In The Sulky Forum
General Category => General Harness Racing Discussion => Topic started by: The Giss on August 23, 2013, 02:22:30 PM
-
http://xwebapp.ustrotting.com/absolutenm/templates/article.aspx?articleid=55305&zoneid=1
Miami Valley (the old Leb); ScD and Hollywood Dayton will race a circuit (very smart).
Northfield will race 213 dates, Monday thru Thursday, with Fridays added in December.
Apparently my old employer's commitment is to live racing, not quality racing that will be viewed by anyone in person. Will the Battle of Lake Erie be raced on a Monday or a Wednesday?
-
A Saturday in July. The Courageous Lady a Friday in April.
-
http://xwebapp.ustrotting.com/absolutenm/templates/article.aspx?articleid=55305&zoneid=1
Miami Valley (the old Leb); ScD and Hollywood Dayton will race a circuit (very smart).
Northfield will race 213 dates, Monday thru Thursday, with Fridays added in December.
Apparently my old employer's commitment is to live racing, not quality racing that will be viewed by anyone in person. Will the Battle of Lake Erie be raced on a Monday or a Wednesday?
Remember when we had to go to other venues because Northfield closed in Sept.?
-
Nothing promotes getting new people to show up to the track like Monday - Thursday racing.
-
A Saturday in July. The Courageous Lady a Friday in April.
So we are going to add "non-normal" race dates and expect to sell the simulcast signal? Good luck with that.
Jeremy, truer words were never spoken. I guess the Rocksino parking lot will be too full to race weekends.
Just convinces me that if we had not parted ways in Feb 2011, we would have by now -- this whole Rocksino marketing thing, combined with the racing dates decision and the news Bernie Kosar Steakhouse (featuring the Belichek Bluecheese Burger and the Steak Bernie- a 19 oz. rib steak grilled to perfection, covered with a muddled mess of opinions, err, onions and mushed, err, mushrooms) that I woul
-
If the horsemen aren't going to race on almost all the Friday's and Saturday's they better get what they can now because in 5 years they will start getting more and more taken away when racing becomes too much of a liability.
-
I am watching the "sport" news on tv. I just saw 2 drivers throw their helmets at another driver after they pushed each other round the track with their cars. Now THAT is what we need in harness racing to get some freaking fans and interest . I grew up with the old timers carrying horses out in the turns, or holding someone in a hole by setting beside them forever. I saw more and heard more arguments between drivers after a race when I was 20 than I have heard in the 20 years. The races today are just plain boring. If a track record is not set or one horse going for his 21st win in a row we get no attention whatsoever. and Roger Huston screaming does nothing for the sport but get people annoyed. Bring back the good ole boys style of racing and we will have butts in the seats again. hitdatsumbitch
-
I am watching the "sport" news on tv. I just saw 2 drivers throw their helmets at another driver after they pushed each other round the track with their cars. Now THAT is what we need in harness racing to get some freaking fans and interest . I grew up with the old timers carrying horses out in the turns, or holding someone in a hole by setting beside them forever. I saw more and heard more arguments between drivers after a race when I was 20 than I have heard in the 20 years. The races today are just plain boring. If a track record is not set or one horse going for his 21st win in a row we get no attention whatsoever. and Roger Huston screaming does nothing for the sport but get people annoyed. Bring back the good ole boys style of racing and we will have butts in the seats again. hitdatsumbitch
I've said the same thing for years. Have the paddocks right next to the grandstand and have the horses pull up right next to the fence. Let the public hear the drivers cussing each other and arguing...maybe even the occaisional fight or two....great for the sport! thumbsup thumbsup thumbsup
-
Makes no sense not to race Fridays and Saturdays. That's your big money simulcast days.
-
I just saw 2 drivers throw their helmets at another driver after they pushed each other round the track with their cars. Now THAT is what we need in harness racing to get some freaking fans and interest . I grew up with the old timers carrying horses out in the turns, or holding someone in a hole by setting beside them forever. I saw more and heard more arguments between drivers after a race when I was 20 than I have heard in the 20 years. The races today are just plain boring.
Henry Thomas and Lee Smith were idly chatting while jogging horses on the main track at Lexington in the late thirties. Thomas was regaling Smith with stories of the rough tactics drivers used in races in the Midwest in the early teens. In fact, Thomas told Smith, a driver would often just flip another reinsman right out of the sulky.
"Aw, c'mon," countered the cocky southerner. "I'd like to see some s.o.b. try to do that to me."
Whereupon Thomas, a man of Hurculean strength, reached down and grabbed the wheel brace of Smith's jog cart, jerked it three feet off the ground, abruptly and unceremoniously dumping Smith onto the track.
And Henry Thomas just laughed like hell.
--
But even the best horses can use a little edge at times and Henry was one driver who made his own opportunities.
Listen to what the late Curly Smart had to say.
"When I drove on the Grand Circuit, I found out how tough Henry Thomas was. You know what he would do? He'd be riding right alongside you with his wheel next to yours and make a little hitch sideways. He'd bump you with his wheel and I'll guarantee you'd leave your seat about five inches. It'd just about unjoint you."
Dick Thomas laughs at Smart's description.
"It took a lot of strength and know-how to do that. But if dad was hemmed in, he'd give the guy outside of him one of those bumps and push the other horse right out. That would give dad enough room to nose his horse and away he'd go."
--
One of the classic Henry Thomas stories emanates from a $50,000 two-mile trot at Roosevelt in the late forties. By then, Dick Thomas was driving horses, too, and the father-son team had an entry in the race. Henry was steering the '46 Hambletonian winner Chestertown while Dick was guiding the longshot Dutch Harbor who was saddled with post 14.
When the gate snapped, Dick simply ducked for the rail with Dutch Harbor and watched everyone jockey around for a mile and a half.
"In that last half-mile, everyone started pulling out and I just steered Dutch Harbor up along the rail. He had lots of trot left. With a quarter to go, Del Miller was in front with Reyland, Proximity was lapped on him, and Chestertown and dad were third on the outside. I was boxed fourth at the rail."
Around the last turn, Dick says that his horse was "just full of trot" and he desperately wanted out.
He yelled over to his father, "Dad, it's me! Let me out! Dad, it's me!"
Thirty years later, Dick says, "You know, he acted as if he didn't even know I was there. Never moved! He sat right there. Just ignored me."