Merry Christmas! I’m Jewish, but I don’t get offended when someone says Merry Christmas.  It’s the thought that counts. I love this season. I listen to Christmas music pretty much non-stop and I celebrate the holiday the way most Jews do – with a movie and Chinese food. Heck, I even played Santa Claus at Northfield Park for several years. More about that later.  But I long for the old days, when my celebration used to start on Christmas Eve. Not the night of, but the day of. By old days, I am talking about the days when Monticello raced on the afternoon of December 24. Northfield was pretty dead with half of the employees taking the entire day off. I would work for a few hours and then head out to the simulcast area to handicap and play the Monti card. The pools were small, even though it was the only harness show in town. A $20 win bet moved the board. I always cashed a few tickets and it seemed one or two longshots always came in. The biggest question was whether snow in the Catskills would cancel the race card. I usually made enough money to cover the next day’s movie, popcorn and Chinese buffet. Almost always a buffet, rarely a sit down, “One from Column A and two from Column B, family style meal.” This year, it looks like only Gulfstream Park is offering Christmas Eve racing and I just don’t enjoy the runners enough to make a trip to the simulcast parlor. Christmas songs and movies always get me in the holiday mood and a surprising number have harness racing references. I have written before about the Standardbreds used in the filming of Holiday Inn and White Christmas. “Jingle Bells” features a Standardbred and even discusses an appropriate time for the mile in the fourth verse. “Just get a bobtailed bay. Two forty as his speed. Hitch him to an open sleigh. And crack, you'll take the lead.” I don’t think you’ll be taking the lead at a 2:40 pace these days, but at least you won’t get fined for illegal use of the whip as composer Leroy Anderson would have in “Sleigh Ride.” Anderson started working on that song in 1946 and finished in 1948. It was first performed by the Boston Pops and the legendary Arthur Fiedler was the one who decided a percussionist should crack a real whip during the song. Lyrics were not added until 1950. Although “Sleigh Ride”, with its trumpet doing a horse whinny at the end, has been named the most popular Christmas song ever written repeatedly by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), it does not actually mention Christmas at all. For an interesting take on the song, check out this recording by Relient K: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfqvfWXONto. We have had three Santa Clauses registered with the USTA, but two of those horses were foaled before 1900. We have also had Santaclausiscoming and Santa Claude, which sounds like it should be the title of a BIlly Bob Thornton movie. The pacer Santa Claude actually won 17 races and banked over $165,000. That’s a lot better than the 1964 foal Chanukah Rocket, who never made it to the races. Neither did Hanukah Bush, a son of Trim The Tree. Getting back to Monticello, how can I forget Thenitebeforexmas, who competed on those Christmas Eve cards in 1993 and 1994, finishing third and fourth respectively. The daughter of Niatross out of a Most Happy Fella mare never broke 2:00 and earned under $50,000, but once a year she was the star of the show in the Catskills. I worked part-time at Northfield Park from 1995-2000 and full-time from 2001-2011. I am not sure how many years I played Santa for the track’s Santa Sack giveaway, but on two occasions, I actually arrived by horse. Leaving from the paddock in full Santa gear, I did a lap and a half of the track, carrying a sack of candy canes. I would arrive in the winner’s circle to be mugged by dozens of kids. It was a lot of fun. But it was a logistical nightmare. First, Bud Teeters, our Presiding Judge at the time, threatened to fine me if I didn’t wear a helmet. Seriously. Santa doesn’t wear a helmet, but I would have to. Solution? Buy two cheap Santa hats, cut them apart and sew them together so they fit over the helmet. One year, it was nearly sixty degrees and pretty enjoyable. Another it was 20 and snowing. And wearing the full beard, my breath was directed upwards, causing my goggles to fog. So they came off. In future years, I wore safety glasses and eliminated that problem. Even tougher was trying to do my TV segments. Because we were doing prize drawings before each race, we were downstairs in the sports bar, not in the studio. We used portable lighting, which got very hot with the Santa suit on. Back then I needed more artificial padding than I do today, which added to the heat. Then there was that stupid beard, which made it impossible to hear anything but my muffled voice through the microphone. We fixed that with a lapel mic under the beard, but it had to be unplugged every time I left the area. A couple of times, we forgot to plug it back in. Despite all of that, playing Santa for Santa Sack was one of my most enjoyable things I did at Northfield. Seeing the kids light up and even seeing some of the gamblers get excited when they won a television or a computer. I need to find a Santa gig for 2018. Any racetracks hiring? That’s it for this month. Merry Gissmas, err, Christmas, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a peaceful, healthy and prosperous 2018. See you next month. Now go cash. Maybe at Monticello?