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Friday, October 03, 2008

News and Notes - Oct 3

- The Breeders Cup is adding some "social networking" features to their online presence with a new Facebook page; and, finally, a You Tube channel which includes videos of this year's prep, along with past BC races (though they could do a better job of organizing there).

They also have a link to download "Breeders’ Cup Widgets for instant access to race videos, blogs, news and notes." And OK, I'll bite....I've added the news widget to the left sidebar here.

I don't know the first thing about Facebook, so perhaps some readers can check it out and let us know what they think. Nice to see that the BC is making an attempt to update to the 2.0 era. Still think they, and NTRA, should check out what the US Trotting Association is doing with their Harnessphere site; their own little online community.

Also see that Lauren Stitch has been added to the blog stable there. Not that I'm bitter or anything of course! :-\ But they've clearly gone for the humorless wonk approach over there. Ms. Stitch has apparently taken a near-fatal dose of Casino Drive Kool-aid. "At 1 ¼ miles, I like his chances to defeat Big Brown in a race within a race for the 3-year-olds." BASED ON WHAT???? HIS PETER PAN AROUND ONE TURN AGAINST A MEDIOCRE FIELD? Oh, nevermind, not worth the bother. That's too ridiculous a statement to even quibble with.

- Clear weather expected in Lexington this weekend. And while that doesn't affect the Polytrack for Keeneland's opening weekend, it's good news for the Somebeachsomewhere camp, as the three-year old phenom goes for the all-time world pacing record in the Tattersalls Pace on Saturday. Art Official drew into a separate division, so the Beach will once again not be able to avenge his defeat to that colt in the Meadowlands Pace. However, one gets the feeling that Somebeachsomewhere has at this point separated himself from Art Official and all the other three-year old, as he sets his sights on history and pacing immortality instead. Art Official's Bluegrass win in 1:48.3 last week was nothing to sneeze at, but it was nearly two seconds slower than the Beach's world record effort, which came after a three-week layoff and a slight illness. Pull the Pocket worries that the colt could bounce.

One training session and one huge all out race off a sickness sometimes results in a horse bouncing, even in harness.
He goes in the 11th at the Red Mile with post time scheduled for 3:50 PM.

- NYRA now has a You Tube channel too.

6 Comments:

El Angelo said...

I know this will sound like a snob, but I don't care---either the NTRA or DRF should have an application for the Iphone that lets you review, at a minimum, entries and results quickly.

Anonymous said...

CDI has been ahead of the game having a youtube page for all their tracks for quite some time. They also did the myspace thing for the Derby. Does it generate extra wagering or even ticket sales? Hmmm doubtful.

I'm surprised Magna never had a myspace as (correct me if I'm wrong) Frank's energy drink does have a myspace page. Then again Magna has bigger issues to worry about.

Superfecta said...

el angelo - I've been big into the whole 'why no iPhone app' thing for a while - it was one of the biggest things I wanted to make sure stayed in the marketing report. Here's hoping something comes of it!

As far as the Facebook page, I've actually be 'a fan' of the BC for a while there, but as they don't send out messages or otherwise remind me to visit said page, this is the first time I've looked at it in months.

They need to push as well as pull...

Anonymous said...

>BASED ON WHAT??

I had to chuckle, reminds me of what people used to comment about Big Brown.

SaratogaSpa said...

I guess it is not the great depression if people are walking around with I-phones, gadgets, gidgets pleading to get into the 2.0 era?

Anonymous said...

I have a facebook page... it works for me because I have ONE face, not hundreds of horses competing in several races every year, and thousands of fans. The BC facebook page should be nothing more than a portal to the website, or a part of a website designed to look like facebook but with greater functionality. The "quiz" is a joke. I got 4 of 11 correct, the questions had to do with BC trivia, which is fine, but at the end I was told to do some more research before making my bets... OK then! As though knowing how many horses EVER to run in BC races at odds of more than 100-1 finished in the money is going to help me make a profit. Or how much a guy from South Dakota won with his $8 bet. I'm not kidding. It's just insulting. And misleading. Imagine if you didn't know anything about racing and you were led to believe that knowing that kind of statistic was what you needed to be a successful handicapper.