Pan Update

Movement is back from the ranch. I saw her fresh off the trailer and she looked like hell when she first got back. Jamey has her looking remarkable better after just a few weeks and she breezed an impressive 36 2/5 last week. She got out a bit after the wire, which was behavior we saw before she left. She is breezing tomorrow as well.

The Daily Racing form is back on the block. I'm not referencing any sources, but if memory serves it has sold between $47 million an d~$200 million the last three times it's exchanged hands.

TVG Drama

TVG had their big meeting Tuesday that on air personalities and other TVG personnel had been publicizing for some time now. Ostensibly they are trying to improve their product and are discussing new ideas. Some have speculated that they will also be addressing how to deal with the loss of Churchill tracks. I heard Mike Joyce joke on The Quarters that when he goes on vacation later this week, he might just have to leave his TVG badge behind. Although Joyce was clearly cracking wise, since they will likely lose substantial revenue near term as a result of losing Churchill, they may very well need to trim staff.

Recently there have been some good discussions in the comment sections of some fellow horse racing blogs. See Left at the Gate and these two posts from Pulling Hair. It's also very refreshing to see Dan Illman comment discuss frankly, without a politician's filter, some of the problems with TVG, HRTV & general distribution issues in Racing.

If anyone has any insight into what when on in the TVG meeting and what the prognosis over there is, please pipe up in the comments section.

--Much of the DRF staff and other elite handicappers and press members are already in Las Vegas as they prepare for the 2007 Horseplayers Expo. I would love to be a fly on the wall when DRF folks are getting smashed in Vegas and burning up the tables after the race books close.

I think it's only a matter of time before you start seeing DRF slash fiction sprinkled around the innerweb.

Tote Board Brad Published in Form

My letter to the Daily Racing Form editor [free subscription required, 4th letter down] regarding the dispute between Beulah Park and Ohio horsemen (drf story here) was published.

This is the first time I have written a letter to the DRF editor, and it's flattering that they included it among those they printed. At first my letter named Beulah owner Charlie Ruma instead of "track management" but after discussing it with an editor I agreed to change it. Beyond that, DRF editors changed my text only slightly, presumably to comply with their standards since I write like a blogger, and the letter is better for it. Probably the most substantial change they made was converting simpletons to simplistic thinkers. I believe calling the Charlie Rumas of the world thinkers, regardless of the modifier, is charitable. Nonetheless, I understand the Form not wanting a letter to appear like a hatchet job.