Horse, dog racing has moments of tainted action

Remember the movie, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Guess what? They still do. Horse meat is used from anything from pet food to choice steaks and chops throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. Here in the U.S.A. we still prefer cows, although I can’t see a big difference between the two. Most states have laws against the slaughter of horses for food. I guess it’s the American way.

Random drug testing has taken its toll on the sleazy back-barn derelicts that for a quart of cheap whiskey and $50 bucks will still fix a horse. Thank God that is no longer tolerated at most U.S. tracks.

Prince saw it

My brother took a job as a security guard at a harness track after his tour with the Army. It was after the fourth race when he came alongside a trophy presentation with photographers taking photos for the early Sunday first editions. Everything looked routine until he figured the photo was the winner of the yet-to-be-run eighth race — long after newspaper deadlines.

The mutts were even worst. A greyhound owner in England told me how they fiddle the dogs.

“They stuff cotton up the nose and often cut the toenails short,” he told me. “They even feed him a pound of dog food just before a race to slow him down. To win they get ’em high on something.”

Going to the dogs

During my last five years in the Air Force stationed in the U.K., I often attended the dogs, just before a Saturday assignment with Stars & Stripes. Sometimes it was London, sometimes Oxford and often at a small unlicensed track often referred to as a “flappin’ track.” If you had inside information, you had a great evening. If you didn’t, well, let’s say the bankroll went quicker than a London underground train.

I once went to the dog track with a bookie friend who had a dog running in the feature race. “Bet him good, my lad, he’ll win by a country mile,” he told me. I was certain to make a lot of lolly until I checked the bookie board. He was too much a hot favorite, having gone from 7-2 to 4-5. I gave it great thought and only put a tenner ($28) down.

The Inky Jukebox: Modern Sounds?

The Inky Jukebox draws your attention to this because every now and then someone (usually in an attempt to indicate his or her disapproval of the genre) refers to the music that comes out of Nashville as “country western.” The last time this term was remotely relevant was probably 1962. By the 1970s it had already become passé and the catch-all phrase “country music” took over as the term that encompasses the wide range of sub-genres collectively known as “country.” Certainly, this term is insufficient and is as likely to refer to mainstream pop as it is to rockabilly, bluegrass, and honky-tonk. The only people who should be able to use the term “country western” without irony are those artists who were Opry members back in 1962. For everyone else, it makes you sound like a tourist from one of those nations where, inexplicably, it is still au fait to say it (England and Japan, I’m talking about you). provides wholly independent reviews and in-depth commentary on country music. We keep our finger on the pulse by receiving press releases from the major labels, and keep up to date by posting articles regularly. We cover everything we can think of, from reviews of new and classic records, DVDs and concert footage, recent live shows and TV shows, fashion and marketing design, critiques of music reporting, and provide playlists that go beyond the obvious.

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Southwest areal linguistics then and now, proceedings of the fifth Southwest Areal Language and Linguistics Workshop, April, 1976

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