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The latest issue of Down The Stretch came off the presses yesterday and it’s almost a revelation for me that this is the 16th issue we’ve put out since last March. I remember the grief, frustration and the generally imposing learning curve I encountered a year ago when I decided to start the paper. There are still the inevitable landmines and potholes to be encountered, but we do have a significant momentum these days and each issue seems to be a little smoother.

I get teased by the lovely people who help me with Down The Stretch, about how I declare each issue to be “our best issue yet!” and to be fair, this is a fine issue #16, but not our very best ( I think the December issue - the Top 50 Horse Racing stories of 2008 was our best),  but this is still 24 pages to be proud of.

We have three separate stories concerning horse slaughter- a miserable page about Magic Flute, an 11 year-old son of Canadian Triple Crown champion Peteski. Incredibly, Magic Flute was slaughtered for food last October, in spite of the best efforts of some fine people who seem to be spending every waking minute of their lives rescuing thoroughbred horses from the food chain.

We do have a more uplifting story about Ellie Ross, who finds and saves the lives of horses whose fates have turned downward and another page in our paper concerns itself with how the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society finds better homes for harness horses past their racing lives.

Got two pages this issue on the O’Brien Awards which were held in Mississauga last month. The O’Briens are for the best horses and people in harness racing and after Somebeachsomewhere left with his bling, there were bits and pieces left over for the rest of the industry.

For many horsepeople, the sport is a year-round business. Chantal Sutherland, featured prominently on the Animal Planet series ‘Jockeys’ is riding in California and winning regularly at Santa Anita. We’ve got that in a two page spread on Canadian content around the world. In that feature, we also refer to wins by jockeys Patrick Husbands, Gerry Oguin and Eurico Rosa da Silva.

I’m fond of this month’s timely Perry and Mooch cartoon and our Oddities and Entities page is once again, full of stuff you won’t find anywhere else.

Ok, this has been a major plug on my Down The Stretch blog for my paper, Down The Stretch. You can find the paper at several locations at Woodbine Racetrack and in many of the Toronto area Champions off-track betting theatres or you can call me and I’ll send you a copy for free. (416-413-3940 - before 10 am)

As we’re pleased to point out, Down The Stretch is Canada’s most entertaining and informative horse racing newspaper. 

When I analyze the Fort Erie situation, I get an image from a road runner cartoon, where the escaping character runs over a cliff and grasps onto a tiny bush to prevent a catastrophic fall. One by one, the roots of the bush pop out ( appropriate sound effects) and after the final root releases, the road runner dangles motionless in mid-air, then plummets downward.

One of the final roots for Fort Erie popped out yesterday. In an attempt to keep the track going for a 112th season, the Fort Erie Economic Development and Tourism Corporation (EDTC) offered a non-refundable down payment of $2.25 Million to Nordic Gaming, the owners of the track. This was meant to be a downpayment for the track, part of a $35 million offer, with the rest of the money, ideally, to come from the Provincial government who would hold a lien on the property ( or something along those lines).

Nordic, however did not respond by the deadline of 11 am Monday February 23, but did send a letter sometime after to EDTC suggesting it had some problems with the offer. We’re hearing accusations of not bargaining in good faith.

This is a hard one to figure. Nordic is claiming losses of up to $4 million in each of the past several seasons, so wouldn’t they want to stop the bleeding, grab a few bucks and get out?

The clock sure is ticking and right now it does look gloomy for the border track and the several hundred horsepeople who try and scrape out a living there.

Meanwhile, a surprising face is leading all the harness drivers at Woodbine. As we check the standings this morning, we see that Randy Waples has a comfortable lead in first. Through Sunday’s racing, Waples has 45 wins in 281 starts, putting him eight wins ahead of Mario Baillargeon in second.  It’s not all that surprising that Waples is winning a lot of races lately; he’s a skilled and veteran driver, but hasn’t led the troops for several years. The usual suspects - Jody Jamieson, Rick Zeron and Chris Christoforou are all well behind Waples right now…JJ has 30 wins, Zeron - 25 and CC 28 .

