Friday, March 27, 2009

Friday Fun: Google Earth with Racetracks

It's Friday and the Form is burning a hole in my coat pocket. A fun evening of handicapping the Dubai World Cup awaits. Canadian racing fans can watch and wager from 9:30AM Saturday morning on HPI TV.
If you're up, I hope to be tweeting race-by-race.

If you're a fan of stallions such as Big Brown, Point Given and Exchange Rate then you may want to consider the following.
Three Chimneys has taken the lead in connecting with racing fans by establishing the Three Chimneys Fan Club. The first 500 people to sign up receive a discounted annual membership of $35. Membership includes:

*A Three Chimneys Club Member hat
*Quarterly installments of the Club Three Chimneys newsletter
*An annual membership pin
*2 vouchers per year for a free stallion tour for you and a guest (for use on regularly scheduled tours; reservations required)
*Priority scheduling for you and up to three guests on any regularly scheduled tour
*Access to seasonal photos of the Three Chimneys stallions
*Opportunity to purchase Three Chimneys stallions photography at a discounted price
*Special offers on Three Chimneys merchandise for sale
*Contests, including the opportunity to name Three Chimneys racehorses and meet Pat Chapman, owner of Smarty Jones
*Email alerts with updates about the stallions and their progeny's most recent accomplishments and accolades
*8 FREE issues of The Blood-Horse magazine and the opportunity to subscribe at a special low rate.
*$5.00 voucher good toward the purchase of merchandise on HorseHats.com
*10% discount on all orders placed on ExclusivelyEquine.com


Sounds like a great idea to me. Eight issues of Blood-Horse and a Slew of fan club specials. I dig it.

* * *
Meanwhile, on the other side of the sea, I found this oddball nugget of news involving a kid who decided to prank his parents by drawing a giant, um, "thing" on the roof of his house in order to be immortalized on Google Earth.

I'm not sure if this is a UK phenomenon but there's quite a few stories of Google Earth pranks.

Though the stories made me laugh, it hasn't inspired me to go out and buy industrial strength chalk. I did, however, take a few moments to look up - or, I guess the appropriate term is, look down at - a few tracks from the heavens courtesy of Google Earth

Here's a sunny Woodbine Racetrack.


Thinking about the Derby? Check out Churchill Downs!


Tomorrow's Dubai World Cup will be raced at Nad Al Sheba.


Why not try your luck on the late Pick 4 at Aqueduct?


Santa Anita has a decent Pick 4 to pick at as well.


Mountaineer looks to be very scenically situated.


Finally, I'm thankful there will be racing at Fort Erie's oval this season.


TGIF readers, see you tomorrow morning on Twitter.

2 comments:

QQ said...

Thanks for including Mountaineer -- it is indeed scenically situated, and the Fiesta Ware outlet is just a hop, skip and jump down the road!

Anonymous said...

Hi, DHx3

Using GooGle Earth's ruler tool (see help menu) I discovered my local ovals dimensions, including turn radii and other secrets.

Cheers,
wiinky
Fraser Downs Parimutuel