JC / Railbird

Euro Take

On the news that the Santa Anita track will return to dirt:

“I’m disappointed because the European horses won’t be as effective in the BC and I can’t win as much money on backing them through the Yankie [sic] Tote.” — TiltEngine88, United Kingdom / 09:52pm – 19 Aug 10

With the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, that would have been the case this year and next anyway, TiltEngine88! And don’t forget, you still have the Turf.

Rich Eng makes a very sensible point regarding the surface change:

I don’t think this will be the game changer that many others expect it to be. The problems in California racing run a lot deeper.

Also, horsemen and horseplayers: “it’s put-up-or-shut-up time.”

Elsewhere: I haven’t done a links post in several weeks, but the bookmarking never stopped. If you liked those posts, you may like my Delicious account, to which I’ve recently saved more reactions to Santa Anita’s return to dirt, a flashback to racing at the 2001 Brockton fair, a guide to HTML5 for journalists, a summer cocktail recipe, an interview with novelist Gary Shteyngart …