The 43 year-old Waples is the son of lengendary driver Ron Waples ( who once let me drive his Triple Crown winner Ralph Hanover, but that’s another story). Whereas the elder Waples has always been a quiet, dignified and reserved statesman of the game, son Randy has always had a much more outgoing personality. He does great impressions ( his Scarface is brilliant) and loves being on tv. Randy has television sit-com good looks and a great energy on behalf of the sport and I think Woodbine has missed the boat with him. Harness racing is desperately in need of an over-the-top personality to pin it’s tail on and Waples is the perfect guy. A few years ago, while being interviewed live on a racing show, Randy didn’t edit himself as scrupulously as he should have and he sent out a message to A Lotta Vagina, the rudely named character from an Austin Powers movie. I can probably print that name here with no negative consequences (well, that remains to be seen..) but Woodbine authorities were not impressed and Waples was hit with a serious suspension for his lack of taste.

Not that he should have been rewarded for such silliness, but if you look around the world of sports, it’s Manny Ramirez,  Dennis Rodman, Alex Ovechkin, Sean Avery and John Daly who, in spite of their personal excesses and flawed lives, attract the fans.

Waples used to stand straight up in his sulky after winning races, no more a colourful gesture than the idiosyncratic leap from his horse created by the great jockey Avelino Gomez. But Waples has been discouraged from excessive displays of his likeable character and harness racing is much worse off for it.

Let’s put it this way - who’s more recognizable in this market - Chris Bosh, Mats Sundin, Vernon Wells, Pinball Clemons or Randy Waples? I’ll bet Randy can shop all day at his local WalMart and never be recognized.

I noticed that 19 year-old Steve Stamkos notched the ‘natural’ hattrick for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. The natural hattrick occurs when a player scores three straight goals, without either a teammate or an opponent scoring during that span. Stamkos scored halfway through the first period, then twice in the middle of the second against Chicago, though the Hawks skated away with a 5-3 win. The natural hattrick is relatively rare in hockey – maybe it happens three or four times a season and in horse racing, it’s a pretty rare occurrence as well…though judging by recent events, maybe not as rare as we might think. On Valentine’s Day at Santa Anita 19 year-old jockey Joe Talamo won three consecutive races,and all at good odds. His natural hattrick started in the sixth race when he hit the wire first on 8.80-1 shot Sweet August. He followed that up by winning aboard Elegant Cad in the 7th at odds of almost 5-1 and completedhis hattrick with an upset score in the $300,000 Santa Maria H. Grade 1 Stakes on 13-1 shot Santa Teresita.A $1 pick three through all of Talamo’s winner returned $769.20, and if anyone had had the foresight to parlay $2 on the three horses, they would have ended up with $1788.00. The next day, Sunday, February 15, driver Randy Waples won three straight at Woodbine, taking the second race behind It’s A Good Thing, the third with (careful with the pronunciation) Logan Aas, and the fourth with Pacific Warrior. Unlike the Talamo hattrick, all of Waples’ winners were favourites; the all-Randy win three was worth only $38.55. Though, if you’d poured all that back on Waples in the tenth, it was a fine Sunday at the track. Randy completed an impressive four-bagger, capturing the $21,000 trot withSensual Hall at 14-1 and paying $31.20 to win. Then on Monday, February 16, jockey Garrett Gomez - who is on fire at Santa Anita - scored the last three races at that California track, taking two $150,000 events and the nightcap as well. His winners were all favourites, returning $6.60, 4.40 and 6.10 respectively and the pick three was a very unexciting $23.60.

And just to make this whole natural hattrick all the more impressive, I went to work at 680News…three consecutive days this week!

