racingmeridian.com

On an American Thanksgiving many years ago, when I was holed up in Windsor, the Psycho Warrior and I headed over to Detroit to get some dinner. We were met by an absolute Ghost town. Nothing was open. No one was about. Greek Town shuttered. The whole city quiet, wrapped in fog. I learnt just how important the holiday is to our neighbours down south.  These are troubled times, particularly in the Motor City, but my hopes and best wishes are with citizens of the United States as they get set to reunite with families and friends…

I remember drinking in the Old Shillelagh and falling head over heels with the Yanks and Detroit. One night my girlfriend, charming and all, began chatting to some of the Detroit po-po. Yep, they were at a table, late at night, drinking up a storm while attired nattily in their full uniform (did I say I love Detroit?). As closing time crashed down around us, one of the officers asked if he could give us a drive home. Upon learning we were heading back to Canada, he politely demurred (something about the weaponry needing to stay stateside). But, he piped up, did we want to go to an afterhour’s club? This time we declined. As they departed, I peaked outside and watched the cops pile into a SWAT van! Dude was going to drive us home in a tactical vehicle, but was instead last seen peeling this armament depot on wheels to an illegal after-hours club…damn, I’m not one who looks back, I’m still enraptured by the future and what tomorrow will bring, but I really enjoyed those times and the great nights spent encamped on the rusting shores of the Detroit River…

GRID IRON..very intriguing rumours have Mike Martz, the architect of the “Greatest Show on Turf” while in St Louis, taking over as Chicago Bear offensive coordinator in 2010. Jay Cutler is being hung out to dry by a hopeless approach to offensive football and would surely benefit from the addition of Martz and, maybe, an actual wide receiver…Kurt Warner, concussed this past Sunday, is confirmed as the Arizona Cardinal starter when they meet the sizzling Tennessee Titans this weekend. The Cards have their division virtually wrapped up but are loathe to start Matt Leinart, a QB who seems to struggle with any pass longer than ten yards…

ICE..Miika Kiprusoff is making noises about not playing for Finland at the 2010 Olympics unless he is given the starters role. The Finns might advised to call his bluff; the list of top rate goalies eager to play for their squad includes Pekka Rinne, Niklas Backstrom, Tuukka Rask and, uh, Vesa Toskala. Kiprusoff refused to play for the national team during the 2006 Olympics…Semyon Varlamov notched his first regular season shutout for the Washington Capitals last night. The goalies continued improvement will be crucial to the Cap’s 2010 Stanley Cup chances…the Beat Poet send an hilarious e-mail comparing Leaf winger Jason Blake to a NASCAR driver; he’s perpetually roaring around the outside of the action, like a crazed hack, careful to never to do much else but TURN LEFT…buy him out, send him down, anything, but get Blake off the team…

PUG LIFE..HBO has announced a two site, triple bill for Dec 12^th. The putative headliner is a fight between Vitali Klitschko and Kevin Johnson for, presumably, some sort of belt. Johnson is undefeated with his biggest win earned against Bruce Seldon in Sept of 2008. Beating Seldon in 1998 wouldn’t have been impressive, so draw your own conclusions. Vitali is the best heavyweight in the world and will, hopefully, put a little starch in his performance and get Johnson out early… the scrap on the HBO card that fight fans will be salivating over is the rematch between Juan Diaz and loud, abrasive New Yorker Paulie Malignaggi. Their first fight was tremendously controversial with “The Baby Bull” Diaz, fighting in his hometown, accorded an undeserved decision win. Paulie’s squawking and complaint made the fight an “event”. You see, he proclaimed he would be “screwed” before the fight even began! It was one of his most impressive performances as he danced circles around Diaz and controlled the tempo of the fight. Diaz is very talented with allot at stake. He is a proud man and was embarrassed and humbled by the post fight controversy. Expect both fighters to bring their “A” game in a fight streaked with compelling storylines…Thomas Hauser’s newest column has been posted on the Seconds Out website. It’s a fantastic piece on the Pacquiao - Cotto fight; a match many believe has given new life and momentum to boxing. Hauser writes a long, luxurious rumination on the battle, concluding that Manny Pacquiao has developed into a worldwide superstar. A keen observer of the game, Hauser is careful to give kudos to Cotto for making the fight an instant classic…the fight feels almost like a turning point on a couple of fronts. Firstly, the day of the alphabet soup title may be drawing to a close. Boxing fans, swamped with at least six or seven sanctioning bodies (WBA, IBF, IBO, WBO, WBC, WBF x2, etc) have thrown in the proverbial towel and now respond to the quality of the fighters. Do you know what, if any, belt was at stake on Nov 14^th? Secondly, in the ongoing battle between MMA and boxing, the sweet science may have had a watershed moment with the grace and passion of the two combatant’s performances revealing MMA to be nothing more than squalid brutality. Even at its highest level MMA cannot induce the sense of wonderment and marvel created by the skill of elite professional boxers…

PONIES..the Oak Tree Racing Association has announced they are changing the name of the Lady’s Secret Stakes to The Zenyatta Stakes. Nice. Lady Secret, a daughter of Secretariat, won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and seven other Grade 1 races in 1986 (including four wins against the boys), en route to being named Horse of the Year. She was tiny, never weighing more than 900 lbs, and beloved by her legion of followers.

It is a travesty and an appalling injustice that the filly, deceased in 2003, would have her name stripped from a Grade 1 race in order to accommodate an animal that refused to leave her home court, refused to race on anything but synthetics, and who inherited her biggest win when key competitors (Rachel Alexandra, Macho Again) either refused to run on plastic or could not find their action on the unnatural surface.

It is a shame. I salute Lady’s Secret, a true champion and stellar competitor and lodge my absolute horror at Oak Tree’s crass, shallow swipe at the historical record.

Zenyatta is not even the best female runner alive today. She would have been unable to even warm up Lady’s Secret and this puking reverence for a slow, one dimensional runner continues to cause me me all manner of consternation…