This and that to start the year

Just a few odds and ends to start 2009.
So it's a new year and I already I have mispronounced a driver's name in an interview (Kevin Hough is Kevin Ho, not Kevin Huff). I had been told by a pretty good source (I thought) that it was pronounced Huff, but no. It's a name I won't forget soon. He's 21. He had five drives and ended up with two wins and three seconds (UDRS .733). He was parked every step up the mile in one race and pulled first over and kept the classy trotter Gutenberg live, despite looking beat about three times. Kevin says he hoped to drive here on weekends, and if Barbie Conner, Sam Mignano and his own barn aren't enough, I hope some of the local guys give himn a shot. He has good hands, a decent seat and is pretty aggressive. He would be a good addition to the driver colony.
(Yea, I also called Deshawn Parker, the leading African-American JOCKEY in history, a driver at one point in an interview, but at least I caught myself there.)

Monday's card has one very interesting horse-- the fourteen-year-old maiden trotter Marshron Table. Ngaire Umholtz's Run The Table gelding has 24 wins on the pace but has been switched over after racing poorly for his last two years on the pace. I may drop a deuce on him just for the heck of it-- it has to be some kind of record, right? A 14-year-old maiden with 24 wins?

Candidate for best buy in the November Delaware Sale has to be JD Wengerd's $400 purchase of Free For Life. In 5 starts, he has two seconds and a win in $3 claimers and two wins in $8 claimers. That's $3,000, not $300, and $8,000, not $800!! So in five starts, the $400 horse has earned $6,600! That is a profit of $6,200 or a return on investment of 1550%! Maybe the Big Three should be buiying horses with JD if they need cash. I have no idea how long this horse will hold up, or what kind of hole he has (it must be huge if he sold for $400, but it's a pretty neat story.

The finalists for Northfield Horse of the Year are Lite Me Up, Sharon's Future, Dunkster and Riccafella Center. I am voting for Lite Me Up and I cannot see him losing, but the four combined for 44 local wins in 2008-- which is pretty darn good.