I watched the first episode of Jockeys on Animal Planet Saturday night. Actually, it turned out I wasn’t receiving Animal Planet among the 400 odd channels I do get on my digital transmitter. Yeah, I get 14 versions of CBC National News, but not the Animal Planet. Well, I called Rogers and within three minutes ( for the minimal charge of $2.59) I was able to watch on channel 428 ( if you, like me, are from the 50s, you’ll understand how absurd this is!).

Anyway, here’s my review…not bad. The show was one of several episodes covering jockeys in California; among those involved are Joe Talamo, his rival Aaron Gryder, Jon Court, Mike Smith and his  girlfriend, Brampton’s Chantal Sutherland.

Another lady jockey, Kayla Stra tells us that riding horses is “better than sex.”

The series is very well shot and edited. The voice over is a little intentional and designed for those who don’t know much about the game. One piece of fabrication did not sit well with me. The producers had race caller Trevor Denman re-do one of his races, so as to emphasize the jockeys over the horses. Anyone who has been to the track more than three times could tell how phoney that was.

And while the jockeys are happy that the documentary is steering itself away from the eating disorders that plague these athletes, the show repeatedly shows horses falling and jockeys being tossed to the dirt like bags of flour. Yes, this is a dangerous game, but Animal Planet Jockeys could give you the impression that horses go down every other race.

Judging from the first episode, Chantal Sutherland is a centre piece of this series. She has recently decided to move west to live with boyfriend Mike Smith a hall of fame rider 10 years her senior ( Sutherland is 33). Let’s get this out of the way. Chantal Sutherland is the most photogenic of all jockeys and the producers know that. She is seen cheering Smith on, pushing his clothes aside to make room for hers in his apartment and almost tearing up as the two discuss their future plans. Sutherland would like to ride at Woodbine this summer - in 2008, she did some wonderful things at the Rexdale track.

The best moment is when Sutherland, after watching Smith ride on a monitor at Woodbine (he was riding a horse, not a monitor) , calls her partner to talk about the race. There is a camera on Chantal in Toronto and simultaneously one on Mike at Santa Anita.

It’s all brilliantly cut and dramatically paced. I expect to get my $2.59 worth in ensuing weeks.

Meanwhile, you’ll forgive the Woodbine faithful if they’re hearing voices…many voices. Regular harness race caller Ken Middleton pooled all his leftover vacation days from 2008 and took the better part of a month  off. Woodbine conscripted thoroughbred announcer Dan Loiselle to cover some of the days and nights - not a bad choice - Loiselle started out as a harness caller. But also in the booth, we’ve heard the ever competent Greg Blanchard as well as aspiring race callers Chaz Rozema and Chris Roberts.

I’m hurt that no one asked me. 

Somebeachsomewhere, the greatest harness horse of all time ( take that Dan Patch!) got another major award last week. The U.S. Harness writers association voted him the United States Harness horse of the year. ‘Beach’ easily outpointed the brilliant trotter Deweycheatumnhowe who shares the same affection for the uselessness of spaces between words. The vote was not unanimous for Beach who earned 72 of 72 eligible ballots for both three year-old Pacer of the Year and Horse of the Year in the Canadian O’Brien Awards two weeks ago.

Earlier this year, Beach’s owner/trainer Brent MacGrath was concerned that when the American writers cast their ballots, they would be inclined to choose the American trotter over the Canadian Pacer. MacGrath indicated at the time that the Breeders Crown races at the Meadowlands in the fall might affect that thinking and he was right. Beach won  his race, Dewey lost his; case closed.

I had a nice harness racing weekend. On Saturday, I was invited to Victory Lane Farm for the opportunity to take a trotter out on the track. Victory Lane, kind of near Flamboro Downs is where Paul Garafalo has the horses syndicated by Harness Racing Canada. I fed some carrots to Son Of Paige, the horse I own ( well I’m in for 1/100th). I was introduced to Bumble Bee Road, another Harness Racing Canada athlete, and then I was steered to Fraser’s Chip, a recuperating trotter who may or may not have a future in pari-mutuel races. Nick, the groom put the harness on him and I jumped in the bike. I had noticed that some of the guys working the horses out were wearing hats and face guards, but it was fairly mild out so I elected to eschew any facial coverage. This was a big mistake.

