Keeneland College Day's Tuesday News and Views

When we started KSR long ago, we were like most of you....we loved going to Keeneland and looked forward to the Spring and Fall meets all year long. Now five years later, we do some promotion with Keeneland and we still go out there whenever possible. The first trip for the KSR crew (Hubby, me, Drew Franklin, Turkey Hunter, etc) is this Friday as Keeneland has College Day on October 15th. For College Day, full-time college students receive free general admission and the chance to win one of ten $1,000 scholarships after each race. Registration will take place in Keeneland's College Zone in the North Terrace. Students will enjoy live music, prize drawings, free food and much more. The first 1,000 students to register for a scholarship will receive a long-sleeve Keeneland College Scholarship Day t-shirt courtesy of Kennedy bookstore. There is free Coke Zero and Qdoba queso at the registration and the chance to get a photo made using Keeneland and Coady Photography’s new Greenscreen photo opp background. The best photos will be posted on Kentucky Sports Radio and may even include Drew Franklin in the background. If you are a college student, attendance is mandatory and even if you are not, the racing, scenery and Friday vibe is worth the trip. Its College Day and KSR Day at Keeneland and we hope you will show up. Look for a chance to win Reserved Grandstand seats for Friday on the site over the next two days. Now to the news: --- There continues to be a great deal of appreciation both locally and nationally, for the brilliant and versatile play of Randall Cobb. For the fourth time this season, Cobb was named a winner of the Paul Hornung Award for versatility in a RB/WR position. He looks to be on track to potentially win the award at the end of the year as his closest competition at this point is the QB/RB/Score all the Time Denard Robinson at Michigan. Cobb has played amazingly over the past few weeks and his play against Auburn where he ran all over the field and found a way to make a 40 yard gain out of nothing will be one that is on his career highlight reel. With Derrick Locke likely out of the game at South Carolina, Joker says we will see more Wildcat on Saturday...anything that gets the ball to Cobb more is something I can support fully. --- I was pleased to see what seemed to amount to universal support of the play of Mike Hartline from the non-crazy parts of the fanbase. Both the callers to the radio and the posters on this site praised his game on Saturday and the debate was not whether he should be the QB or not, but simply whether he played great or just good. Mike has made two very bad throws...one against Florida and one against Ole Miss...but you can make the case that besides those throws, he has had a very good season and should be commended for his play. Those throws were costly, but if he could get a win against the Old Ball Coach, I bet they would be forgotten. --- I was disappointed to read the comments of John Calipari on the Maui Invitational this year and his general dislike of such tournaments. Part of the reason for my disappointment is surely selfish, as I am lucky enough to get to go this season, but also it reflects a general disagreement I have with Cal on scheduling. Calipari believes that the holiday tournaments are of less importance than home games against mediocre teams and neutral site games in locales such as New York and other recruiting areas. While I certainly defer to Calipari on the question of what helps recruiting, I think he sometimes forgets how important these trips are to the fans. I remember last year that Calipari downgraded the SEC Tournament's importance and then went to Nashville, saw what it meant to the fans and later said that he was wrong in his comments. When he sees Maui filled with Blue, I wonder if he will have the same change of heart. Either way, I cant wait to get there for what will be a Big Blue Fan highlight for me. And dont forget, the Cats will probably get Washington and Michigan State there as well...we will know a lot about the team by the time that tournament is complete. --- Today the KFC Yum Center was opened to the public in Louisville. While I will always refer to it as the Fried Chicken Palace, one cant help but be impressed by just how nice the new facility truly is. It is state of the art in all respects and is probably going to be the best college basketball facility in America from a luxury standpoint. It also sets the bar for a new UK arena, which I do think will happen in the next five years. The best thing about the arena for non-Louisville residents (I like it for the concerts it will bring)...the fact that it will give UK a place where it can play NCAA Tournament games. Home NCAA games are no longer just for UNC and Duke. --- If you watched "Dancing With the Stars", you saw "The Situation" dressed as Aladdin and Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol Palin dance while her child had on a UK sweatshirt. The camera flashed to the kid at one point and the UK shirt was visible. There could be many reasons for it, ranging from a subtle election shoutout for Rand Paul to a random choice made for no reason to a love of Razor Ramon Harris. But whatever the reason, it is always good to see some UK love on tv. And it gives those in the comment section a chance to tell me to "keep politics off of KSR", while then writing about politics and how whatever group they are against are "so dumb." Ranting about politics on KSR and how it will kill the site....a tradition that will outlive us all. --- Speaking of politicians, Bill Clinton was at UK today and everyone was excited, primarily because someone brought a Free Enes! sign to the rally. We didnt get a position from the former President on Enes, but I am sure that he would be for his release. If Marc Rich can be pardoned, so can Enes Kanter. And by the way, if anyone knows Andy Barr, how come he didnt contact us today after our shoutout to him last night? We were convinced he would do a podcast and ride the KSR wave to electoral momentum...Andy where's the love? --- The Atlanta Braves lost and now Bobby Cox is done. Sad to see the greatest manager not named Ted Turner in Braves history finally call it a career. He gave me 20 years worth of baseball memories and I wish him the best. Now lets just find someone other than Brooks Conrad to play defense next season. A big day upcoming on KSR (well maybe, who knows). If you havent, check out the last couple of KSR Radio shows here on podcast. Today's was a great recap of the Auburn game and some caller interactions that made Mike Pratt even contact me and say that I needed to be "more patient" with the callers. For Mike, I will be on my best behavior tomorrow. Stay tuned....