AT THE RAIL WITH NAGS AND WAGS: Betting Made Harder: Blinkers On

With the retirement of Ramon Dominguez in New York racing picking a winner is that much harder. Ramon was always good for at least three wins a day and instilled confidence in punters. His presence is greatly missed. I wish him all the best.
That, toppled with the difficulty of obtaining race day information is making betting impossible. I guess when the casinos come in for real it will kill horse racing altogether. Ironic isn't it that my blog page won't allow me to have advertising on it because they consider my site has gambling content, yet people have less of a problem with sitting in front of machines and losing their money? I don't like gambling as much as I like horses. Some days I have the horse racing channel on at home and the sound turned down just because it's a nice backdrop.
When I say I like horse racing, people always ask me if I go to casinos but I don't. They don't appreciate the difference between betting on a beautiful live animal and sitting at a table simply watching cards or dice. There is no comparison and not worth explaining to people who just don't get it. They probably wouldn't enjoy a trip the the museum to see a Monet either, so why waist your breath. The only time you will ever see me cry by-the-way is at a major horse race and sometimes in the presence of great art.
Mondays and Tuesdays are my favorite days to dabble. I like watching Ernie Munick and Richard Migliore on Raceday. If I want to play Parx now I have to go out and buy a Daily Racing Program for $6 or a Form for $7.50. Both give me cards from all over the country but I only want to play the main local east coast tracks I can see on my home TV; like Parx, Finger Lakes and Delaware. That's enough opportunities to lose money and when I'm done I can cook dinner. It's not like I have to watch all the west coast races into the night.
Last week I thoroughly enjoyed the hurdle races at Parx, what a treat that was to have three on the same card. I was sick all week with a nasty sinus infection but went downtown to the one and only store that sells racing forms and lotto to get one. It's always a worry I'll get mugged around there but what can I do. The Post no longer prints a simple entries page with the past three performances, The Daily News at least does that for Belmont but not for Parx. All we get is the name of the horse and the price which isn't any help. The price is going to change a lot by post time so what good is that? Would it kill them to put three simple numbers or an x after the horses name. It's not like these papers print any other ground breaking news: golf manages to get front page and Kim fxxxxxx Kardashian. I could buy the form on the computer from Equibase but unless I print it out it's difficult to constantly switch back from their screen to my online betting account. There's not enough time to place the bet if I see something, or get a tip on the telie that changes my mind. It was simply easier to mark up the newspaper and bet on one device. The sole reason I bought the Post or Daily News was for the horse racing and if anyone saw me with either I would quickly tell them so.

I grew up in a country that loves horse racing, Australia. I took my first transistor radio to school with me at age six to listen to the Melbourne Cup. Class used to stop so all the kids could listen to the race. The entire country stops for the running of "The Melbourne Cup". I learnt to read the paper from back to front like most everyone I knew, starting at the back cover page where the horse racing articles and pictures where. And, I might not have learnt to read at all if it wasn't for the enticing photographs of race horses on those pages.
When I came to America I couldn't understand why I had to plough through pages and pages of ball sports in the hopes of finding something about a race. I was utterly disgusted when the major races didn't make the front page. People thought I was odd but I was raised with Phar Lap syndrome: crying over a horse that died 27 years before I was born. I never stopped crying over him, Phar Lap syndrome is incurable. In my birth country they are putting Black Caviar on a coin and a stamp. The whole country has turned salmon with black spots, another incurable affliction we are proud of. That's how we honor a racing legend.
Today, I have a Bachelor's in English Lit. and a Masters in Writing. I read the complete works of Shakespeare and still say the most enjoyable book I ever read was William Nack's, Secretariat: The Making of a Champion.

PHAR LAP IN HIS GLASS CASE AT THE MELBOURNE MUSEUM