There’s a horse to watch in Canadian Pacing Derby
Time for baseball, softball to use only wooden bats
Harness racing fans will be watching Saturday’s Canadian Pacing Derby as the great New Zealand pacer Lazarus N makes his Canadian debut at Woodbine in Toronto. He has been tabbed as The Wonder from Down Under, and rightfully so. In 45 career starts in Australia and New Zealand, Lazarus has 35 wins and nine seconds and $3.8 million in career earnings. As a two-year-old, he won six of eight starts, including an amazing 25.2 in the final quarter of his last race as a two-year-old. Now aged six, he has been brought to North America to race against the best on this continent. He made his debut back on Aug. 10 in winning the Dan Patch Stakes in 1:48.4, and left from the outside Post 9. He powered his way to victory in that race, and was timed at 34.8 miles per hour at the finish line. That is 56 kilometres per hour, which is fast enough to get a speeding ticket going out Central Street in Summerside. He is already drawing comparisons to arguably the best standardbred horse of all time – the great Somebeachsomewhere. He is now owned by the U.S. breeding giants Taylor Made Stallions, and is under the care of Hall of Fame trainer Jimmy Takter and driven by Yannick Gingras. Although the official price paid for this champion racehorse has not been disclosed, reports have it at around $4 million. He is the 7-5 favourite leaving from Post 2 Saturday, and right beside one of North America’s best, McWicked at Post 3. He likely will be retired to stud after this season. In the meantime, though, we will get to watch a horse who may become the best harness racing horse of all time. Post time for the $600,000 Canadian Pacing Derby is 10:45 p.m., Atlantic time.
Wooden bats
Girls playing fastpitch softball wear a face mask on defence in the infield. While that may be a good idea for safety reasons, would it really be necessary if wooden bats were used? Softball at all levels would be different – and a much better game – if these aluminum, or whatever the bats are made of, would be banned. As has been said here many times before, these tin bats are dangerous as balls come off them much faster than wood. It is a natural bounce with a wooden bat, and easier and less dangerous for an infielder to field the ball. A local slo-pitch player took a ball off his face this week that left him spitting blood. As I said to his teammate, with a wooden bat, he would have stood a much better chance of fielding the ball cleanly and throwing out the runner. Baseball has more and more levels going back to wood, and hopefully softball follows suit. Both were invented and first played with wooden bats, and the sooner the tin bats are banned the better both games will be.
Pennant races
September signifies pennant races in Major League Baseball, and we have very good races in four of the six divisions. The only race in the American League is in the West Division, with Houston carrying a two-game lead over Oakland going into weekend action. The defending World Serieschampion Astros should win the West while the A’s are quite likely to meet the New York Yankees in the one-game playoff to determine the wild-card team. Eight of the 15 National League teams are very much in contention for the post-season, with two more having an outside chance. Teams have less than 30 games to play, and the four pennant races will make for a great September stretch drive leading up to next month’s post-season. Have a safe and enjoyable Labour Day weekend!
Joe MacIntyre is a local life insurance broker. His column appears every Saturday. Comments and suggestions can be sent to
joemacintyre18@gmail.com.