In Thursday's blog post, I mentioned that there were only three horses in the NA Cup lineup that have raced under the 1:50 mark...and guess what...that was the win, place, and show ticket. Up The Credit-Roll With Joe-Big Jim. Ahhh....if betting were only that easy. Of course I went with 2-3-4-5, pegging Up The Credit to take the win (I didn't dare want to get burned twice by not picking that horse), but Powerful Mist, Big Bad John, and Shadyshark Hanover decided not to show up, or if they did, they just got outraced. Much like the Kentucky Derby, the North America Cup is the best of the best three-year-olds, and it is VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE to pick an exacta, let alone a trifecta and a super (well at least for me anyways). Here's my problem with Mohawk's race card for the night. This is one of the biggest races, if not THE biggest race for harness horses, and when race 7 came along on Saturday night on HPItv, it played out like any other race on the card. What the hell? I'm sorry, but NBC picked up the broadcast for this year's Kentucky Derby and the program started at 4:00pm and ended at 7:00pm. I know, I know, it's the Derby, but why doesn't the harness industry magnify the NA Cup? The purse is 1.5 million!! It's not like it's a "run what you brung" race at a freakin' country fair! We didn't get to see any background on the entrants, no pedigrees, no photos, no driver history, no stories about how so-and-so's owner went through ups and downs to get their horse there? Am I missing something here? And don't get me started on all the DEAD AIR there was during post parades, and driver warm-ups...Can they not utilize that time to actually inform people on what the hell is going on? For crying out loud, tell us what the damn horse is wearing as far as equipment goes! ANYTHING would be better than dead air! Tell us how many times the horse took a sh#t that day, who cares, give us SOMETHING! Not everyone knows what a murphy blind is, or a shadow roll. I don't know how many times my friends asked me why is that horse wearing that? What's that on his nose? What's that bar on the horse's neck for? GEESH!! Is it my job to explain all the mechanics of this industry...or is it the industry's job? If you want more people to tune in, then EDUCATE them!
The camera rolled through the paddock about 5 minutes before the Cup and we see the horses standing there.....THAT'S IT...the commentators didn't really even talk. YAWN! If they're only going to gear their programming to the bettor, how are other people suppose to ever become involved in harness racing? Throw the race at the end of the card, hell, throw it in the same time slot as the Derby, starting it at 1:00pm and ending it at 7:00pm, then at least you can give the Cup the time it deserves! If I were Pepsi, I'd be pissed off!
Anyways, I'm not ranting because I lost on my super, I'm ranting because it was a huge disappointment...we got to see the replay of the Cup, then it was on to the next race like it was nothing.
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