I see cold people

I was very disappointed yesterday when I attended Woodbine, my local horse racing venue, and they cancelled thoroughbred races 3 through 13. According to the announcement, the jockeys felt it was too cold for them to ride. Having already paid $5 for a racing form and this being the final day of live racing until spring made it particularly upsetting.

Now, I've known them to cancel racing cards due to lightning storms and windy conditions, but this is the first time I've heard the excuse that it's just too cold for the jockeys. While I imagine it's happened before, it seems like a pretty flimsy excuse. After all, standardbred horses (trotters) and their drivers race all winter long through the worst that a Canadian winter can throw at them. Racing in blizzard conditions is almost commonplace. Many is the time when neither fans nor announcer can see the horses at all for much of the race!

I'm sorry if I'm going to upset people, but unless there is a safety concern that was never expressed by the announcer, "too cold for the jockeys" just doesn't cut it with me. The temperature was about 5 C degrees below freezing and there was bright sunshine. Granted, there were wind gusts that produced a wind chill factor, but how bad can it be to be outside for the less than two minutes it takes to run a race? As it was, horses and riders were going directly to the starting gate, dispensing with the post parade.

Most of the betting public spent considerably longer than two minutes walking from the parking lot to the grandstand. I wonder--would the jockeys and everyone else who makes a living from the races be understanding if the public informed them that they would not attend on account of it being too cold to walk from the parking lot? We make that trek even at 40 below! I'm guessing that Mr. Leading-jockey-who's-used-to-spending-the-winter-in-the heat-of-Barbados had a lot to do with the cancellation.

I also wonder why they staged two races before cancelling the rest of the card. It's not like the weather got colder during that time. If anything, it got warmer. Of course, if they had cancelled all the racing before it started, many people wouldn't have attended at all. Once they have us there, obviously we're going to wager on the simulcast races from other tracks. And buy forms and programs. And buy food. Am I the only one who smelled rotten fish?

Speaking of rotten fish, it left a very bad taste in my mouth. I and many others were looking forward to the last day of live racing before the long drought that lasts until April. Jockeys: Next time, bring your long johns.


Horsies frolicking on a beautiful winter day:


You always won every time you placed a bet...

Innapropriate image

No commentary required. It's just wrong.

Ripped from the headlines

Man assaults girlfriend with cheeseburger

VERO BEACH, Fla. – A Vero Beach man faces a domestic violence charge after authorities said he assaulted his girlfriend with a cheeseburger. An Indian River County Sheriff's Office arrest report said a 22-year-old man and his girlfriend got into an argument as they sat in a car in front of their home.

The report said the man would not let the woman out of the vehicle, so she threw his drink out of the car. In response, the man allegedly grabbed her arm and smashed the cheeseburger into her face. The pair got out of the car, and authorities say the man again took the McDonald's sandwich and put it on her face.

The man was released on $1,000 bond Wednesday.

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I wonder how much the bail would have been if instead he had thrown chicken McNuggets at her.

Q & A's from around the web

Pads vs Tampons which one kicks butt better?

If they're kicking butt, you're a couple of inches too low.

Fewer cars stopped, but a lot more drinking drivers found

Notice anything strange about this article taken from my home town newspaper?

Peel police have charged 18 motorists with drunk driving in the first five days of the Holiday RIDE campaign. That's triple the number of drivers charged after 2,622 vehicles were stopped compared to the same time period last year when 5,065 vehicles were stopped and only six drivers charged.

Others charged with impaired driving and having an excess blood/alcohol level are: Brampton's Amrik Singh Densa, 41, Khemraj Persaud Rajaram, 36, Sean Anderson, 22, and Jasver Singh, 30, Mississauga's Joao Da-Rocha, 52, Grzegorz Faryna, 48, Oakville's David Vila, 23, and Pickering's Emad Lamie Awad. Charged with having an excess blood/alcohol level are: Brampton's

Edgar Arteaga, 44, Thuan Thi Tran, 25, Mississauga's Samidh Kumar Patel, 28, Sandeep Dhaliwal, 20, Michael Daniels, 19, Darmendrea Nandran, 35, and Oakville's Hannes Carl Svensson, 36. Amarpreet Pahuja, 27, of Mississauga is charged with impaired driving, refusing to give a breath sample and assault.

It just warms my heart to know that many immigrants have adapted so well to the Canadian tradition of getting sloshed during the holiday season and then getting behind the wheel of a car. In fact, it's a disgrace that there's so few "white" names listed above. I challenge every proud Canadian out there named John, Bill, Daryl and his other brother Daryl to get out there, chug some Molson and get some normal sounding names on that police blotter. Show your Canadian spirit!