racingmeridian.com

GRID IRON..a must read for football fans is the Sporting News weekly “Scouts” column. Their observations are keen and gutsy, fearlessly calling out underperformers and the overrated. Their conclusion this week is that Tony Romo will never develop into a big game player. Sharpies are really in a fit over Romo’s hopeless performance Sunday night against the New York Giants. The Cowboys were sabotaged, simply put, by their purported leader’s brain cramps. His interceptions were inexcusable. It is time we stop seeing Romo on TMZ with a series of brain dead blondes and instead see a commitment to improving his play…the Scouts concur with yours truly that Sundays Titans - Jets Sunday match-up is a huge game for Jeff Fisher’s squad. They have let two eminently winnable games slip away and need to close out the Jets or face a potentially “lost” season…I can’t explain why, in back to back years, the St Louis Rams have played the Washington Redskins so tough. I do know the Pack are a gift at minus 6.5 against the inept Rams on Sunday. Its light it up time for Aaron Rodgers…funny how, with San Diego in the red zone Sunday, needing a touchdown to beat the Baltimore Ravens, the scene played out like a flashback to the early part of the decade. You could just see the Raven defence taking control as the field became shorter. The unit is exuding confidence and poise, permeated with the usual thug life swagger imbued by the imperial Ray Lewis. The Ravens appear set down for a big push to the top in 2009. While some teams are receiving more hype, Baltimore is the team we’re watching…two games in you may give up on the Browns and Chiefs. You don’t, do not, give up on Tom Brady and the Pats…ICE..the Detroit Red Wings intend to play Henrik Zetterberg this season with Todd Bertuzzi and Dan Cleary. All three are currently nursing groin injuries…thought Brian Burke was blowing smoke about the impact a tough defence will have on the tenacity of a teams forwards? Me, too, until watching the new crash and bang Leafs thrive off the strength of a remodelled D.  The team has looked like nothing Leafs fans have seen in years, a rugged outfit committed to sticking up for each other and hammering peripatetic opponents. With improved goaltending, a certainty, and production from Phil Kessel, the Buds are evens at worse to return to the playoffs. Am I giddy? Yes, I am giddy. Go Leafs Go…TURN LEFT..with a dramatic beginning to the Chase, featuring the ageless Mark Martin scoring a celebrated win, I certainly did expect to hear from all my NASCAR mates. But the topic, universally, was not Martin, but rather the decision of sponsors Jim Beam and Jack Daniels to pull out of the sprint championship. That’s kind of like a Bloor Village yuppie declining to attend the Film festival, or a parolee missing a UFC match. Unthinkable…PONIES..the 2009 Breeders Cup schedule has been released and, as expected, it is infuriating. Six races will be conducted on Friday Nov 6^th, a day the vast majority of the population spends at work. The rat bastards have made the situation worse than last year by shifting the popular Breeders Cup Marathon from the Saturday to the Friday. All races restricted to fillies and mares will be conducted on the Friday, a move that is parochial and insulting. And, of course, because the meet is being conducted on plastic, the games greatest star, the incomparable Rachel Alexandra, will be absent. It’s a bloody joke, a carnival of incompetence and wretched planning. The day will be saved by an invasion of Europeans, especially the magnificent charges of Ballydoyle, but the sheer stupidity of horse racing management is exemplified, in a nutshell, by the strategies of the Breeders Cup…Irish superstar Sea The Stars is scheduled to make his next start in Octobers Arc from Longchamp. Trainer John Oxx indicated that the current plans do not include a trip to California for the Breeders Cup at Santa Anita. He did say, however, that if Sea The Stars misses the French start, due to a minor injury or because of unsuitable ground, they will then bring the animal stateside. Pray for rain, pray for a chance to see Sea The Stars walloping the opposition in the Classic…undefeated mare Zenyatta still is possible for the Classic. Based on the lack of both imagination and courage that has summed up her 2009 campaign, don’t rule out a gallop around the track Friday in the Distaff…I still call the Rodgers Centre the “Skydome” and, dammit, I’ll still call the Breeders Cup and it’s races by their proper, historical names. It’s curmudgeon time…and, while on the topic of galling, let’s reflect on the Northern Dancer Stakes conducted at Woodbine on Sunday. An exciting, all-out finish was marred by the decision to disqualify winner Marsh Side and place Just As Well in the top spot. In a dramatic move Champs Elysees dove towards the rail in late stretch, only to be shut out as the two top runners drifted inward. It happens. They’re animals at the end of an exhausting journey. The DQ was without merit and, instead, the kind of trivial and churlish decisions stewards make to justify their livelihood…the Woodbine Mile continues to fail as a top attraction due to its inability to attract top Europeans. American milers are a desultory group at the best of times but this year’s contenders were particularly unpalatable…