The Canadian Sportsman

Favourite answers from past Post Parades
 
John Campbell (April 28, 2005):
What’s your best “brush with a celebrity” story?
“I play a lot of golf with (NBA TV analyst and former NFL player) Ahmad Rashad, who’s a really good friend of mine. I played with him and Michael Jordan one day. We were playing a par 3 over water. I hit my first shot in the water. I put my next shot in the hole. I was bitter about putting my first one in the water. I was kind of excited about going in the hole. Ahmad couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘It’s in the hole.’ Jordan hardly batted an eye, looked up and said, ‘Nice par.’ Ahmad and I still laugh about that. It didn’t phase him one iota.”
 
Ray Schnittker (July 24, 2008):
What song, album or artist reminds you of high school?
“Probably some country and western song, but I wasn’t really big into music in high school. I was into drinking and partying and trying to get laid.”
 
Hugh Mitchell (Nov. 27, 2008):
When was the last time you danced?
“This past summer... I accidentally urinated on a hot wire in my pasture fence!”
 
You’ve developed a reputation as a tough guy in terms of enforcing racetrack rules. Who is the toughest man alive?
“Nelson Mandela — He puts his principles ahead of himself.”
 
What do you fear?
“Not doing what’s right.”
 
 
The Commish
Everyone gets the “If you were the Commissioner of all of harness racing...” question. Here’s some of the best responses.
 
Geoff Stein (May 26, 2005):
“Hire Billy O’Donnell. That’s the man for the job. He’d be my right-hand man.”
 
John Bax (Oct. 16, 2008):
“I would change the purse structure to reflect the investment in horses.”
 
Alan Kirschenbaum (Jan. 17, 2008):
“Develop a once-a-week, multi-track Pick-8 wager, in which all the slot tracks teamed up to seed the mutuel pool and offer a guarantee of a few hundred thousand dollars, with a carryover to the following weekend if it isn’t hit. Give someone the chance to get rich for a $20 investment — like the person who plays the dollar slots or buys twenty scratchers — and spend money on marketing and television time to get people to notice. Why that isn’t happening now, I have no idea.”
 
Handicapping Challenge
Post Parade subjects set the odds when asked the “chances the following will occur in the next 10 years”
 
Slots will come to the Meadowlands
Geoff Stein (May 26, 2005) — “2-1”
Bob Marks (Feb. 28, 2008) — “1-5.”
Ron Gurfein (March 20, 2008) —“1-9.”
Hugh Mitchell (Nov. 27, 2008)— “Even money.”
David Scharf (May 1, 2008) — “3-1. For sure we aren’t seeing them for the next three years as the supplement from the casinos just arrived. There is going to be a time when all tracks will have them and the Meadowlands will too.”
Moira Fanning (Oct. 18, 2008) — “3-1”
 

In our May 1, 2008 edition, The Sportsman featured a story about McLoone’s at Favorites restaurant, New Jersey’s first state-owned off-track wagering facility (OTW), located in Woodbridge, NJ. Owned by famous NJ-entertainer Tim McLoone, the son of former Freehold Raceway president Joe McLoone, Favorites set out to add style, class and sophistication to the concept of an OTW when it opened in October of 2007.

So far, so good. In its first full year of operation, the Woodbridge OTW handled $95.3 million, a pace that it has continued to keep up since then, cementing itself as the nation’s leading off-track betting facility.

On the heels of the impressive numbers posted at the Woodbridge location, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority opened a similar state-of-the-art OTW in Toms River, NJ in April 2008 and have also received approval for another in Bayonne, NJ.