NOTABLE FOALS
Here they come. Foaling season has started and already we have our share young notables securely on the ground.

The well remembered Captiva Island the highly successful daughter of Sanabelle Island graced us with an Art Major colt.

Diva Godiva, the unlucky Angus Hall from Mars Bar who couldn’t get sold due to a bout with colic presented a great looking Muscles Yankee colt.

The rugged Anklet Hanover whose been knocking at the door of late just had a Yankee Glide colt who could be the one.

Camadian, the sister to Must See dropped a Rocknroll colt that may even be nicer than her $310,000 yearling from last year.

Got a full brother to the rugged Artcotic from Pumped…

Also got an outstanding Rocknroll Hanover colt from brilliant Lady Mattgalane and a sturdy Rocknroll Hanover colt from Hurrikane Cleo she from She’s A Daisy (Jennas Beach boy-She’s A Great Lady)

Waiting on the full brother or sister to Muscle Mass and Muscle Massive from Graceful Touch… A Cantab Hall from the celebrated Apecs… And our first Crazed from On The Muscle… These three are due any day now.

SUPER BOWL
Seems like a Super Bowl at Giants stadium in 2014 is more than just a pipedream. According to a number well placed mavens it’s more like reality.

Bandied about are plans are to locate the media headquarters at the Jacob Javits centre in New York which doesn’t do much for the state of New Jersey.

Unless, there’s a spanking new opulent Casino Hotel right on The Meadowlands premises capable of hosting much of the pre game pageantry in New Jersey where the stadium actually resides

Think about it.

A CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT
They’re gone. At least they’re going. The Thoroughbreds are finally slated to exit The Meadowlands heading south to Monmouth Park. Perhaps a long last the Harness industry has a chance to finally get it right.

From inception The Meadowlands was Harness Racing’s flagship racetrack as like the football teams, world class harness racing simply crossed the Hudson and established itself along Route 3.

The thoroughbreds never approached the harness impact. From inception, Meadowlands thoroughbreds were little more than a minor league annoyance to the powerful NYRA entrenched over at Aqueduct and Belmont but then again they didn’t offer anything really new.

While the mile track revolutionized metropolitan harness racing after decades of the half milers at Roosevelt and Yonkers, it was hardly a novelty to thoroughbred fans accustomed to the spacious mile and one half oval at Belmont and the mile and one eighth oval at Aqueduct.

Still we’ve often wondered what would have happened had The Meadowlands opened for Thoroughbreds instead of harness on that fateful September 1, 1976 but they didn’t and what transpired is of course now part of the official record.

SO WHAT NOW?
For the first time since inception the place is ours in the fall. It’s not hard to envision some kind fall championship extravaganza at a time when championships really should occur.

They can dub it the championship meet as they have in the past but realistically champions are not crowned in the late spring and early summer. The appropriate time for coronation is at the end of the season-something our thoroughbred brethren are acutely aware of.

Therefore, it stands to reason that the minds must get together to explore and exploit this sudden window of opportunity at the sport’s flagship racetrack and if that means a revamping of the Breeders Crown into some form of Breeders Cup three and up format so be it.

Just think, the media capital of the world remains right at the doorstep where it was in September of 1976 when the Meadowlands era truly all began.

FASTEST FOR AN EIGHTH
Been noticing opinions in various spots about just which harness horse may have been the fastest ever for a fractional portion say one quarter mile.

Have yet to actually read this one but part of the official record in black and white is the recording of an :11.2 for the final eighth of a one and one eighths mile by Adios Butler in a leg of the American Classics at Hollywood Park back when harness racing thrived out there in the golden state.

The mile was clocked in 1:59.4 and the final time was 2:11.1 which means “The Butler” clocked his final eighth in :11.2 which lengthened out would make for a :22.4 final quarter.

Heard many names bantered about in these somewhat informal discussions but don’t know of any who officially recorded that level of velocity in a sanctioned harness race.

ORCHESTRATED
So this important politician lectured his listener while in the midst of a thoroughbred-standardbred discussion at the local bagel shop. To add insult to injury, this fellow is known to indulge in thoroughbred punting from time to time as suggested by the racing form folded under his arm.

“We know it’s fixed we just can’t prove it” his honorable dignitary-ship droned on illustrating his and obviously some of his colleagues view of contemporary harness racing. While that’s hardly the case, the problem here is perception often supersedes reality and if that’s what they think about us “out there”, perhaps it is incumbent on us to address that perception.

Over the years there may have occasionally been some elements of truth to this kind of conjecture, not nearly so much now as perhaps back in the so called halcyon days. The problem now however is when these prevailing conclusions (or delusions if you will) were formulated “back then” little has happened to alter any prevailing convictions on the part of these concluders. The very same concluders we so desperately need in the battle to preserve our racing legacy.

Bob Marks