I was instructed to take Fraser’s Chip out on the 5/8ths track for about four miles…or 6 laps and to take it easy on him; just let him find a comfortable trot and keep it there. If you’ve never sat behind a harness horse, it’s very pleasant and not particularly scary. This one gave me an enjoyable 20 minute experience on the track, trotting easily around and responding to my various tugs and pulls to keep turning right ( I drove him clockwise).

What I didn’t anticipate, was the constant kickback from the track - little bits of dirt and gravel kept getting kicked back into my face. At one point, a chunk hit my eye and I had to debate how to get it out. If I transferred the reins to one hand to use the other to restore my eyesight, the change in pressure on the horse might have persuaded him to take an abrupt left hand turn on the track.  I finally was able to shift the reins for ten seconds to allow me to wipe my eye clean, and Fraser’s Chip did indeed, float slightly to his left, but it wasn’t dangerous.

I returned   the trotter to the stable and expressed my gratitude to trainer Wayne Prezcator, who by the way is piling up some pretty good numbers this year at Flamboro and Western Fair.

Actually, the groom thanked me for working the horse and I realized I was in a scene reminiscent of the one in Huckleberry Finn, where he charges his friends to paint the fence, because it’s so much fun.

On Sunday, I wanted to watch Son Of Paige, who had drawn the 8-hole in an condition trot at Woodbine. By my calculation, the eighth race would go off around 4 pm, which would allow me a small afternoon nap, but as I watched the races go off on HPI, it was clear they were running them off at a fever pitch - like every 16 minutes. I gathered up my 11 year-old daughter Emily and we sped to Woodbine. I live very near Cawthra and the QEW and can make it to Woodbine in 17 minutes  - trust me, I time these things.

We made it with just  4 minutes to the 8th race and it sure was worth it…not. Son Of Paige went off at 58-1 and sat 8th down the backstretch. There was an encouraging move around the far turn as he followed some cover and in the stretch, he looked as if he might get a cheque, but he slowed to a walk in the final 16th and finished 8. 

The O’Brien Awards, recognizing accomplishments in Canadian Harness Racing was a terrific night for the industry. Emcees Ken Middleton and Jason Portuondo ( who also co-hosted the Sovereigns) did a lovely job - they are witty and very comfortable with a crowd and they moved the business along at an excellent pace; not as fast as a Somebeachsomewhere closing quarter, but close!

It was, of course, a night of overwhelming bling for Somebeachsomewhere, the greatest pacer ever (come on, argue with me). Beach won the Cam Fella Award, which usually goes to a two-footer for remarkable accomplishment in the sport. He also won as Outstanding Three Year-Old and as the Horse of the Year. His human partner, Paul MadDonell scored the O’Brien as Driver of the Year.

The most gracious man of the night just might have been Jody Jamieson. Jamieson, on form, looked like the favourite as Driver of the Year - he had many more starts, many more wins, more $ and a much more impressive driving average than MacDonell, but early on, Jamieson called the shot.

When Federal Flex won as the top Trotting Colt of 2008, Jamieson, that horse’s driver, accepted the trophy and made the unusual move of telling the crowd that, “This was the night to recognize Somebeachsomewhere and Paul MacDonell.”

Well before the butternut squash soup (yummy) was even served, Jamieson knew he wouldn’t be taking home a trophy, in spite of leading all reinsman at Woodbine.  After the awards he explained why.

“For Paul MacDonell not to win an O’Brien would have been a travesty of justice,” said the clean shaven one. “Paul is a class act and I model myself after him. What Somebeachsomewhere and his connections did this year will benifit this sport for the next 15 or 20 years.”

