There are 20 horses entered in the 135^th Kentucky Derby and by my internationally recognized handicapping standards, as many as 13 could win. So you need to find the one that will score at a big price. Throw out the favourites, Pioneerof the Nile and I Want Revenge. Why? Well, because they looked much too good in winning their previous races and each has a difficulty starting position. I Want Revenge won the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct in the most awesome manner possible. He staggered out of the gate and lost several lengths. Jockey Joe Talamo did not panic and worked his horse back into the race. But at the top of the stretch, I Want Revenge was jammed in a wall of horses, was clearly bothered by others, but when he got running room, he was amazing, winning by a widening length and a half. There is the chance he will ‘bounce’ from such a superlative effort. Pioneerof the Nile is the horse all the newspapers want not to win because if they had to put his name in the headlines, eveyrone will assume a typo since the horse’sname jams the ‘Pioneer’ into the ‘of’. Anyway Pioneerof the Nile willnot be the recipientof the garland of roses because, according to a friendof a friend of a guy who knows the dishwasher repairmanof the motherof the guy who works the horses in the mornings, Pioneerof the Nile is not a fanof real dirt. 

West Side Bernie will be a nice price, but from the rail he could be buried. Friesen Fire is ideally slotted from the six hole and has won his last three, improving each time, though Gabriel Saez is not necessarily a Kentucky Derby winning jockey.

Papa Clem has post seven, Rafael Bejarano and is coming in off a win in the Arkansas Derry, so if you like this one, bet it because it might be as high as 10-1.

Chocolate Candy could produce a sweet payoff. He’s ridden by Chantal Sutherland’s boyfriend Mike Smith and has a nice stalking strategy.

Dunkirk has post 15, but jockey Edgar Prado is a master at finding the shortest route home, and this horse has only run three times. Maybe he peaks for the Derby..

But take a long and potentially profitable look at Regal Ransom. Jockey Alan Garcia is a tremendous talent and the horse has won over a million already. Can you imagine that – the horse with the most money earned could go off at more than 20-1. Regal Ransom surprised in the United Arab Emirates Derby and clearly loves the real dirt which is what they’re running on at Churchill Downs

The preceding is provided for entertainment and information purposes only and is not intended to by used in any manner to promote, encourage or assist in betting, wagering or speculating on any sports event, horse race, card game or reality show.

Yeah right! 

I was certainly honoured when Kathy Wade Vlaar of Standardbred Canada asked me to be the moderator for a discussion at the Standardbred Wagering Conference at Windsor Casino. Of course, when she made the request, all I heard was the word Casino.  Generally speaking, I avoid casinos, not because I don’t love them (I do), but because the lure of tables, chips, card and machines is irresistible to me.

My job was to moderate a panel with the subject title No Holds Barred. The point was for harness racing fans to confront the authorities and ask the tough questions. On the panel was Erie Potek who is attempting to create a Horseplayers Advocacy Group. The first reaction you make when you hear this is…huh? And that’s because, historically, horseplayers have been like lambs to the slaughter. We go to the track because we go to the track. Many of us have given little thought to how capriciously the racetrack might treat us, how difficult it has been to lodge a complaint or how exasperating it can be to get a reasonable explanation. Potek dares to go where others have not. He read a 16 point list of wishes that would make life and horseplay more enjoyable. Some of his ideas are really good – lower the takeout, pay the fan who bets a winner, sees it disqualified, but then re-instated by the ORC and to have informed horseplayers work hand and hand with racetrack and government officials to drag the game into the future. One of his ideas is positively zany – Potek seriously suggested that at least one of the stewards should be a horseplayer. Yeah, that’s going to happen.

 Also on the panel was horse owner and gambler Kevin Koury, Dennis Dowd, a lawyer with the New Jersey harness racing industry and Jamie Martin, VP of racing for Woodbine. Dowd was particularly interesting to me. He has spent 40 years in the industry and made the point that you can’t simply draw a line between horse players and administrators. His experience has been that whatever level he rose to in the industry, he found that most of the people enjoyed betting on the races.

Martin just rolls his eyes when asked how easy it is to change things at the track. “We’re over regulated,” he says.  The discussion spent some time wondering why Canadian tracks don’t initiate new bets – the Grand Slam for example ( bet to show in three straight races, then pick the winner), or why not $1 win place, or quinella betting or rolling daily doubles as exists with most American tracks? Martin says it takes at least a year to get government approval to change a bet or introduce a new one.

