In The Sulky Forum

 Mark passed away from a massive heart attack.

 They had a nice moment at Grand River honouring him with a nice ceremony before the races on Wednesday with all the horsepeople gathering in front of the grandstand as they paid tribute to him. They then had a moment of silence. Mark was a well respected horseman in Ontario. May he rest in peace.

They forgot to mention, the horse is lame. Maybe thats why she was in the Harrisburg sale last year and they took her out.

 To my knowledge, there are many people involved in the business that come on this site. If you wish to donate whether its $50 or $500, you have done something to try and market your sport.

 I sent out emails to many of my contacts in this business who were not aware of this fundraising effort. Within an hour, 3 of them made donations of $500.

 Please pass this on to everyone that you know who has a vested interest in this industry. Many are not aware yet.

There is no link anywhere on my screen at www.miamivalleygaming.com/racing/ that says gaming. The only way to get to the entries etc is to click the box with the 3 lines in it.

 It would be my wish that a new track could actually have a website that is functional and easy to navigate. While the layout of their site is ok, try and find the harness section, its like a Where's Waldo puzzle.

In a world where we can put men in space, there should be no reason why a new track cannot have a world class website. If you have never been to their website, please visit it and try to find the racing section. Hint, its not when you click menu its when you click the square beside it with the 3 lines. That will take you to a 3rd rate site that looks like it was designed by a a 3 year old. No live video, no video replays which is something that every track should have on their website, if they wish to grow. How does a new track expect to attract new gamblers, when they have a horrid site like this is beyond me.

 By the way I actually called them last night and mentioned this to them. It will be interesting to see if they make any changes. My guess is no and they will post more about the slots and some entertainer I have never heard of playing in concert.

Thats the way this industry is folks. Its still in the dinosaur era. Someday I wish someone will actually get it.

 I get a  kick out of people making accusations whenever someone is successful in the field they are in. Like any business there are always people better then others. They have more talent, are better businessmen, have the financial backers that can take a loss and still continue in business, without blinking.

 Harness racing is not much different. Buy good  horses, give them the care that they need, keep them sound, race them in the right class and you should be successful. Each night you can go through a program and see at least 50% of the horses entered on the card are racing over their heads. With the NW of so much money last 5 or 6 condition classes written the way they are at most tracks, they entice owners and trainers to do so because once they drop to the class they belong they will likely be rewarded with a good pay cheque. Until these horses get to that class they belong , they rarely are raced tough and rarely will win, hence the low training percentage of many trainers. Look at the programs at Yonkers and you will see tons of glorified $40-50 claimers that race in conditions only that made over $100,000 last year grinding out money. Many of their trainers are low % guys who have small stables and protect their horses because they are hard to replace.

 Large stables like the Burke operation can afford to lose a horse via a claim and need not worry about replacing them as they have many other good horses ready to drop in the same class. The message is they race their horses where they can win, they buy or claim off of a lot of low % trainers and thats the main reason why they are successful.