lecture
Thursday, January 31
It wasn’t Richard Gere at the Oscars in 1993 coming out of nowhere to speak out oddly in support of Tibet. It wasn’t Howard Dean in 2004 screaming at an audience of supporters following an early-seaso...
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A tale of two racetracks
Thursday, January 24
Book One-New Jersey
Complaining about racing integrity in New Jersey these days is a little like complaining about the food on the Titanic.
Yes, it is awful that track operators and the raci...
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No Garden Party
Wednesday, January 16
It’s limbo time for horse racing in New Jersey and the signs of frustration, even resignation, are growing within the industry. And all you need to do to understand the depth of the problem is to list...
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