That has to change ( I’m editorializing here). If Woodbine could introduce a new bet every month, or change the size and shape of present bets (50 cent exactors anyone?), they would have something new to promote on a week by week basis. The gambler’s mind is stimulated by new ideas. The OLG, for all its dysfunctional screwups, understands the idea of constant innovation. That’s why there is continual introduction of new scratch tickets, – a $2 version, a $5 version, a $10 template, etc. The OLG is always thinking of ways to attract the player to a new wrinkle.

Strangely, this country’s horse racing operators who have run a tight, un-scandalized shop for many decades, are regulated to the point of smothering. The issue of ‘seeding’ came up in the Windsor discussions and it still is not clear why the CPMA (Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency) will not allow Woodbine to tell its players that they have guaranteed $50,000 in a pick six pool, which of course would stimulate significant play. Woodbine is told simply by the CPMA that  “we have to protect the customers.” 

 This No Holds Barred debate lasted a little over an hour, which was just short enough that I didn’t get a serious Jones on for the casino. Windsor casino is a stunning edifice and from the moment I arrived ( 4 pm Monday), I participated fully in the products availed. I like the video poker, the black jack and the Carribean Stud Poker. By midnight Monday, I was in a $600 hole and my bank card was advising me that I had exceeded my daily withdrawal limit ( don’t ask about my credit card).

By 2:30 am, I had persuaded a TD Canada Trust agent in Moncton to increase my daily limit and suddenly I was flush.  And the time frame from 2:30 am to 6 am was probably the most fun I have ever had in a casino. I had a run where just about every table I sat at, I won something. I got into the routine of winning a little, trading in the chips, cashing, feeling the $ in my pocket, then moving to the next event. Video poker offers terrible odds, yet I kept hitting. At one point, four 4′s appeared and my$5 voucher turned into $85. At 4:30 am, I sat at a Carribean Stud table and a dour looking lady dealer just glared at me and said,

“Why do you want to play here? This is a house game.”

She was right, but surely there should be a more welcoming attitude. Anyway, 20 minutes later my 100 stake was up to $235 and I bid Ms Grumpface adieu.

By the time I dragged my ass back to my room, I had erased my deficit and appeared to be up around $100. Before and after the No Holds Barred event, I continued to win more than lose.

Actually, while getting beat up the night before, I wandered into Legends, which is a casino sports bar. They offer a different and far more beneficial form of Proline. I was able to bet $5 on two hockey games and got 2.55 on each of Chicago and Anahiem. The ticket was worth $32, but the problem was it could only be cashed at Legends, which didn’t reopen until 4 pm Tuesday.

When I found myself up about $400, I wanted to leave, but decided to wait until four to cash my ticket. Fortunately I didn’t give it all back. My last play was at a Carribean Stud table  (with Ron a far more positive and entertaining dealer) . Seeing the clock veer towards 4, I made my largest bet, a $20 ante which, when Ron dealt me two pair, required a $40 bet. Happily, Ron’s hand qualified and I won $100 to finish off a most succesful 24 hours at Windsor casino.

By the way, Standardbred Canada’s website offers a thorough breakdown of all the discussions that have taken place at the Wagering conference.  What the writer of that material won’t do though, is walk you bet by bet through his casino adventures.

It was one of those things that stimulates strong opinions on both sides of the issue. Yesterday, the Ontario Racing Commission ruled that jockey Simon Husbands does not have to suffer a one-year suspension for a ride on Bug’s Boy last fall at Woodbine. This is far more complicated than the accusation that Husbands held his horse back. Some believed he was doing this so that his brother Patrick would win the riding title. On the day in question, multiple Sovereign Award winner Patrick Husbands was in a dead heat in the jockeys’ race with Jim McAleney. But if there was even the slightest truth to the idea of Simon pulling Bug’s Boy back to help his brother, it was shattered at the ORC hearing into his appeal. Principally it was revealed that the Husbands brothers don’t exactly share the love; for the most part they’re estranged. Also, considering how Simon struggles to gain a few wins a year compared to the millions of dollars that Patrick earns for his owners, it’s almost ridiculous to think that the former would cost himself a good paycheck to favour the latter.

But perhaps the strongest evidence of Simon’s innocence came from Jim McAleney. Testifying essentially as evidence of Simon’s honest nature, McAleney told the ORC he didn’t believe it was in his fellow jockey’s make up to stiff a horse. This carried great weight, because if Simon had actually conspired to help his brother deny Jimmy Mac the title,   McAleney certainly would have been reluctant to come to the guy’s defence.

