Here to Stay

No sport or game is perfect and naysayers are plentiful but there are people like Sports Talk Personality Jim Rome who just "get it" and understand how great this game is. With people like him around this game will never die.

You can just feel his enthusiasm in his tweet yesterday on his Twitter account (@jimrome) about his Stable's win with 3 year old Diamond Geezah in the 7th at Santa Anita yesterday.

Jim Rome
jimrome Jim Rome
Just saw the replay:Diamond Geezah with huge heart! @JoeTalamo tearing up the hill. Big ups to Mike Mitchell. Congrats to Dan Capen. Insane.

He posted 10 separate Tweets about the win on his Twitter feed.

And with over 228,000 followers to his Twitter site, that's a good thing.

Poll Numbers

In today's edition of USA Today, they published the results of 325 people who were asked: What Sports Commissioner needs to Go?

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig led all vote getter's with 42% saying he should go, followed by David Stern (NBA) with 20%, Gary Bettman at 14% and NFL's Roger Goodell with 10%. 14% said none-they are all doing a good job.

The Thoroughbred Industry does not have a commissioner but the closest thing we have is Alex Waldrop, the NTRA President and CEO. What do you think the % of Yes votes would be for him needing to go?

4-letter word for the iron fitting on the hoof of a horse or a card-dealing box in a casino?

Answer: What is a Shoe?



See I knew you were as smart as an IBM Super Computer.

NYRA continues to Brand

In the wake of the closure of the New York City OTB, The New York Racing Association (NYRA) continues to move forward and further brand the NYRA name.

After the NYC OTB closure NYRA quickly reached out to the abandoned OTB players with incentives to sign up for a NYRA Rewards betting account.

They than opened up the Belmont Cafe on the ground floor at Belmont Park. The cafe is a clean, heated simulcast facility with a cafe and bar. They pay track prices on all payouts too.

Yesterday, NYRA announced the debut of a NYRA produced Television program to be shown in the New York City area on Channel 71, which was the old NYC OTB Simulcast channel. NYRA has taken over the channel, now called the NYRA Network. The show will be shown live twice a week, (Wednesday & Saturday at 9:30 am) and focus not only on the NYRA circuit, but the National scene as well as the Triple Crown preps. Jason Blewitt and Andy Serling will host.

All pretty good branding if you ask me. Important stuff, just ask Arianna Huffington how important branding can be for your properties- as it did with The Huffington Post.