Under the Lights

re: Under the Lights

sweet terchi — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:44:08 GMT

You know, we should be running things!!

re: Under the Lights

Soldier Course — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:06:46 GMT

sweet terchi:

Your idea about Harry Connick Jr. is great! Remember, Harry is from New Orleans and probably has at least a fondness for horsse racing because of Fair Grounds being there. And Fair Grounds is still owned by Churchill Downs Inc., isn't it? Shouldn't take much of a leap to make this happen.

re: Under the Lights

sweet terchi — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:48:11 GMT

Soldier, you hit on a great idea. I bet it would be a smash because folks always love to dress as stars! If Harry Connick Jr. was recruited to sing Frank's songs, the track would be in the $$$. Plus a lot of new people exposed to the sport,... win win situation!

re: Under the Lights

Soldier Course — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:27:04 GMT

MonicaV, sweet terchi, Paula:

If GunBow is right and a Sinatra rage is surging among the younger set, then Churchill Downs could have a Sinatra Night theme in the fall for one of its nights under the lights.

Everyone, young and old, could come out to the track spiffed up like Frank, Ava Gardner, Dean, Sammy, Shirley MacLaine, Lauren Bacall, etc. No problem about music selections in the Paddock. "Swanky" comes back to Louisville! How long has it been since we've heard that word?

re: Under the Lights

sweet terchi — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:07:23 GMT

Monica, Paula and Soldier,

Keep on Truckin' girls!! Peace.

re: Under the Lights

Billy's Empire — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:47:43 GMT

You of all people should know that knowledge is king, so just research. yeah, Zenyatta at 129 is asking a lot, but she will still win regardless. Azeri did it in 03. Chip Wooley has been hangin out at Kern's Korner in the Ville, stop by and have a drink with him...

re: Under the Lights

StardustyRose — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:12:15 GMT

Jason you are so funny LOL. I hate car racing.

Audra. Isn't that ticker funny? Love that thing. Very creative I must say. Be ware folks Dray Nay is coming back sooner than later.

re: Under the Lights

MonicaV — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:03:58 GMT

Soldier Course, Paula and Sweet Terchi,

Our time was a great time! So much going on during those years, good and bad. Great music, great movies and great horses but we also had Viet Nam and the Manson murders that ended the Hippie movement. It was an interesting time to say the least. I saw the Beatles in concert in 1966 at Dodger Stadium. It was great! I also saw Elvis in Vegas. I watched Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed win their TC's on Television. Those were the days!

In the 80's I went to Kentucky twice and visited all 3 of the TC winners and went to the Horse Park and saw John Henry and Forego. I'm so happy I did that as all of those great horses are gone now.

re: Under the Lights

LAZMANNICK — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:13:54 GMT

AS far as the Danica Patrick post being legit.....from my limited knowledge of auto racing Danica drives on the Indy Circuit, not Formula One.....maybe Danica's just having a bad day and can't remember what kind of car she drives.

re: Under the Lights

Shawn P — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:14:11 GMT

I'm pretty sure Danica knows her gig with Formula One fell through last year.

Wow, amazing what gets past you guys, was Turcotte real?

Racing under the lights? After the failure of the VLT bills it may be turn out the lights the party's over.

re: Under the Lights

Soldier Course — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:57:36 GMT

MonicaV, sweet terchi, and Paula Higgins:

Was the Frank-Nancy duet "Something Stupid"?

The world will NEVER hear another Frank Sinatra. The Voice went straight to your emotional center.

My favorite Sinatra song: "Violets For Your Furs", from the 1950s Capitol album "Songs for Young Lovers"

re: Under the Lights

Audra — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:16:04 GMT

Jason--you just can't make everyone happy!!! I think horse racing needs a major marketing overhaul in general--there are many great people they could use to draw people in to all the opportunities that are available in the sport AND gain new fans. And I agree--the "girl jocks" would be nice to see in a campaign--I still remember growing up when Julie Krone was pretty much the ONLY female you heard about and it has been great in recent years to see some of the female trainers really making a name for themselves as well. Horse racing really has an opportunity right now to capitalize on some interesting horses and stories to lure in new fans AND hopefully keep them around!!

