Harness Players Newsletter presented by theStable.ca Vol. 11
Well it’s Derby Week and the start of the five week Thoroughbred Triple Crown. Many eyes that normally wouldn’t pay much attention to horse racing find the sport during this time of year. I was thinking about the mountain of coverage that the Derby gets in many different spaces. Weeks ahead of the race there are previews, every horse is carefully analyzed by people that “know” and people that think they might. Workouts are filmed, trailer walk offs are even documented. Is it the dream that is being sold? What makes it matter so much to so many? What is amazing is it’s not hard to get sucked in. Anyone interested in racing on even a mild basis gets excited for the Derby. They pack 170,000 people into Churchill Downs on a yearly basis. Hell, Churchill Downs, Inc. is a publically traded company with a market cap of 9.6 billion dollars. Million of dollars was just invested into a state of the art paddock that they can charge 8-12000 per ticket for this event. Did I mention it’s sold out? Super Bowl tickets this past year in Vegas were going for less. The NFL is the most popular sport in the world and one could argue the Super Bowl is the most popular event, yet it costs more $ to attend the Derby. Is Churchill really selling horse racing? Sure they will put 20 in the gate for 2 minutes and someone will wear the roses. But are the people paying $12000 a ticket putting time into handicapping the race and picking winners all day? I would argue not. They are selling status. The want people on their phones saying “I am here at the Derby”. Guess what? It works. Racing is the backdrop. The event is a spectacle. Harness racing has nothing close but we can piggyback off the event and having big days at their racing facilities. Can harness racing find a way to sell that dream to people? I am not sure that is realistic, but we certainly have big races and big horses and big dreams. How about Karl is week prepping for the new season? He looks primed…..could he be the best ever? I was talking to Thomas Svenson this week prior to recording a podcast and he seems to think its possible. I personally can’t wait for the new Grand Circuit to get going. The dream is alive for many, lets get them behind the gate.
Enjoy your Derby weekend, I will be at The Meadows Saturday hanging with Jeff Zidek and Kevin Plowcha so tune into the broadcast because we will be bringing winners.
Sweden pods return this week and Fraser wraps up. Mohawk coming soon as well as other Grand Circuit coverage. More thestable.ca content too. The Laura Brower podcast has over 1100 his so far so I’m going to keep plugging it. I’ll post a link below.
~Mikee P
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Harness Players Podcast
Latest Episodes
Harness Players’ Podcast — Fraser Friday | Hello, Sweden
This week on the Harness Players’ Podcast, join host Ray Cotolo as he and guest analyst Kevin Plowcha kick off the show by breaking down the Late Pick 4 sequence at Fraser Downs for Friday, May 3rd.
To wrap the show, Edison Hatter, Mike Pribozie and Thomas Svensen take a trip overseas to Aby, Sweden to prepare for the 2024 edition of Paralympiatravet, the first major race of the year on the Swedish Harness Racing schedule. The trio give out selections for a few featured races on the 12-race card that will get underway Saturday morning at 8:45 am EDT.
For daily harness racing analysis and selections, be sure to check nahupicks.com for contenders at tracks across North America.
The Week Ahead from Kevin Plowcha
It's a HUGE weekend around harness racing as many of the sire stakes programs are kicking off this Saturday. These feature the three year olds that are returning from their stellar two year old seasons and look to shine even brighter on the stage this year. Those are the main focus of this week's "Week Ahead".
A total of six SBOA eliminations for three-year-old horses span Friday and Saturday at Woodbine Mohawk Park. It's the 3YO fillies on Friday, including stars from last year such as $682,000 earner Pass Line, as well as $500,000 earners It's A Love Thing and Willy's Home Run. Saturday's eliminations feature the boys and returners like Funtime Bayama, Storm Shadow, Do Better, and Chain Gang.
Saturday at Mohawk also features three Canadian Graduate Series finals ($75,000). All three favorites lost last week in the final preliminary leg (Ghostly Casper, Talk Curdy To Me, and Write Me A Rose). All three draw inside post positions that should help them with possible rebound efforts in the finals.
