Mountaineer spruces up as WV Derby nears
Here at Turf Luck, I've been known to mention my disappointment in the Mountaineer Race Track website. I've ranted -- in what I hope has been a charming, mild-mannered librarian sort of way -- about its lack of helpful information in at least two previous posts. (The mild-mannered ravings of a frustrated librarian may be found here and here.)
But the winds of change have been ablowin' on the mountain top, and recently, I noticed some improvements on the ole Mountaineer website. Yes, the casino music is still a bit annoying, but there have been some nice additions:
- Charts of all of this year's stakes races. Yes, you can now discover the winner of all of this year's stakes races. Perhaps it's not earth-shaking, but I've enjoyed reading the results of those races I missed over the winter, and of course, we all want to know how Calvin Borel fared in the Slipton Fell Handicap. (Not so good.)
- Photos of past winners Bright One, Real Dandy, Sir Shackleton, Soto, and Wiseman's Ferry. These really add a bit of pizzazz to the list of past winners that's always been on the site.
- Brief biographies and photos of 2005's leading jockeys and trainers. Why 2005? I don't know, but at least there's now a photo of Dale Baird, winner of more than 9,000 races, on his local track's website.
I'm off to warm up the LaserJet for a marathon printing session ... but not before I send a shout-out to those oft-maligned folk at Mountaineer: THANKS!
3 comments:
Ok, I'll have to check out the MNR web site once again, cheesy music and all. It'd be nice to see more info on the players there (jocks, trainers, etc.). So I'll see what's out there.
The only other thing I'd like to be able to locate is the email address for Mark and Nancy. They mentioned it once on their show, but I missed it. It'd be nice to send off an "atta boy" or "good call" on their selections, which I listen to diligently when I play that track.
That's not a shabby list ... while I highly (highly!) doubt that they'll actually run, a number of TC horses were nominated:
Any Given Saturday, Bwana Bull, C P West, Circular Quay, Cowtown Cat, Curlin, Dominican, Imawildandcrazyguy, Nobiz Like Shobiz, Sam P, Slew's Tizzy, Storm in May, Stormello, Tiago, Xchanger, and Zanjero.
16 of the 27 horses than ran in the Triple Crown races were nominated... obviously nominating doesn't mean anything, but it's nice to see that these owners/trainers even considered making the trip to West Virginia. Maybe I shouldn't be as surprised as I am, though...
Now I really want to go! Even with a small field, there are a number of quality horses on that list.
Hi QQ,
Thanks so much for the tip about the PP's being listed for all 70 nominations Wow! Must buy another pack of 500 or wait until we see who is actually going to enter. Better buy another ink cartridge too. LOL! Meanwhile, it'll be fun to rummage through all the ones that I don't recognize by name.
I haven't had any interest in the Derby for years. Might even go again this year.
Thanks again.
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