Railbird 2004–2019

Miscellany Archive

Links for 2010-02-13

Zeljko Ranogajec believed to be Australia's biggest punter

"Once the overseas betting turnover of his 24-hour, seven-day operation is taken into account, his total annual betting spend globally is believed to be well over $1 billion." More from a related article on Ranogajec: "Advantages like the sophisticated information and rebates stack the deck in favour of professionals like Mr. Ranogajec and other internationally renowned punters like American Bill Benter, over average punters."

(tags: horseracing wagering australia)
Computerised attack on horseracing

Article from 2000 about bettor Bill Benter, an early adopter of computer wagering. "If we do make money, the money has to come from somewhere. Well, yes, the general public loses a somewhat higher ratio." See also: This 2003 Wired piece on Hong Kong computer teams. "Working from mathematical models that are calculated to deliver a 24 percent return on investments, Hong Kong's most sophisticated computer-assisted bettors operate with long-term certainty of what their profits should be."

(tags: horseracing wagering hong-kong)
What's the one skill journos need right now?

Hustle. Passion. Subject knowledge.

(tags: journalism entrepreneurship)

Posted in Miscellany on February 13, 2010 / Tagged Bill Benter, Handle, Technology, Wagering, Whales, Zelijko Ranogajec

That’s Not a Mint Julep

… Mad Men character Peggy Olsen is holding in the video still below, found on the official Churchill Downs’ “Plan Your Derby Party” page:

Video still from Mad Men, season three, episode three

At least it’s not Roger Sterling in blackface singing “My Old Kentucky Home.” That really could have been embarrassing.

From the Twitterverse: Says o_crunk, “@EJXD2 solid marketing. Ganja goes down better than a mint julep. Untapped potential in couch potato potheads waiting to get hooked on TVG.” Of course! Churchill is wisely reaching out.

2/8/10 Update: So, it wasn’t subversive marketing, after all. The Derby Party page is now free of all mentions of Mad Men and the episode three video clip.

Posted in Miscellany on February 4, 2010 / Tagged Churchill Downs, Derby Parties, Funny, Kentucky Derby, Mad Men

Miss Milfred’s Ambition

From the Saint Paul Daily Globe, August 10, 1892:

CHICAGO, ILL., Aug. 9. — Frances Milfred would like to be a jockey. She is from Missouri and knows how to handle a horse. Being fond of outdoor exercise and a lover of excitement, she is determined to do something besides play the typewriter or call “cash.” She is now visiting Chicago, and will not return to St. Joe unless she fails to secure a position with some owner of fast horses. It is her ambition to come down the stretch in a whipping finish and land her horse about two lengths ahead of Fox, Goodale, Overton, Penny and other slim-waisted young men who think they can ride.

Miss Milfred, after coming to Chicago a month ago, visited Washington Park and watched the flyers for several successive days. She lost $13.50 in cash ventures, but discovered a new sphere for women. The more she watched the races the more firmly she became convinced that she could learn to ride as well as any one else. Once she had been in the Kiralfy chorus and had made only $10 a week. When she heard that jockeys often made $100 for winning one race, that settled it.

Saturday evening the following “ad” appeared in one of the papers:

LADY aged twenty-five, from West, good rider, would like to learn to be a jockey. Address S. B. 84.

An encouraging letter addressed to S. B. 84 brought a reply that Miss Frances Milfred would be at home Monday at No. 17 Upton Street. There she was found, in the bottom flat, a brown-haired, slim young lady of pleasant features and a desire to explain her ambition.

“In the first place, my weight is all right,” said she. “With me it is a serious matter. I want to do something to make a living, and believe I would make a good jockey. Ever since I can remember I have been accustomed to handling horses. Four years ago I was counted the best rider in St. Joe, and once I won a race at a county fair. Do you see any reason why a young lady should not be a jockey? No. Neither do I. My folks would object, of course, but if I don’t succeed here I’m going East and try it.”

The original “jockette”?

Posted in Miscellany on January 28, 2010 / Tagged Frances Milfred, Gumption, Jockeys, Racing History, Research, Women in Racing

Links for 2010-01-27

Meydan fights the doubters

"Dubai remains ideally placed as the potential nexus of a maturing international sport. Certainly there will be a far greater geographical spread of competition than at the Breeders' Cup…. Moreover the World Cup, previously staged on dirt, will now be contested on a synthetic surface…. [At Santa Anita] there is now distressing talk of the synthetic track being restored to dirt. One conceivable reward for this shocking regression might be a permanent contract to stage the Breeders' Cup. If that were so, the painful but necessary catharsis currently underway in the American sport would be disastrously reversed by its reactionaries. And their inevitable isolation would provide an obvious cue for Meydan."

(tags: horseracing dubai meydan breeders-cup)
Meydan may be the $1bn future of world horse racing

"The next step has always been obvious: a festival meeting at the other end of the season. The question is whether the Sheikh still has the energy, the clout and, for that matter, the money to make it happen. Were it not for the unfortunate matter of the entire country nearly going bust a few months ago, the timing would seem ideal. The Breeders' Cup awarded itself the subtitle 'World Thoroughbred Championships' several years ago, but it will be back on dirt this year after two years on an artificial surface. Now that even Santa Anita is apparently ready to reinstall dirt too, American racing seems more inward-looking than ever."

(tags: horseracing dubai meydan breeders-cup)
What I hope Apple unleashes [today]

"… an Apple device that leverages the power of the iTunes store, that makes it easy to buy and read digital content, that opens up for participation from all kinds of publishers, that puts books and magazines on the same level as movies and TV â€¦ it could be the missing piece of the puzzle."

(tags: media publishing design content multimedia apple tablet)
iJournalism: Why even Steve Jobs can't keep secrets anymore

"Almost poignantly, newspaper reporters have stepped up their game, too — and not just because the old-school media executives Apple has been partnering with are such helpless gossips and NDA violators. ‘The New York Times company â€¦ is developing a version of its newspaper for the tablet, according to a person briefed on the effort,’ the Times recently reported about the Times. For bloggers, reporting about Apple is great sport, but for the inky set, it's existential. (See: Carr, David.) It's really no wonder we've been witnessing such dogged journalism about Apple's tablet, a product journalists hope will be the salvation of journalism — and journalists."

(tags: media publishing design content multimedia apple tablet)