Unharnessed: Episode One

Yep I think I am going to watch the next show.

Just wanted to check in and disagree strongly with the two commenters who were negative to the female voice over. I thought Elissa Blowe's voice was one of the strengths of the first show. In a male dominated sport, it's brilliant to contrast with a female narrator (and a good one at that.) Rene and Dawn at WEG and Kelly at Grand River are other examples of how this works well. One show is too early to cast firm opinion, but I thought overall it was a good effort. Great energy in the entire piece. A suggestion - pick one focus at a time ie dropping the Waples family bit into a story about the NA Cup drivers was confusing. I think a complete episode on the Waples family including Keith etc would be a great way to capture interest from several generations, but to just drop in snippets, didn't work. Looking forward to the next episode!

It looks like you guys are off to a good start, would like to see more drama............ action.......edge... in future. All the best.

How bout this one. Put a helmet cam on the driveers for 50 races or so. Select one of the more favorable outcomes and then have the driver narrate what was going on in his head when he moved. Particularly, in context to how the race shape was arising. eg, was it slowing in tempo at the time,.....or did he step into a hot split, etc.

Excellent job! Keep 'em coming. I've shared with many folks down here in the US and the feedback has been outstanding. Stuart Chambers

Do a feature on how the driver's call their splits thru the course of a race. Hi-lite how they pull the trigger in accordance to how the tempo of the race is going. By my reckoning, standardbred racing comes down to whether the drivers are going fast, even, or slow, thru the 4 quarters of the race. The final times of their last races tanks bettors all the time when used as a comparative. One is much better served to asseess a horse's ability in context to how they move during the various sppeds of the fractions,(eg. Fast, Even, Slow) I'm curious as to how the drivers determine wheteher they're in a hot or cold split,..... and how they anticipate the tempo of the upcoming splits. Also,.......... how they slip in and out thru the various fractional sppeds with nifty little moves that I call,"half splits",. Little segments of the race that's ,"in between", the frational speeds. Chris Christoforou and Jodie Jamieson appear to be very adept at that.

I have to agree with Mr.Turner. Not that interested in that J. J. is a slob! Just Bad...Is this just going to be about a few elite WEG drivers or will there be some substance to this. Would be great to see this succeed, in my opinion this has not started off on the right foot. Just not impressed....

I wanted to like this initial episode, as harness racing needs the exposure, and from a fresh viewpoint. And, as a long-time American owner unfamiliar with the personalities of the top Canadian drivers, I was ready to learn about a new set of horsemen. But, as at least one other respondent commented, these interviews were pretty boring. And, to cite one example, a novice would have no idea why Ron Waples is in three Halls of Fame.

I will say the different camera angles showing the horses coming through the turn and into the stretch, were beautiful, and I certainly hope future episodes will fulfill the hopes of the filmmakers.

Mr Turner, I thought it was a great way to introduce some of the key characters that will be prominent in subsequent episodes. I think it was brilliant. I can see the excitement building.

Well I will still probably watch all the shows, but if I didn't have an interest in harness racing I would have turned it off in about 5 seconds, if your trying to attact a younger audience 15 mins of interviews is not the way. There has to be a way to liven it up rather then talking about working out and drinking protein shakes, if I had no interest or prior knowledge of this sport and seen this I would have just laughed at mark macdonald stripper comment and been bored out of my head the rest of the time.

Great show Randy and Partners, so now go out and buy a new race bike like Jodys' and start racing as You did last year. Keep up the good work.

Great show love it keep up the good work

Great start guys. Look forward to more great shows. Guess mr. Doan wasn't a fan of Mark's day job :) .....oh well you can't please everyone.

hey great start to the show, looks exciting cant wait for the real stuff.
i think someone else also said something about the narrator; i also think it might just work better with another voice something more dramatic and maybe even a deeper voice.
everything else looks good cant wait for the next one.

That was an excellent show... very good commentary and camera work.
If the people send negative opinions, I think they are screwy!!
Awaiting the next show...keep it up !!

Sonny Jewitt

Congratulations to all involved in this production job well done. I compare this to horse racing this was your first start and to me you qualified large i can only see this getting bigger and better . We have great personalties in this sport and it is finally time we took advantage of that . It is great to see the top drivers buying into this as a group that is what we need right now to work as a group to try and drive this sport back to where it belongs .
There will always be people that see what is wrong with something and they are entitled to there opinion but i am sure there will be more people that see what is right with this production keep up the good work.

Great job
Sonny

Good work, loved it!

Mr. Smith I liked the show but "screw the whiners". A little classless I must say. Just because someone gives his opinion and it's not the same as yours doesn't make you right and them wrong and it certainly does not make them whiners as you so politley put it. It is criticism (albeit good-natured and balanced) that allows anything to get better by adjusting and making changes to allow for everyone's tastes. Different people like different things and have different points of view. It is when something can address as many points of view and tastes as possible that it becomes truly a very good thing.

So far I enjoyed what I saw. However I feel there needs to be much more to really show what harness racing is all about and I'm sure that willcome in time as Randy and Co add and make changes.

Keep up the good work boys. Looks like it'll be a good show.

I really enjoyed the show, a lot of people put in a lot of work into this,keep up the good work. Thanks

Sweet!

Yes Leonard, imagine the NERVE of someone trying to promote and hype harness racing.

I thought the show was a good start - I personally would change the narrator, I don't think the voice is suitable, it doesn't set the mood correctly.

Randy & Co - here's a rule of thumb: If the current horsemen population doesn't like it, you're probably doing something right.

Keep up the good work and screw the whiners.

So that's the big show,eh? Not exactly what you hyped it up to be. You hype the North America Cup,..... followed by interviews of the top drivers sharing stuff that they should probably keep to themselves. Just not that impressed.

Finally a show about my favorite sport!! and a Great show at that... Already can't wait for the next one. Don't forget, if it causes a little controversy it means it's good!!