Winter is Magna Entertainment time. So get used to MEC tracks Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita filling the simulcast schedule, as well as filling airtime on Dish Network's HRTV.
This will be the final meeting at Santa Anita on a dirt track. The Arcadia, Calif., track will change to a synthetic surface in time for Oak Tree. And I suspect that Gulfstream might not be far behind. Gulfstream sees a lot of rain and thus sloppy tracks, too.
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Magna is installing Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields. A successful meet there might tip the scales for Tapeta going into other Magna tracks.
At HRTV (Dish 404), I find the announcers as knowledgeable, and a lot more understated, than their peers at TVG (Digital 324, Dish 405, DirecTV 602).
And now a bone to pick with TVG. Their announcers aren't held accountable for their race picks and betting options for the pick 4 and pick 6. I cannot imagine any TVG announcer is in the black, or remotely close to break even, with all the bets offered. They should be held accountable. Or make them bet their own picks so they're as broke as some of us.
Here is some free advice: give each HRTV and TVG announcer a bankroll for the meet and tell them to just win money. Bet it any way you want, but bet smart. Grow your bankroll, and in turn make money for the viewers. I know that guys such as Frank Lyons, Matt Carothers, Jeff Siegel and Jon White can do better than they've shown.
* HRTV -- I watched the HRTV documentary, "Santa Anita: The Lost Years," and consider it must-see TV. It covers the years from 1942 to 1944, during World War II when Santa Anita Park was closed while being used as a Japanese internment camp. It's arguably a low point in American history, but something worth learning from. A tip of the hat to Carolyn Conley and Amy Zimmerman of HRTV. This is a potential Eclipse Award winner.
* BARBARO -- A nice story on Barbaro by Jeanne Marie Laskas will be in the February Ladies' Home Journal magazine, on newsstands Tuesday.
Richard Eng's horse racing column is published Friday. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.
