Accept No Blame; I Want Proofs

First the good news.  In today' edition of Harness Racing Update, (and why don't your subscribe), Jeff Gural is quoted as saying there is an even money chance that the Meadowlands will survive.  He feels some of the furstration Local 173 comes from a screwing over by former Governor Whittmann and the belief the Meadowlands would have remained an OTW location.  Now that this misconception has been eliminated, another vote may have a different outcome.

But I must confess this particular edition of HRU got me annoyed.  As you can imagine, there were plenty of letters to the editor.  Letters blaming Christie, letters blaming the union, letters blaming everyone under the sun but the real culprits.  Those that let racing get into the situation it is in.  If harness racing was in good shape, we would never have gotten to this point. Harness racing is like the alcoholic in the hospital dying with cirrhosis of the liver or the chain smoker dying of cancer; blaming everyone but themselves for the predictament they are in.  Who put harness racing in the predictament it is in?  It wasn't Governor Christie, it wasn't Atlantic City, it wasn't Local 137, it was the industry itself.  If harness racing took care of business when it should have, we never would be in this situatation.

I myslef amd done making predictions on whether the Meadowlands will reopen.  Certainly the squeeze is being put on Local 137, but sometimes the lemmings just go over the mountain.

I don't know about you, I hate the morning line.  Forget about the fact a morning line can be so wrong, it can corrupt my handicapping, influencing my basic selections.  I wish instead of waiting for the final program being released, I could regularly get my hands on the proofs, program pages the racing office produces after the draw to show who is entered as well as the initially driving selections.  Once the proofs are reviewed and the final driving assignments are made and the morning line is established, the proofs are updted and become the basis for the regular program being produced.  I rather work on my handicapping without seeing the morning line odds to get a basic feel for the race; once driver changes and early scratches are in , then I can update my proof sheet to figure and make any adjustments necessary.  Once I finalize how a race will go on paper, then I want to see the morning line odds to get a feel  for how my betting strategy will be. If you have the chance to get the proof sheets, you should try handicaping off of them first and see if your handicapping improves.