The backdrop to this story has a lot to do with what Husbands’ instructions were prior to the race. Trainer John LeBlanc testified that he told Husbands not to use the whip as previously, the horse reacted badly to that technique. So when Simon was seen apparently not whipping the tar out of the horse, he was just following his orders.

Of course, the fact that this decision was handed down yesterday cause me no small grief. We have just completed the file on the 19th issue of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most entertaining and informative horse racing newspaper and included was a feature story on the Husbands ORC hearing, but now we had to re-write the story so we wouldn’t be redundant for the next four weeks.

I can assure you, it is another dazzling issue of Down The Stretch . There’s a two page interview with Chantal Sutherland, replete with several pictures. It is practically impossible to take a bad shot of her; I know – I asked her to pose with a Canadian flag wrapped around her and at the moment the camera clicked, she gave the perfect look. As compatible as she is with a horse, so is she simpatico with the lens.

This month’s Down The Stretch also has a two page feature on Nick Eaves, the youngest man ever to be President of Woodbine. At 40, it seems, he’s still too young to be cynical and from everything I can determine about the guy is that he’s open to any suggestion that can carry this sport forward and make it better. That’s a good thing, because I have hundreds of suggestions.  Eaves is also a good photographic subject. He’s lean and handsome and has a good smile. I met him last week in the west end parking lot and walked him to the back-up starting gate at the end of the old harness paddock parking. It made a good shot and it can be seen in issue 19. 

Keith McCalmont has a page on his picks for the Kentucky Derby and we have a nice spread on opening day, two Perry and Mooch cartoons, a vintage column from Louis Cauz, some whimsical stuff from Bob Carson and more of that stuff that makes you go huh? on our very popular Oddities and Entities page.

By the way, is anyone out there paying attention to what Jody Jamieson is doing? This morning he’s the leading harness driver at Woodbine. He’s also the leading driver at Georgian Downs. And he’s in second, bearing down on the first at Flamboro. To my knowledge, no one has ever been the leading driver at two different tracks in the same year in Ontario, but definitely no one has ever led three tracks at one time. Making this more incredible is that at each of those three tracks, JJ has much the best winning percentage and the highest UDRS ( an incredibly convoluted mathematical formula that rates a driver’s ability to come first, second and third).  Needless to say, Jody Jamieson is the leading dash-winner for all of Canada. Standardbred Canada has an excellent website that makes it easy to see the leaders at all track ( www.standardbredcanada.com).

Well, ok, discuss amongst yourselves. Is Chantal Sutherland a superstar?? Perhaps not, because achieving fame in horse racing occurs within a limited audience. Even the greatest jockeys of all time – Cordero, Shoemaker, Bailey, Hawley, were worshipped mostly within the closed ranks of horse players and never achieved the kind of mass adoration reserved for hockey stars, baseball players and basketball players when they’re not fathering children with multiple partners.

Still, Chantal is very different.  Last year, People Magazine named her one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world and her arc of fame has soared dramatically thanks to her inclusion in the Animal Planets series Jockeys. In person, she is a strikingly attractive woman, but the camera makes her even better looking. Give her credit here though, she really knows how to play a camera, as I found out on Sunday. Down The Stretch, Canada’s most entertaining and informative racing newspaper has a two page interview with Chantal in the next issue ( April 24) and author Perry Lefko suggested we get her to pose in a Canadian flag. It was a good idea, since Chantal has elected to ride at Woodbine for the entire season after a winter of riding at Santa Anita, where she has been succesful, winning at an impressive rate of about 10%. That figure is even more notable when you factor in California’s deplorable ( and probably sexist) history of ignoring woman jockeys.

I met Chantal at 11;30 in the jockeys’ room Sunday and she was concerned about the wind. I wasn’t. I’ve seen several shots of Chantal wearing a helmet and she was dazzling in all of them. She just isn’t a woman who needs to have terrific hair to make you turn your head.  She chose a helmet and had a red cover stretched over it.

I took her to the north side of Woodbine, because I wanted the colourful marquee of the track behind her. Dozens of people were streaming into the track and they couldn’t help but notice the beautiful little woman walking near me with a huge Canadian flag draped over her.

I didn’t really have to direct her to get the shot I needed. Chantal already has a great sense of how she looks on camera and she struck a few poses to maximize the Maple Leaf.  I knew within a few minutes that I had what I needed – I think the shot on the cover of the next issue of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most entertaining and informative racing newspaper, will be the one of her standing a little sideways, with a sweet teasing smile on her face and the Canadian flag showing prominently off her shoulder and down her side.