Brent MacGrath, the trainer and co-owner of Beach was, as usual, smiling and friendly. Part of the incredible success for the Schooner Stable this year, was the thoughtful and meticulous way Beach’s schedule was planned by MacGrath. It was always about the horse and no move was made if the horse’s health was remotely an issue. MacGrath, without being a Richard Dutrow-type publicity hound with a massive ego, was always accessible to the media, recognizing perhaps more than anyone, how important his fabulous pacer was to the game. Writer Perry Lefko and I had an unforgettable experience in the spring, before Somebeachsomewhere even raced as a three year-old. MacGrath met us in the parking lot at Mohawk Raceway and led us to his Campbelleville farm where we spent the better part of an hour with the famous horse. We were allowed in his stable and MacGrath brought him out for pictures. Our daughters posed with the horse.

All of us have pictorial reminders of our close up with racing history.

There was at least one very interesting moment at the O’Briens that did not have a Somebeachsomewhere angle to it. 56 year-old Robert McIntosh was named the Trainer of the Year and in his acceptance message, pointed out that whatever problems harness racing might have, “we don’t have a problem with WEG.”  McIntosh urged his fellow horsemen to support Bill O’Donell as the new president of OHHA as that group tries to reconstruct a working relationship with Woodbine.

Before the night ended, all of us received a little bottle of sand, taken from a beach in Nova Scotia, we were told. A tribute to Somebeachsomewhere. The question I have is…is there any of Beach’s DNA in this sand? 

I had a lot of fun Sunday at Woodbine. My guest for lunch was hockey legend Dick Duff. A regular feature of Down The Stretch (Canada’s most entertaining and informative racing newspaper) is inviting a celebrity to the track, handing over a $50 voucher and hoping he/she can turn a profit for a worthwhile charity.

Duff is one of the few hockey players on the planet who has a Stanley Cup ring from both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. He won two in Toronto (62/63) and four more between 1966 and 1970 with Montreal.

He’s incredibly fascinating to listen to when he talks about the way hockey was in the 50s and 60s. Duff was a great skater, playmaker and sniper, but the style of hockey back then discouraged flashiness and offence. Players were often little more than product for coaches and gms to abuse or trade simply to make a point to the other players. According to Duff, it was that kind of thinking in 1964, that shipped him and Bob Nevin to the Canadiens in mid-season, denying Duff a third straight Stanley Cup when the Maple Leafs knocked off the Red Wings in seven in the final.

If Duff was a thinking man’s player, a skilful thoughtful playmaker who could clearly see everything that was happening on the ice, it’s apparent, he’s not quite so brilliant at the track. He told me an hilarious story about attempting to bet $20 to win on a 3-1 shot in the 50s ridden by Avelino Gomez. He ended up with the wrong ticket, but the horse at 45-1 and he cashed over $900.

“I just play for flukes,” Duff admitted to me, using that anecdote as proof that some days the races are indicipherable. 

We had a delightful afternoon at the track. He did hit one exactor that returned $30, but with races from Aqueduct, Golden Gate, Gulfstream, Santa Anita and the live harness races from Woodbine, the $50 voucher was soon parlayed into nothing.

                      …………………….

Just want to say thank you to a guy name Nick who threw a great Superbowl party up in North York last night..Nick is Christine Payne’s boss and she invited me. Christine is a one-time 680 sports reporter who has fallen on better times, but I hadn’t seen her in close to 15 years. Anyway, Nick had a full spread, a theatre-type seating layout in front of a giant plasma screen in his spacious den and, apparently, an all you can drink for no charge policy at his bar. His tv was hooked up to a satellite so we got to enjoy all the US commercials as well.

I didn’t get into the betting, but some guy with a computer and piles of entry forms was keeping track of all the props and the room ( he had close to 40 people) exploded each time the Cardinals scored.

I was also the oldest guy in the room. Couldn’t help noticing that there were at least 8-10 little kids and babies - a whole new generation of football fans.

Great game, by the way..and thanks to both Christine and Nick. Hope I get invited back next year. Hope he schedules it on Saturday night when it won’t quite compromise the sleep I need to wake up at 2:15 am!