Xtreme Horsepower - August 29

[Pacingguy]

Georgian Downs in Canada will be hosting another edition of Xtreme Horsepower in conjunction with Standardbred Canada on August 29. This card will have all different types of races. One with a standing start, one or two going the opposite direction, two tiers of horses, various distances from an 1/8th of a mile to 2 1/2 miles. Here is a link to the condition sheet for this card. http://www.georgiandowns.com/pdfs/xtremeeventconditionsheet.pdf.

I watched the card last year and even had a couple of winners. What do you think about a program like this? Even if you don't think it is a good idea or some of the races are just silly (an 1/8th of a mile race?), it will be worth watching.

[LottaKash]

Georgian Downs in Canada will be hosting another edition of Xtreme Horsepower in conjunction with Standardbred Canada on August 29. This card will have all different types of races. One with a standing start, one or two going the opposite direction, two tiers of horses, various distances from an 1/8th of a mile to 2 1/2 miles. Here is a link to the condition sheet for this card. http://www.georgiandowns.com/pdfs/xtremeeventconditionsheet.pdf.

I watched the card last year and even had a couple of winners. What do you think about a program like this? Even if you don't think it is a good idea or some of the races are just silly (an 1/8th of a mile race?), it will be worth watching.

I think it would be fun to watch and interesting to see all of the outcomes, as I would have an opinion in each of those events, but, they will not be getting my $30 a race, at all......

best,

[botster]

Georgian from what I hear from our fiends up North do a great job with customer service and run an excellent operation.Mabey all of our tracks here can take some pointers from them.

These cards are wild to say the least.Heres one from the archives.One of the funniest scenes I have witnessed in the sport:).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4c8bjsxAkM

[LottaKash]

Georgian from what I hear from our fiends up North do a great job with customer service and run an excellent operation.Mabey all of our tracks here can take some pointers from them.

These cards are wild to say the least.Heres one from the archives.One of the funniest scenes I have witnessed in the sport:).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4c8bjsxAkM

That was wild....Reminds me of harness-racing in Europe...

How do you map out a driving strategy for willd races like these....?

Thx Dan...:jump:

best,

[Sea Biscuit]

Georgian from what I hear from our fiends up North do a great job with customer service and run an excellent operation.Mabey all of our tracks here can take some pointers from them.

These cards are wild to say the least.Heres one from the archives.One of the funniest scenes I have witnessed in the sport:).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4c8bjsxAkM

WoW!!!! An 18 horse harness field.

Now I have seen it all

Sea Biscuit

[botster]

That was wild....Reminds me of harness-racing in Europe...

How do you map out a driving strategy for willd races like these....?

Thx Dan...:jump:

best,

Better than Steve Charlton that's for sure....LOL! He's the driver who embarassingly forgot the distance and thought he had won!!!!!

If you got the best, or one of the best, you don't want to get "jammed in", or stuck behind an excess of bad flow.Obviously, you would have to get the horse to "come back to you" and have him relax enough to try to slow it down to rate for the distance.That may be pretty hard today, because the horses today are always "geared up" to go as fast as they can the first quarter.That's what the drivers today know, so they drive accordingly.

The drivers here may have some problems as well.Many drivers in these races with low ability and not enough awareness of what is going on around them could mean disaster!

I would pass in getting involved in one of these LK.;)

[LottaKash]

I would pass in getting involved in one of these LK.;)

Or, there is always a 2d mortgage....:D ...for the "plunge" & the big-score...:lol:

best,

[Pacingguy]

We need to decide what we want. Most people are complaining about the poor value betting the standardbreds due to the predicatability of post positions and the like. Here is a way to shake up things and stop the constant parade of favorites. You are not going to attract new blood with 3-5 shots. What do we want?

I am not suggesting we card all these types of races but I certainly don't see a problem with having two tiers of horses (maybe not 18 in a race) and going a mile and a half. This is coming from a purist. We can stick to our purist ideas and have nothing to watch or we can modify them and still have something we love. Varying distances may be the thing we need.

Anyway, one night does not prove anything. It would be interesting if we could get a small circuit for something like this in the states where we can get the same horses racing in different distance races to see how it would be received by gamblers.

[botster]

We need to decide what we want. Most people are complaining about the poor value betting the standardbreds due to the predicatability of post positions and the like. Here is a way to shake up things and stop the constant parade of favorites. You are not going to attract new blood with 3-5 shots. What do we want?

I am not suggesting we card all these types of races but I certainly don't see a problem with having two tiers of horses (maybe not 18 in a race) and going a mile and a half. This is coming from a purist. We can stick to our purist ideas and have nothing to watch or we can modify them and still have something we love. Varying distances may be the thing we need.

Anyway, one night does not prove anything. It would be interesting if we could get a small circuit for something like this in the states where we can get the same horses racing in different distance races to see how it would be received by gamblers.

We can't be selfish about these changes, no matter how drastic they appear on the surface.Drastic times calls for drastic measures.With the M1 in the trouble that it is in currently, these ideas with competant horseman guiding them is a good idea.We can't just look at it as a ROI for us handicappers. We MUST look at it as an open "opportunity window" for money to be put back into the pools and new fan interest!

If we don't try experiment with these ideas, the losing the M1 is a legitimate possibility all together!

[wilderness]

Better than Steve Charlton that's for sure....LOL! He's the driver who embarassingly forgot the distance and thought he had won!!!!!


That feat not unique to Steve,

Bobby Williams did it years ago in one of the International Trots at Roosevelt.

Not sure if the video still on youtube. Believe I've it saved.

[wilderness]

The feat also not unique to harness.

Don't recall which BIG time Jock stood up in the stirrups before the finish in the Kentucky Derby (many moons ago).

[botster]

The feat also not unique to harness.

Don't recall which BIG time Jock stood up in the stirrups before the finish in the Kentucky Derby (many moons ago).

I will probably get some rousing from my harness buddies, but wasn't it Eddie Arcarro?(THE SPELLING COULD BE WRONG).

[showbet]

The feat also not unique to harness.

Don't recall which BIG time Jock stood up in the stirrups before the finish in the Kentucky Derby (many moons ago).
Bill Shoemaker aboard Gallant Man in the 1957 Kentucky Derby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallant_Man

Gallant Man is remembered primarily for his upset loss in the 1957 Kentucky Derby. He would almost certainly have won the race, but his jockey, Hall of Famer Bill Shoemaker, misjudged the finish line and stood up too early in his stirrups, which slowed Gallant Man's rush for the wire and allowed another Hall of Fame jockey, Bill Hartack riding Iron Liege, to get past him and take the win by only a nose.

[botster]

Bill Shoemaker aboard Gallant Man in the 1957 Kentucky Derby.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallant_Man

Gallant Man is remembered primarily for his upset loss in the 1957 Kentucky Derby. He would almost certainly have won the race, but his jockey, Hall of Famer Bill Shoemaker, misjudged the finish line and stood up too early in his stirrups, which slowed Gallant Man's rush for the wire and allowed another Hall of Fame jockey, Bill Hartack riding Iron Liege, to get past him and take the win by only a nose.

Figures my record stays in tact with t-bred trivia...;) .