While checking out some of John Daly's funky golf pants the other day, I started thinking about the Skins Game, a made-for-TV golf event, usually held around Thanksgiving which would bring together that year's hottest names in golf.

With all of the bad news out there in sports lately, isn't the timing perfect for a horse to capture a nation and propel our sport back on the front pages?

Back in September, Gathering the Wind had an excellent post titled with another word I had to look up (stochastics) regarding horse racing stewards and how they are simply out of the public eye. This being unlike the big four, wherein the referees or umpires must make a call in plain view and in the case of hockey and football are miked to explain the foul or decision at hand.

So we've had 22 days of racing on the new Pro-Ride surface at the Oak Tree Meet at Santa Anita through today and what have we learned. Well for one, it takes a long time to chart the analysis of every synthetic race to see if there are any angles out there.

Back in June, Gene Kershner mentioned briefly on his EquiSpace blog that it might be time to change the format of the Triple Crown races. Heresy, you say?