BTW--I just love the Dray counter--I get a good laugh every time I see it!!!

re: Under the Lights

Paula Higgins — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:44:56 GMT

Monica V and Sweet Terchi, we belong to a wonderful generation when music was transformational and Secretariat was King of the World. As for Frank Sinatra, absolutely the greatest (and yes I remember the Nancy and Frank song)along with Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis, Nat King Cole, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Jethro Tull, Eric Clapton, and The Birds.

Lazmannick, not to worry. I don't think you're a sexist at all. I never label people. It's always a mistake. People have many more sides than a single label has the ability to define them.

Don't hate me everyone, but I miss Draynay. Mrs. Draynay and their schnauzers.

On another note, I wish there was a bigger field for Rachel to show her stuff.

Jason, I think car racing is boring too. It's a bunch of people driving around in circles a la Ricky Bobby. Mindless to me.

re: Under the Lights

Jason Shandler — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:14:07 GMT

Billy's Empire: Who cares? It's car racing. It's all boring no matter what you call it.

Soldier Course: Im not sure. I doubt it but u never know.

re: Under the Lights

StardustyRose — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:45:22 GMT

Oh God help us. 16 days till Draynay comes back LOL! Boy time flies. Geeeeeeeeeesh!

re: Under the Lights

Paula Higgins — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:51:36 GMT

Actually Jason, you are pretty close to right about Nascar and Danica Patrick. The NYT's and SI both had articles about her jumping to NASCAR within a year and how that would raise the visibility of NASCAR even more and provide her with endorsements out the whazoo. So you were pretty much right.

re: Under the Lights

The Rock — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:07:54 GMT

Jason,

129lbs. for Zenyatta. Any chance Shireffs will change his mind and run her in the Gold Cup and let Life is Sweet run in the Vanity at 122lbs? Seems the way to go IMO.

re: Under the Lights

sweet terchi — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:06:20 GMT

Monica V and Paula Higgins: same situation here! Funny thing though, when they start mentioning things that they think are new, I tell them not so, they get all starry eyed wishing they were born in my time frame!! One example (of many), one of the boys was in a rock band modeled after the Doors, wore the t-shirt and the whole bit. Asked me to listen to a demo cd, but he wasn't sure if "I would get it, because it was along the lines of classic rock, you know, like the Doors". (For some reason they seem to think I am only five to ten yrs their senior). Blew the poor boy away when I smiled and informed not only did I go to their concerts in person, but also possess every vinyl LP they released in original condition, plus posters, and t-shirts. Original ones. He was my "slave" till he left for LA! I find they are fun to be around, although they help keep me "young", I am glad I was born when I was. Simply groovy.

re: Under the Lights

Billy's Empire — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:06:42 GMT

First of all, the night racing was a success as far as attendance, but the rest of the night was terrible, and CD even admitted droppnig the ball. The lines were WAY to long, to bet, to drink, to get food... You were waiting 2-30 minutes for a beer, and people were passing out from the heat and humidity. I saw at least 8 people get put on a stretcher. The COO says they are going to double the beer trucks and triple the wait staff next friday, as well as have beer vendors walk thru the crowd like on Derby. So we will see. Second, please do not talk about topics that you know nothing about, and that goes for Jason and whoever decided to sign on as Danica. Danica races in the Indy Car Series, not NASCAR, and not Formula 1. They are all three very different race series. As for the hot women jockeys, I have seen my fair share of smoking hot exercise riders, but not as many jockeys. I do think though that could be a nice angle to get a different crowd to the track, just like the advertising did for R/A in the preakness. The ladies would not be exploited, and trust me on this, if they were not good riders, they would have no mounts and no credibility to ride in big races, but they have paid their dues and maybe deserve a shot in the limelight to help the sport. Danica is a good driver, and finished in the top 5 in all but one or two races this year, and she is not too bad on the eyes I must say..... Anyway, Churchill better get their act together this weekend.

re: Under the Lights

slyder — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:39:00 GMT

Night racing in the summer is the way to go. For one it allows more patrons the chance to come to the track after work. It also can be better on the horses on a hot day as it's much cooler at night.

I was at my "home" track last Thursday night (Canterbury Park) and they do a nice job trying to attract patrons by offering $1.00 hot dogs, sodas, nachos,and 2.50 beer or wines. They attract a young crowd on nights like this. Canterbury has a card club that supplements purse structure and they would not survive without. Just this past week they added two blackjack tables located right at the finish line so card players could view the races and play cards at the same time. The table was full the entire card. I give the owners credit for trying new ideas all the time.

