Sports are a little slice of timeout we all need. We kick back and enjoy the action, and if there is legal wagering there might even be a dime or two wagered. Ah, nothing like having a bet on the big game or the horse with grey spots. – From time to time we tend to take the sport a little too seriously. I’m not given to being a prude just yet, and I like to think I can keep an open mind. – With that being said, here are a couple of little ditties that caught my eye and made me think we should call the drama police.

On Sunday afternoon at Santa Anita, ESPN’s Kenny Mayne was slated to call the 5th race. – Mayne has a dry and witty style with a deadpan delivery that can knock your socks off. – This meet, Michael Wrona and Frank Mirahmadi are doing battle for the job of Santa Anita and they take turns switching off from Golden Gate and Santa Anita. It has been all good for the player listening to a couple of the best, and on Sunday a little light-hearted humor was injected by letting Kenny Mayne try his hand. – There hasn’t been a You Tube video posted just yet, but when it hits the “Trending Now” section in sports. Give it a listen and compare it to this one by Conan O’Brien. – “Me thinks we’re taking our self a little too serious.”

Long story short. I heard the race and there will be much bigger issues to attack on the Twitter-sphere of the world. Some of our well know scribes and handicappers are sounding off, and there is only one way to put this to rest.  – Please allow everyone who makes a negative comment on social media to come up and call one race. – I bet you won’t hear one grumble or complaint, and they’ll probably see the lighter side of Santa Anita’s idea for having a little fun.

We have all heard about Frank Stronach’s idea of having a $12 million dollar race that may surpass the Dubai $10 Million World Cup. – Well, if that is remotely the plan here is a little math. – The good folks in the UAE are home to 37 of the top 157 billionaires in the Middle East. – Just a little more, Warren Buffett makes $25,694 per minute according to Business Insider. – If it was all about who had the biggest purses, they could counter it and knock it out of the park forever.

Mr. Stronach has a good idea about the money, but how about a little something different. – There are great ideas of using the monies for a series of races each growing larger until you meet the grand finale with a super-sized purse. I like it, I like the idea a great deal. – But here is a another direction. Day-in-day-out the rank and file horsemen put on the show. They fill your mdn claimers, and the claiming and starter allowance fields. Why not “shore up” your purse structure with a sizeable increase across the board. – If you dump the cash into a barrel and invite the best of the world to come over once and take it down. You have one helluva’ day of handle (hopefully). But if you keep the pots growing, the field sizes will be off the charts and your track will have a sizeable increase for the year. Not to mention you’ll be investing in your product which will keep more horses on the grounds and barns targeting your tracks like they did in the olden days. – I think we get caught up in the idea of mega-money. The game may be better served if you build from the bottom up. You can bet dollars to donuts there are more claimers and allowance races than marquee events. – I love the Tampa Bay Downs product. Andy Beyer said it about 10 years ago,  “this was one of his favorite tracks to wager in the winter. Larger fields, better payouts, and the horses are getting better each year.” – I love the idea of cranking up the money machine. But it makes more sense to build your lower levels stronger, and in turn they will bring revenue where you can build your dream race schedule a little at a time. – Best of luck. I’ll be hoping to see 12 horse fields and sweet payouts on the tote board.