Drawing board

Given all the hullabaloo surrounding the build up to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, I'm not sure why anyone involved with the races—the first two jewels of Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown—felt that televising the post draw would add more drama to an already dramatic event, but that's where we are.

Look, the draw matters, and I'm glad the media covers it, and I'm glad racetracks cater it (literally, I had some good sushi tonight. It was no crab cakes and Yuengling, but that'll come later).

I'm happier, however, that the tracks are getting away from the stupid made-for-TV post position draft. That thing was a snooze.

It's not that the traditional pill pull is much better, but at least it's quicker. There's got to be something tracks can do to liven up a bunch of stuffed suits pulling pieces of paper from a tray and a pill out of a bottle. Not even Weird Al Yankovic singing "post positions in a bottle" to the tune of Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" could make that interesting. OK, it probably would make that interesting, but bankrupt Magna Entertainment can't afford normal Al let alone the weird one.

So how to make these things better? My idea was to bring in one of those lottery machines and suck the post position balls up. It works for the NBA and bingo, so why not racing?

Other than that, it's a pretty basic exercise that goes on about ten times daily at racetracks throughout the country. Barring a lottery machine and Weird Al, offering an open bar is definitely the best thing a racetrack can do to make it interesting.