I have an interesting story from Thursday night to add. Track owner Curtis Sampson invited a special guest to attend the races with him that night. Bert Blyleven who pitched for the Minnesota Twins at the beginning of his career then made stops with the Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates (where he was part of a World Series Championship), Cleveland Indians, and finished his career with the Twins (where he was part of another World series Championahip) was his guest. Blyleven has inexplicibly not been voted into Baseballs Hall Of Fame (he had 284 career wins, over 3500 strikeouts, 60 complete game shutouts, and 240 complete games) and is rather outspoken about it. Thursday Sampson raced one of his own horses named Bertsquestforfame. Now I always pay extra attention to any horse run by Sampson as they are almost always well meant and competitive. In this case by putting two and two together for me it was a no brainer that this horse was going to run big (why would he invite Bert to see the horse falter). Also entered in the same race was a horse named Bizet who went off as the prohibitive favorite. Bizet had raced earlier in the year at Gulfstream Park which alone would attract money at a smaller track like Canterbury. To add to his resume Bizet had faced Dunkirk and run with him for most of the race until losing by a very respectable 6 lengths in Dunkirks 7f win. After facing Dunkirk he went on to face Santana Six twice running repectfully both times. In this sprint race he looked like a "sure" winner to most. Bertsquestforfame went off at a mouth watering (to me) 10.8/1 and won wire to wire giving me a very profitable night indeed. I still can't believe they let him go off at those odds. Bizet on the other hand could only manage third. Needless to say my night racing experience and the one of the nice looking group of young ladies who I advised to put some money on this horse turned out pretty good.

re: Under the Lights

Monica V — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:46:32 GMT

Soldier Course,

There will never be anyone like Sinatra. I miss him too. Such a great voice. Remember when he and Nancy Jr made a recording in the mid sixties?

Paula,

You're absolutely right?

re: Under the Lights

LDP — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:38:11 GMT

Gun Bow,

I get where you come from, but if RA were a colt nobody would say that the schedule i planned is too ambitious. I feel if she is trained for the level of competion she will get when racing the colts she'll excell. Before the Preakness she was trained for the level the fillies offered, so when she went into the Preakness she could've not been at her best.

This year i hope JJ stays east. I do not think synthetics were the cause of Curlin's loss last year, i think the very early move and lack of real preperation left him somewhat short. Saying this i still don't think the Cup should be run on a surface that the jury is still out on. Churchill is a great track, why not hold it there? I'm not saying to never hold it on synthetics, but a race that is traditionally over dirt should not be run over a completely different surface. If you want a race in the Cup for synthetics make a race that is designated for those synthetic specialists, just like turf horses have the turf. Also staying east, and mainly in NY would benifit RA with not having to move around too much. I strongly feel she may be just as good as ruffian was, meaning she could take on these races. I really hope she proves me right.

re: Under the Lights

GunBow — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:11:35 GMT

To emphasize whay Sally in Indiana has already stated, Danica Patrick does race for NASCAR. She is an Indy-car driver. No big deal, but facts are facts.

re: Under the Lights

Soldier Course — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:56:30 GMT

Jason:

Was that really Danica Patrick at 6:26 on June 20th?

I'm like you - know little or nothing about car racing. I thought Paul Newman raced for NASCAR, until I came across a clarification about his open-wheel racing.

Paul Newman's participation in car racing elevated my opinion of the sport, not because he was beautiful (and boy was he!), but because he was so accomplished in his acting career and devoted to his marriage.

I also was moved is by his generous charitable contributions and endeavors. Paul Newman was a true ambassador for the sport of car racing. Horse racing would be lucky to have someone like him to represent our sport.

re: Under the Lights

LAZMANNICK — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:56:27 GMT

Paula Higgins:

Lazmannick, what has Danica Patrick done for Nascar? Well for starters, she has raised its profile among women. No mean feat when you are talking about women and car racing in the same sentence. As for the men, she is not hard on the eyes and when she jumps out of that car in her figure hugging suit, well it's obvious what she does for men. At least that's what my husband would say.

I don't disagree with what you are saying except that Danica doesn't drive Nascar. She drives the Indy cars. So if you're trying to peg me as sexist, guess what.....I'm not.