As we walked back to the jockeys’s room, I started to ask her,

“So when will….” and before I could finish, she said

“In July,” anticipating the question about the second year of the Jockeys series. She was right, but I changed paths in mid-stretch anyway.

“Well, actually, I was going to ask when you’re getting married,” I joked.

“I don’t know, ” she grumbled with just a touch of frustration in her voice, “Whenever Mike decides to ask me.”  Her boyfriend Mike Smith is a top jockey in California and Sutherland has that conflict of wanting to be with him, while wanting to win a riding title in Canada. Smith is 43, ten years older than Sutherland. She’s in love with him. She’s gorgeous, bright, ambitious, a brilliant jockey pulling in terrific money and she wants to marry him. So here’s a question? What the hell is his problem? Hey Mikey, you’ve got a chance to be with the most beautiful professional athlete on the planet (well, Maria Sharapova is much too tall for you).  Better start riding to win now, before someone else beats you to the wire.

Several days ago, on opening day at Woodbine, Perry Lefko was suggesting that Chantal was starting to become the Danica Patrick of horse racing. I’ve thought about that for awhile. Patrick is the pretty formula one racing driver who has made dozens of covers, but there’s one real difference here. Sutherland actually wins races.

Of all the gambles in live, surely owning a racehorse is near the top of the risk scale. To win a race, a horse has to be the fastest, has to get a clean trip and be guided by a smart jockey or driver. This all assumes that the horse is even healthy enough to make the race.

About six months ago, after being introduced to Harness Raing Canada by its director Paul Garofalo, I opted in for a 1% share of a trotter by the name of Son of Paige. Actually he’s a son of Angus Hall, but his mother is Paige Seelster.  A 1% share in this horse cost $300 and I did have to get my Ontario Racing Commission License ($100) and Standardbred Canada membership ($50). Not really a huge investment, considering that Middle East Sheiks routinely throw away $5- $10 million for unraced yearlings.

Son of Paige did not make an immediate great impression in the days and weeks following my purchase. He broke stride in five of seven races and was forced, on two occassions, to re-qualify in front of the judges to prove he even belonged on the track. Those were dark days and nights for Garofalo and trainer Wayne Preszcator. But late in 2008, the tide started to turn nicely in favour of Son of Paige. He won a race in December and picked up smaller cheques by hitting the board in a few other races.  Clearly the turning point for Son of Paige came in January when I visited him on the farm. He’s a handsome five year-old and I simply told him to stay within himself, not to vary from his game plan, take adversity in stride, keep your eyes on the prize and you can be anything you want if you only try. Son of Paige then bolted from his stall and trotted around the training track at about :27 per quarter just to get away from the cliche spouting madman.

Anyway, since then Son of Paige has won three times. Last month, he connected at 9-1 thanks to a brilliant drive from Mike Saftic who came into the stretch in 8th place with a wall of horseflesh in front of him. Somehow Saftic found a spare inch on each side of his wheels and steered a determined Son of Paige to a half-length win. That night, Son of Paige paid off at more than $20.  Last night in a $25,000 trot for non-winners of $18,000 last six, Son of Paige went off at 14-1. But Saftic gunned him from the six-hole and had him  sitting second for most of the trip behind the 3-2 favourite Windsun Lane. In the stretch, when Saftic pulled into the middle of the track, Son of Paige had plenty of trot and easily overhauled the front runner to win by a length. I was asleep at the time and didn’t even bet. Too bad. Son of Paige paid $31.30

However, since this was a $25,000 race, Son of Paige earned $12,500. Simple math would tell you that my share is a nifty $125, but it’s not that easy. My agreement with Harness Racing Canada is that I get 1/100th of anything left over after the trainer and driver get their legitimate cuts, minus equipment costs, medicine, wraps, oats, transportation, entry fees, exit fees, gas, water, debt retirement, donuts, programs, acupuncture, holistic massage, two for one pizza, etc… Ok, it’s not quite that bad – turns out I might be entitled to about $60. I have already recieved a couple of small cheques totalling $90. My point here is that I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Every time Son of Paige runs, I brag that ‘my horse’ is out tonight and when he wins – and he’s done that four times since December – I boast that ‘my horse’ won last night.  There is the distinct possibility in the next few months that the amount of money I get in the mail from Harness Racing Canada will exceed my investment and then what? Well…what if he races for five more years. I am not required to contribute to his expenses, yet I will receive small chunks every time he wins.

I’ve even bought a share in another trotter. Her name is Benn’s Champioon and she’s in easy tomorrow night ( or so I’ve been told.)

