Where Was This When I Was Growing Up?

Horse racing - be it thoroughbred or standardbred - has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. One of my parents' favourite pictures of Pete and I was taken sitting in a box in the Fort Erie Grandstand. I couldn't have been more than five.

Until I learned what all those jumbled up numbers and symbols and letters in the program meant though, I had no interest whatsoever in going to the track. It was all foreign to me. No matter how diligently everyone tried, you couldn't make horse racing fun and interesting to me.

There needed to be something like this.

OHHA, the Ontario Harness Horsemen's Association, launched a harness racing website not that long ago and it's absolutely awesome. As someone who has spent countless hours trying to explain the finer points of the industry to friends and family alike, a site like this is a welcomed tool. Seriously, where was this when I was growing up?

Get Sulky provides some history, general information and contact points, as well as a chance to win $10,000.

Whatsthatnow?

You read that right - $10K. All you have to do is play a game where you bet on the horses. How sweet does that sound?

Besides the opportunity to potentially win a mint, the game is also a great way to familiarize yourself with betting on the ponies. Not only do you learn for yourself, but you also stop asking fiends like me 3,000 questions while I'm scouring the program trying to find the longshot that's going to help me make my millions...

As someone who grew up around the industry and makes his living in the ever-growing world of the Internet, it's nice to finally see the old school sport of harness racing taking a step forward into the technological age.

Now I'm off to play the ponies...

Pictured Above - My good friend Jody Jamieson guiding Tell All to victory last year in The Little Brown Jug.