Harness: When COVID-19 steals your sport and column

These are without doubt uncertain times. When even the President finally admits that the immediate future looks grim, you know we are in for a rocky month or two.

Harness Racing is far from immune as COVID-19 at least temporarily upends our lives. The "last man standing" went down on Wednesday as Cal Expo announced about an hour before post time that racing was suspended by order of the Sacramento Health Commission. That leaves every Standardbred track in North America dormant and unfortunately for me, without a column for the week.

You see, I put together a 'crash course' on handicapping Cal Expo to help anyone that wanted to dip their feet into handicapping the only 'local' harness track around. Now that is filed into the 'save for later' folder as I'm forced to fire up the creative juices and come up with an alternate written masterpiece. It's too bad because I was planning to sweep the 10-race card and take down the $60K-plus Single 6 carryover. Oh well, maybe in November.

My first thought was a column focusing on all of the 'off-the-record' things I’ve heard during my On The Backstretch Q&A features along with the little tidbits that may have crossed my ears at an after-party or two. C'mon, everybody loves to hear some dirt, no?

Before you get too close to the edge of your seat waiting to hear what was said about a certain track proprietor behind closed doors or which person got over on another owner for hundreds of thousands, my lips are unfortunately sealed for life. And shame on you for wanting me to air other people's laundry!

It certainly wasn't lost on me that April 1 just passed and I could've seemingly unveiled tall tale after tall tale only to slap a Happy April Fool's Day on you. That's not really nice though and we are all struggling with our current reality right now anyway. Let's face it, the sport we all love is on hold and we simply don't know when it will come back to life. As an optimist, I'm hoping for May 1. As a realist, I'm rooting for May 15. I don't even want to consider a moment on the calendar after that point. It's too depressing.

Despite the COVID-19 mandatory closure, there is some potential good news for those that race at The Meadowlands. The October and November Fall dates that were earmarked for Thoroughbred racing may just swing in the Standardbred direction.

"Nothing is final but I expect to meet with Dennis (Drazin) and work out a revised schedule once we have a start date," said Meadowlands President Jeff Gural, who was hopeful of racing in the fall.

Currently the Fall Final Four races and TVG finals are scheduled for the weekend of November 27/28, but added dates could certainly change their place on the calendar.

With plenty of downtime on their hands, many people are turning to the virtual world of Harness Racing to satisfy their quenches. Ryan Clements of Farm Ventures told me that he is seeing a 20-25% increase in daily play on the somewhat real-to-life driving game Catch Driver. Those who want to experience the sport have the opportunity to get into virtual races and compete against some of the best drivers in the game and real life. Owner Mark Weaver is a regular and I even heard trainer Ron Burke has recently given it a try. Of course, you can compete against me. I'm easy to find as I race under my own name. So does Weaver. He's even easier to find. Just look for the big head on the screen (inside joke).

If the video game style is not the way you roll, Off And Pacing is another game from the company where you simply manage a stable of horses. You choose a stable name, buy some virtual horses and look for the best spots to win some coins.

I've seen a number of people on social media saying they are returning to the game since they have time on their hands and Clements reports a 10% uptick in users last week compared to January. On Wednesday night at 9PM, 500 people were on the App buying and selling horses on New Year's Eve for the game (a new season starts every 26 days in the game and April 2 is a new year).

Those who absolutely must get their fill of watching or wagering on Harness Racing still have an option in Australia. There was an 8-race card scheduled for Wednesday night at 10PM EDT as I wrote this column. There is also Swedish racing on the menu. Now is also a perfect time to do some research for when racing resumes. Did you ever want to try a new track? Go watch some replays. Learn the driver and trainer colonies. Doing a little work now can make the experience much more profitable later.

Another option is to enjoy some North American Thoroughbred racing, though at the rate we are going that bus may have left the station by the time you read this column. So far Tampa Bay Downs, Gulfstream and some others are still going strong.

Amazingly, other than the inability to go bowling once a week and the fact that I'm not playing Uber for my kids, since I work from my home office most of the time, life has been rather similar for me. So I can provide a bit of a survival guide for those of you who are now forced to spend most of your time in the house against your will.

My first tip is to avoid sitting too long. Whether you are working at your computer or watching TV, get up every hour or so and walk around to get the blood flowing.

Secondly, if you have to snack, and let's face it, you're home all day with enough food to feed a country because everyone told you to stock up, never take the entire bag of any food make to your desk or couch. Only take a small serving. Trust me, the desire to remain where you are will keep you from gaining your weight in potato chips.

My third tip is if working from home, do whatever you need to in order to stay focused. Normally I'm sitting in a quiet house all alone from about 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM. This leaves plenty of time to accomplish stuff where I need absolute silence, but I don't stop working when the clock strikes three o'clock. I'll close my office door or put on my headphones to keep the proper environment for working.

Lastly, and this may be the most important tip of all, don't get sucked into watching a daytime soap opera. It starts slowly because it is on after the local news so you pick up bits and pieces as background noise while working. The next thing you know, you've set the DVR to record it every day. Yeah, it spirals out of control pretty quickly and before you know it you're stuck in that ditch with no hope of escape.

Now if you want to have The View or Judge Judy on in the background while working, that is fine because there is no storyline to trap you for life. But beware of the Soaps!!! They just might be more addicting than Harness Racing.