The guy’s name is Paul Garofalo and he can be contacted easily through Harness Racing Canada. I can truthfully testify that my horse owning experience has been both emotionally and financially rewarding.  

The Down The Stretch gang had a terrific day at Woodbine on April 4, first day of the thoroughbred racing season. And that was one busy crowd at the track, even on a day that was cold and windy. It seems the recession only drives more people to the races, as if they believe they can bet their way out of debt!

Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper, had a table for Community Day in which dozens of businesses that intersect with Woodbine got to promote themselves and we weren’t shy at all in that regard. We gave out Down The Stretch pens (they ran out) signed covers ( Richard Dos Ramos, Paul MacDonell and Chantal Sutherland) free programs, and copies of our Perry and Mooch cartoons – the only cartoon characters that hang out at the track.

Also, associate editor Eleanor LeBlanc ( who looked even prettier than she normally does) brought a huge jar and 150 purple ribbons inscribed with the phrase For the Love of Horses. Eleanor, in a warm and charming way, solicited donations from the racing fans with the money designated to save a horse from slaughter. What surprised me was the generosity of the fans who I thought might not want to deplete their betting reservoirs. People put in 5′s and 10′s and 20′s. Woodbine President Nick Eaves came by and immediately put in 20 dollars. Then he allowed me to take him to the grandstand and make him pose in front of the fully occupied seats, pretending to count the house. It’s a funny shot, Nick is a good sport and look for this one in the next issue of Down The Stretch.

As for the races, Chantal Sutherland fired her opening salvo, rallying Flashy N Classy to victory in the first. Sutherland is planning to ride the full season at Woodbine, after a winter of racing in California. If she gets her fair share of good horses, she just might be the one to overhaul Patrick Husbands.  Sutherland ended day one with two wins, but Husbands scored three times, including the first Stakes race of the season -La Voyageuse - which he won with Mullins beach.

And the 8th race was notable, maybe more for me than most fans. I was taking a bit of a beating and looking for a way to get back. I saw Steve Bahen on the filly,  I’m a Moon Too,  making her first career race in a field full of non-intimidating maidens. I bet $3 win/place on it and Bahen had I’m a Moon Too running hard up the rail to nail the front runner just before the wire.  She paid $37.40 and set up a very nice 9-2 exactor that coughed up $458.50. The tri was worth cashing too at $2963.60, but how about that superfecta? Even though it was just a field of 9, the 9-2-7-10 combination paid $100,138.70. Well, that’s how it was posted. There was only $27,248 bet on the super, so that means one person, who bet just .20 cashed for $20,000. Good luck trying to do that in 649.

In the jocks room, we renewed our relationships with the jockeys. Emma-Jayne Wilson, who was practically bouncing out of her socks, showed me an hilarious video of a stunt the jockeys played on clerk of the scales, Robert Bertrand. In the late hours on the night before the last day of racing last December, Wilson and her devious band filled Bertrand’s office with over 4000 balloons. Bertrand is not a lightweight; he has to run a colony of reckless and willful jockeys and there’s not much wiggle room for frivolity. From what we learned though, Bertrand was thrilled that the jockeys cared that much to prank him.

Chantal Sutherland was kind enough to meet us in the interview room. She posed for a picture with my daughter Emily (who wasn’t as impressed as I was). The next issue of Down The Stretch has a two page feature on Sutherland, written by Perry Lefko, so we asked her if she would allow us to take a shot of her wrapped in the Canadian Flag.,

“It will be an iconic shot,” I implored and Chantal immediately agreed. This woman is approaching superstar status. She’s in that widely-viewed Animal Planet series Jockeys, was named one of the world’s 50 Most Beautiful People last year by People Magazine and, perhaps the most important thing, she is becoming one of the very best jockeys on the planet.  Anyone paying attention for a six week period last summer at Woodbine saw Chantal putting on a clinic on the grass. It doesn’t hurt that the camera loves her. The next issue of Down The Stretch will features several appealing pictures of her; most likely she will grace the cover, wrapped cozily in the Canadian flag.

Not quite as cute, but close, are jockeys Eurico da Silva, Jim McAleny, Justin Stein, Corey Fraser and Patrick Husbands. I got to spend a few moments with each, asking the uninspired question, “What’s it like to be back?”

  The thoroughbred season is underway. We’ll come up with better questions in ensuing weeks. Like, Who do you like in the Queen’s Plate? or How are the roast beef sandwiches today? or Can you lend me $20 for the last race tri?