It's a big day at Miami Valley as a total of five Ohio Sire Stakes events take place for a total of $530,000 in purses. It's the return of superstars like Clever Cody, who won the Scarlet Championship and finished third in the Metro Pace.
Miami Valley also has the Pacey "The Wizard" Mindlin Memorial FFA race this Saturday, featuring a stacked field of eight. There's a few names you might know here... such as: Borgata champ Hellabalou, as well as known dynamo Little Rocket Man. Don't forget about Taurasi, who has been dominating the Mohawk Preferred ranks, and the returns of Stockade Seelster and Christchurch.
The Meadows kicks off PA Sire Stakes action with a trio of them on Saturday as well. Timeisonmyside is 5-for-5 this year for TheStable and just sent a new lifetime mark of 1:51.1. Who knows how much more speed he has? He'll have to contend with two sharp Meadowlands shippers, the well-bred Its Saturday Night and Rush In.
The Toscano barn brings another fast gelding to PA on Saturday (they usually do) with Tenacious Hanover, but so does TheStable with Arson, and it's hard to forget about Booming Economy who made nearly $200,000 last season. The big question for some around the country this weekend is: How ready will some of these stars be after just one qualifier or one race? Time will tell.
The Dexter Cup Final takes place Saturday at Freehold, while two eliminations for the Lady Suffolk will also take place.
New Jersey Sire Stakes and the first leg of the Miss Versatility take place at The Meadowlands this Saturday. The sire stakes feature Better Is Nice, who made over $500k last season, as well as Pulp Fiction. Both leave from outside posts. Leg one of the Miss Versatility sees a short but powerful field of five, with Tactical Mounds listed as the 3-2 ML favorite.
The second legs of both the Kentucky and Maryland sire stakes are on tap Monday (5/6) and Tuesday (5/7) respectively, which help round out our week.
If you want to see these stars in action, this is the weekend to do it! Find those free PPs, get comfy, and watch some of the best in the sport duke it out on the biggest stage. It's only going to get better and better from here.
Spot Plays for the Weekend of 5/3 and 5/4 presented by Nahupicks.com
Western Fair Friday Race 1 (4) Wheelin My Bentley at 7/2 makes his second career start after a solid third last week. He’s a must play in the opening leg of our very popular PICK 5 wager - single up the 6 in Race 2 and then go deep in the next 3 legs…Let’s go!
~Sugar Doyle
Meadowlands Friday Race 2- (3) Stormcloudfashion
Meadowlands Friday Race 8- (2) Caballero is work a look, they think he is a Hambo horse, DD up.
Aby Saturday Sweden V75-2 (8) Kinglet Bird V75-3 Lexus B.R is a freak
~Thomas Svenson
Woodbine Mohawk Friday Race 2 - (2) Twin B Crunch Time- improving, better post, excellent closing quarter last time.
~Doug Henwood
Century Downs, Saturday Race 5 Skys Little Spunk- recent claim to the Brandon Campbell stable. injured Brandon hires Mike to send this one right down the highway and I don’t think they catch her.
~Murray Slough
Meadowlands Saturday Race 2- (2) Call Me Goo - she was wrapped up in her 1st start this year. She has added value against her biggest rival. The win won’t be easy, but she is ready for a big mile.
~Rod Allums, Jr.
Woodbine Mohawk Saturday Race 11 Saulsbrook Ian paced a 53 flat back 1/2 in this season debut which should set him up perfectly for a more aggressive try this week.
~Garnet Barnsdale
Saturday Freehold Race 10- (6) Sir Pinocchio - started his year with a strong win from a tough post at Yonkers after having a solid enough two-year old campaign that included a victory in the Excelsior Final in New York. He will have to overcome an outside post this afternoon, but he’s one of several I could see winning in this group.
~Edison Hatter
BONUS: KY DERBY Pick from Edison- (11) Forever Young- has been very impressive in his two most recent starts in the Middle East. Japan continues to become more prominent on the World Racing stage each year and I think this is finally the year they bring a KY Derby winner to the States.
Monday Oak Grove Race 8 - (6) Ahadi As - horse debuted solidly and had decent 3 year old form. Draw stinks but horse came charging well enough that he could handle the class hike.
~Ray Cotolo
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