Ripped from the headlines

Just a few headlines I came across today. It's a weird news day...

U.S. farmer eaten by his own pigs (For the metrically challenged, 318 kilos is about 700 lbs!)

Man sues U.S. for $10M for frostbitten penis ()

Skateboarder smashes into deer during downhill race (video!)

Meet the Fokkens: Amsterdam's oldest prostitutes (Yes, "Fokkens". Folks, you can't make this stuff up.)


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It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Mine that Bird!

Did you hear about the Kentucky Derby winner? It was won by a Canadian-bred horse (Mine that Bird) that looked like it had no chance at all. I was at Toronto's Woodbine Raceway and before the race, I remarked to the guy beside me that if I could bet for a horse to finish last, that would be my pick. Not only did he win--he went from almost last to first in the slop and finished about seven lengths ahead of the second-place horse. He went off at 50-1. Days before, the horse was racing at a "B" track in New Mexico where he couldn't even beat those nags. I thought for sure that shortly after the race, it would be announced that he was disqualified for being juiced.

If you look at the video, he made champion horses look like they were standing still.The horse was bought (I think as a yearling) by Woodbine trainer David Cotey for (are you ready for this?) $9,500. Compare this to the $million+ paid for other Derby contenders. The horse won three stake races as a two-year-old at Woodbine and was named top two-year-old in the country. Cotey sold the animal for about $450,000 to Americans. He raced only twice before the Derby as a three-year-old at Sunland Park in New Mexico, finishing second and fourth. The connections were dreaming in technicolour when they decided to enter him in the Derby. The new trainer hauled the horse with his pickup truck for 21 hours to Churchill Downs. If you ask me, the race was an unrepeatable miracle.

Let's see what he does in the Preakness and or Belmont. Here's the video. You can hear the announcer say during the backstretch run that Mine that Bird is well back from the rest of them. As the field nears the final turn, watch for a horse coming through along the rail...

I am outraged and ashamed

There is no bigger proponent of multi-culturalism and racial diversity than I. I am also a proud Canadian trumpeting far and wide on this medium how great a place Canada is as the most culturally diverse country in the world. We seem to get along much better than most countries, celebrating our differences in so many ways--via parades, food fairs, picnics, festivals, etc., some of these events attracting over one million participants, many travelling from other countries to join the festivities.

But this past week, an incident has tarnished Canada's image. It is alleged that three drunken Vancouver-area, off-duty police officers brutally assaulted and robbed a man of colour. In the process, the victim alleges that one of the officers uttered a racial statement. As of this writing, no charges have been laid, but it seems very likely that there will be soon.

You may be asking yourself why I'm bringing this to light. I'm conflicted about it, really, but let me try to explain. It's not the Canadian way to sweep things under the rug. If we do wrong, we acknowledge it, hold those responsible accountable, make reparations, and fix things that need fixing. Hopefully, the publicity this case attracts will inspire authorities and politicians to work that much harder to ensure that conditions that allow something like this to happen, are rectified.

For anyone to commit such a heinous crime is appalling, but for members of those sworn "to serve and protect", it is nothing short of sickening. I just hope that justice will be served in the way of severe punishment for the guilty. The last thing we need is for the poor victim to be victimized again.

The Story.

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...

In praise of older...jockeys

Yesterday, a field of eight oldsters lined up for the fourth race at the Santa Anita thoroughbred racing track. However, in a twist, it was the jockeys that were older nags this time. Eight retired racing legends faced off in a bona fide race that saw Canadian Sandy Hawley mark his 6,450th victory.

Hawley, 59, won the Jockey Living Legends race on a horse named Tribal Chief, and was followed to the finish line by seven other retired Hall of Famers. They were, in order, Jerry Bailey, 45; Gary Stevens, 45; Pat Day, 55; Julie Krone, 45; Jacinto Vasquez, 64; Chris McCarron, 53, and Angel Cordero Jr., 65.

Hawley went gate to wire but Bailey had a chance to run him down in the stretch and had this to say after the race: "I got there, and then I had to try and remember what you do in that situation."

Meanwhile, Hawley was humble as he quipped "The horse dragged me to the wire. I got to the stretch, he was still running fine, so I had to tap him a couple of times with the whip to look like I was doing something."

Cordero was equal to the task, remarking "It's OK. I'm used to losing to these guys."

The crowd of 12,000 had a great time.