Royal Ascot Ladies’ Day 2021: Masks and millinery
Racegoers don elaborate headwear and face masks for Royal Ascot Ladies' Day.
Month: June 2021
Levi Williams banned for six months after testing positive for cocaine & cannabis
Jockey Levi Williams is banned from riding for six months after testing positive for cocaine and cannabis.
How To Play Bingo
Bingo is like a lottery – it is a game of luck. Further, learning how to play Bingo is both easy and fun. There are lots of variations in the way that Bingo is played and learning how to play Bingo and all of its variants can prove to be an exciting pastime; one with many different prizes at stake. However, the basic principles remain the same and you will discover that while learning how to play Bingo, all of the principles apply to the all important Bingo card.
The Bingo card is printed with its own unique grid of numbers, usually ranging from 1 up to 90, and is arranged in columns and rows. There is a caller who calls the randomly selected numbers for the players to mark off their card. It will be decided before the game begins what pattern of numbers are needed to win. For example, the player may need to get every number on their card, known as a full house; or a row or column, or perhaps two rows, etc.
Bingo originated from a game called Beano; so called because players covered up the numbers on their cards with beans. Nowadays players commonly use what is known as a dauber or dabber to mark their numbers. These are often fluorescent in color so that when playing in a darkened hall they can still be seen.
Bingo can be found in different types of venues ranging from casinos to arcades and village halls. In America, Bingo is often played in halls run by church or charity organizations. If you would love to stay at home and play Bingo it can even be played on the Internet!
There are many people who like to add to the excitement and play more than one Bingo card at a time. Be warned, this is not as easy as it sounds! Playing Bingo does involve some skill as well as a lot of luck. The callers shout each number in quick succession, often within seconds of each other. You have to be very fast with your eyes and your fingers to keep up, and there is little time to ponder. It is not for the faint-hearted!
If you prefer to play a safer version, online Bingo may well be worth considering. The player is given some random cards generated by the computer, and there is often a facility for using an ‘auto-dauber’. This is where the computer marks your cards for you, so it doesn’t matter if you miss a number or two. The computer will even call ‘Bingo!’ for you if you are lucky enough to win!
Dennis Drazin Talks Eventful Monmouth Meet On Writers’ Room
While the 2021 meet at Monmouth Park is less than three weeks old, several years worth of drama has already been packed in at the Jersey Shore staple this spring, and Wednesday morning, the track's chairman and CEO Dennis Drazin joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to discuss it all. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Drazin talked about the fraught implementation of the New Jersey Racing Commission's whip ban, the latest attempt by the Jockeys' Guild to put pressure on Monmouth over it, the forthcoming experiment with fixed-odds wagering and more.
“I think it was a cheap shot on the part of the [Jockeys'] Guild to punish our jockeys that are riding at Monmouth Park for actions which were beyond their control and beyond Monmouth Park's control,” Drazin said of a Guild announcement that it will no longer insure Monmouth jockeys starting July 1. “About two years ago, there was a proposal for a rule change. The racing commission reached out to the industry to get some preliminary guidance. I remember very clearly going to the first meeting at Monmouth Park where the industry was invited by public notice. The Guild was there on behalf of the jockeys. As an attorney, I personally would have had a dozen jockeys in the first row to give their position on the rule and educate the commissioners. The Guild didn't do that. They didn't present any jockeys at those hearings. Now what they've done is punish riders for choosing to ride at Monmouth by taking away their coverages. I don't think that's the right course of action, and the Guild ought to think better of the actions that they took in writing that letter. I think they will receive notice from legal counsel. I think they're looking at litigation going forward if they continue this.”
While the first two weeks of the Monmouth meet were poor from a handle standpoint, likely in part due to rainy weather, the betting numbers improved drastically in its third week. Monmouth will have a chance to build on that momentum when it becomes the first major American track to implement a fixed-odds wagering system in the next month.
“We will definitely have fixed-odds wagering by the [July 17] Haskell because there is a pilot program right here right now that permits fixed-odds wagering on Grade I races as long as you conform to the Interstate Horse Racing Act,” Drazin explained. “It was offered on the Haskell in 2018 and 2019. The broader position, and this is something the whole country is looking at, is fixed-odds wagering is something we think is good for Thoroughbred racing and something that will be well received. But the racetracks around the country and the horsemen's groups that I have dialog with trying to study this, everybody's uncomfortable. Everybody tries to think, what's the right math? What's the right dollar amount, what's the right takeout? What's the impact of cannibalization? There are a lot of conversations going on trying to figure out how to do this correctly. And if everybody thinks about it forever and doesn't pull the trigger, we're never going to move it forward.”
Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to the latest lawsuit from Bob Bafffert's legal team, broke down the Royal Ascot meeting from all angles and wondered what the news of The Stronach Group's potential sale of assets could mean for racing. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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