I know there are those who don't care for the ASPCA, but right now, they are running a campaign to continue the ban of federal money from being used to regulate the slaughter of horses for human consumption in FY2015. Both houses of congress has passed this ban, but there will be attempts to revoke these bans via an amendment prior to passage.
If you believe horses should not be slaughtered for human consumption, you can join the ASPCA advocacy campaign by calling and/or sending letters to your representatives in the Senate and House urging them to fight off any attempts to revoke the ban (at the end the ASPCA will ask for a donation but you can just cancel out at that point if you prefer not to make a donation). The advantage of using the ASPCA site to contact your elected officials in Washington, is they will identify your officials and send the emails to them for you.
Of course, this legislation is a one year stop-gap act. In order to prevent horse slaughter on an ongoing basis and to ban the exporting of horses to other countries for slaughter, it is necessary to pass the SAFE Act which unfortunately seems to have stalled. Please contact your representatives asking them to support S. 541/H.R. 1094.
It doesn't take long to act, so if you are passionate about these issues, take a moment and let your voice be heard.
The HANA Harness Grand Circuit Shoot-Out Handicapping contest is really exciting this year with at least one handicapper seemingly scoring big each contest leg. This past Friday, it was Mark McKelvie who scored on a $100 exacta box in the Meadowlands Maturity which earned him a cool $1,200 profit on the one bet and as a result, he surged to the head of the pack. Now I realize there are 15 handicappers in the contest so to bet them all would be foolish, but it is worth a stop to get some wagering ideas. As Derick Giwner wrote in a column, you can tell how a handicapper feels about their picks if you watch how they typically bet. There are no guarantees in life, but visiting the HANA Handicapping website may be worth the visit.
No doubt by now you have seen the press release regarding the Meadowlands Pace, Hambletonian, and Little Brown Jug being televised on CBS Sports Network. This is occurring thanks to an effort by horsemen and the USTA (who came around) as well as others to finance the broadcasts. They have assembled a fine quartet of personalities to work the broadcasts starting with Gary Siebel (currently the track announcer at Cal Expo) and Dave Brower (a veteran of several shows) to cover the racing action along with Justin Horowitz and Heather Vitale who will provide the color commentary. While Vitale has been doing well with her two current shows, it will be nice to see her back on a nationally televised event. Hopefully the broadcast will go well so CBS will want to carry even more harness racing next year and either offer a reduced price or pick up the production costs for the rights.
While there will be no baby races on Friday night's racing card at the Meadowlands, six other trotters have entered a leg of the TVG FFA series to do battle against Sebastian K. Once again, Market Share has entered the fray so we will get our match up which disappeared when Market Share ran coming into the first turn when they first met. It has been a while since Sebastian K has raced ,but his trainer has indicated it shouldn't impact him. We will see.
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