The late comedian Henny Youngman was known as the “King of the one-liners” throughout his career that spanned much of the twentieth century. I’m no comedian and most of what I’ve written below is far from funny, but below are some quick hits that have been sitting at the tip of my tongue waiting to be said. “I understand you had to race him easy tonight,” said no one ever holding tickets on a horse.  If you breed a C-level mare to a C-level stallion, the best you can realistically hope for is a C-level foal. If you breed that C-level mare to an A or B-level stallion, you may still get a C-level foal, but from time to time you may get a B or even an A-level foal. Invariably the best foal from any sire will not be from the best mare he services. The key with intensive inbreeding is not whether or not it will work as it often does, but is it better, as it seldom is. A horse race is often like a down to the wire basketball game in that the winner is typically the horse who happens to be in front at the point of finish. If you change the point of finish, you have a different result. If you reverse the trips and the winner still wins, you have a clear-cut winner. Have we ever documented the physical characteristics of champions? How do you know you’re looking at the best foal a mare has ever had unless you’ve examined every one? Often I’m more impressed with a horse that fails to win than I may be with the winner of a particular race. When I saw Artsplace at Freehold as a late 3-year-old, it flashed through my mind that I haven’t seen a colt spend so much time on the outside and live to tell about it since Meadow Skipper. I knew we were dead in the water with the Presidential Ball’s when the Cam’s Card Sharks started out-gaming them in New Jersey Sires Stakes. The inevitability of loss syndrome dictates that the player must eventually lose, therefore constantly replenishing the pool of players is paramount. The casinos know this. How come the racetracks never figure it out? Somebeachsomewhere and Muscle Hill are perhaps the first American standardbred super race horses to truly emerge as super sires. Something the likes of Speedy Scot, Nevele Pride, Mack Lobell, Self Possessed, Adios Butler, Overtrick, Bret Hanover, Niatross and perhaps Nihilator were unable to do. It’s amazing how the stud careers of Adios and Albatross so closely paralleled in that neither was able to leave true line extender sons despite each having dozens of potential candidates. Ironically both Adios and Albatross seemed to have their preferred “nicks”. With Adios it was Billy Direct and then Tar Heel mares while Albatross clearly excelled with Bret Hanover mares.  Albatross however is the broodmare sire of exceptional and ongoing sires Artsplace and Western Hanover, both of which have male lines active today.    I’ve often wondered how many relevant races don’t get watched when frustrated viewers switch to something else during the agonizing and often endless drag period. I’m sure the Giants would have preferred to play the Packers in Green Bay at 1 p.m. in the sun rather than 8:30 p.m. at night in sub-zero weather, but you gotta play when the viewers can watch. That said, major races should be scheduled at a time of optimum attendance and viewership. The only crowd, you’ll “hold” are the winners.  Losers leave, winners stay till the money runs out. Yes, thoroughbred stakes are scheduled at the end of the card, but that’s before dinner. When we do likewise, it’s often before midnight. If a stallion is “meant” to be he’ll usually show something regardless of the quality of his early books. Like Adios, Meadow Skipper, Star’s Pride, Speedster, Steady Beau, Balanced Image and others. Star’s Pride was fifth on the trotting siring totem pole when he started at Hanover Shoe Farms, but wound up being the Hambletonian sire accounting for eight classic winners. Meadow Skipper never would have happened had Adios not been ill and resulting in the dam Countess Vivian’s switch from the $15,000 super-sire to the $1,500 first crop stallion Dale Frost. I’ve been hearing good things about the Father Patrick’s and Trixton’s. Ditto the Captain Treacherous’ and Sweet Lou’s. If The Meadowlands opened for thoroughbreds instead of harness on that fateful September 1, 1976, would the result have been the same? Amour Angus has the Hall boys – Conway Hall, Angus Hall and Andover Hall. Margaret Spangler had King’s Counsel, Chief Counsel, Attorney and Blackstone. Evensong had Volo Song, Victory Song, Peter Song, Gay Song and Mighty Song. Of those, all sired winners except for Volo Song who died prematurely. If I got a free program, I might put what I would have paid for it through the windows and who knows, if I won, I might have bet more! When favorites won the first two double races at the old Roosevelt or Yonkers, the crowd had money for the third race triple. So how has the odd distance experiment at Pompano worked out handle-wise? If possible, read the harness racing posts of Gordon Banks on Facebook. The man is extremely insightful and very articulate. Where would this pacing breed be if Meadow Skipper was indeed “gelded” as scheduled following his 2-year-old campaign? The reason that didn’t happen is that Joe Lighthill discovered the more he whipped him, the faster the colt paced and he wound up equaling the 2-year-old season’s record at Hollywood Park in his final start of the year.