On this, my birthday...

...the forecast is for bright sunshine, followed by bright sunshine, followed by...






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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...

Living in the bizarro world

It was a glorious day, today--bright sunshine, a few puffy clouds in the sky, a light breeze blowing and about 80 F. I should remind/inform you that I live in The Great White North. A place where we are no strangers to some of the coldest, most severe weather on the planet. So, imagine my surprise when while I was out, I spotted several people wearing jackets. Granted, it wasn't one of the balmy, humid days in the 90's we regularly get this time of year, but still, it certainly was a shorts and t-shirt day.

Now, you may be thinking that I observed people sporting suit jackets or blazers. Nope. I'm talking regular jackets generally worn for protection against the elements. And now, for the kicker: One guy was wearing one of those bubble-type winter jackets. Not an old guy who's always cold, or afflicted with dementia--a guy in his 20's. Okay, it was sleeveless, but c'mon, now. These are the dog days, bud. What are you going to do in January? Hibernate? Do these people know they're living in the bizarro world? Are their friends too embarrassed to tell them they um, dress funny? Do they not have friends to guide them? Were their friends over-dressed today, too? I would have asked, but who knows how a guy who lives in bizarro land might react. I wouldn't want an anvil dropped on me.