Let me preface my opening comments by saying I personally do not see athletes kneeling during the National Anthem as disrespectful to the flag. I do find athletes laughing and joking on the sidelines disrespectful to the flag. Neither action says much about patriotism or community involvement. Having said that, maybe we need to get Brian Sears and Dave Miller to kneel during the National Anthem on Breeders Crown night. Then the President could tweet about unpatriotic SOB harness racers (although he would probably call them jockeys) and we could get the national media coverage we so deeply crave. I have written previously of a protest at Northfield Park in the seventies. Drivers who were warming up horses when the anthem (an instrumental version, not reader’s digest condensed vocal version that ignores the second and highly racist third verse) played would remove their helmets as a sign of respect for the flag. And they began getting fined $25 a pop. At what point does safety trump respect for the flag? I don’t know, but these drivers felt the need to show their respect. We were not at war at the time, 9/11 was still a quarter century away, but it was an interesting contrast to the display I see today. Many tracks still play or perform the anthem before their live race cards, some do not. Vernon and Tioga Downs even take a patriotic seventh inning stretch, with their outrider performing to God Bless America. It is totally unnecessary, but it is also totally appropriate to celebrate equine skill and our country. Here is a link to one of her performances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWfMwCM5pEk Now, if we could just get the horse to take a knee . . . The recent non-disqualification at Yonkers of Betabcool N (as detailed by Jay Bergman here) points out yet again that regardless of the push for uniform rules, they will never be uniform as long as humans are interpreting them. If the rules are written exactly the same in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota and Ohio, they will still be interpreted differently. Just as you can call holding on nearly every NFL play, you can find a violation in nearly every race, even if it is a minor whip or foot out of stirrup infraction. While I personally think soccer is the only sport that gets it right with its “Play on, advantage,” rule, even that opens up a can of human interpretation worms. Bergman believes the judges misinterpreted one key word in the rule, the word “forced”. Was Betabcool N forced off the track? I disagree with Jay on this. Not on the judges blowing the call, but on the key word. For me the key word, and one we find in far too many rules, is MAY. May is indefinite and invites interpretation. Every rule written needs to us the word SHALL. Additionally, just as every law written by congress or a state legislature features pages of definitions before even getting to the ordinance itself, there must be a set of definitions. What constitutes “unfair competitive advantage” or “forced”? What we really need is a sharp attorney, with NO harness racing experience, to rewrite our rules. There would be black and white (not grey) definitions and rules, many of which I probably would not like. But at least I would know that whether I am at Yonkers, Northfield, the Meadowlands or the Great Darke County Fair, the rules will be the same. As a moron who went to Delaware, Ohio, I was excited that I actually knew and considered myself friends with several key players in the Little Brown Jug. Therefore, I was very disappointed that neither of the Brian Brown trainees, Downbytheseaside and Fear The Dragon, won. But after the race I was shocked at how many people felt it was a boring race. I found it very exciting, possibly the most exciting in which I did not have the winner since I began attending. Team Burke did exactly what it needed to do to get the upset win with Filibuster Hanover. There was strategy and there was good racing. Good for the Jug. What was bad for the Jug was the lack of a race-off. While I am sure the small field had more to do with the dominance of the Brown trained horses than the Jug’s rule change, I wonder what would have happened had there been a race-off. A match race between Filibuster Hanover and Fear The Dragon for the Jug title would have been exciting. While I understand the desire to preserve horseflesh and cater to owners and trainers who may not want to risk three races in one day, I think it is a marketing mistake that in the long run fans will respond to negatively. What I do now is that nobody was kneeling during the Star Spangled Banner on Jug Day. As for O Canada, well . . . That’s all for this month. See you next month. Now go cash, just not on the race-off of the Little Brown Jug.