Lessons In Marketing and Driving

Thanks to Pekka Tammimnen for the video, please don't show the links for Vermo, as the night wasn't good at all! I am only joking,

I would love for the public to be able to see the vault starts and the racing in general as I think the different distances may have merit on our continent!

I mentioned about the great work Fintoto is doing here in Finland and I will expand a little now....they have done a lot of different things in the last year or so and have introduced multiple NEW fans to the sport. One thing that I love is they have started a monthly contest between the driving colony in Finland that allows the leading driver at a pre-determined span gets to be the Golden Helmet for a particular month of racing. The driver is marketed as the top jock for the month and ads are taken out in newspapers and publications to let people know that there is something special happening.

Another quite unique idea is for the number one radio DJ in all of Finland offers a free bus ride from Helsinki town center to the Vermo racetrack where the people are shown a great time and learn a bit about betting and the racing and get to spend the time with their favourite personality! Other promotions feature famous Finns at the track like Jani Sievinen, an Olympian who held all the swimming records until Michael Phelps rolled into town. I chatted with him tonight as he not only participates in the game he is a huge fan of trotting, which has to be a huge advantage to marketers.

This past Saturday, Fintoto ran a promotion at 130 of their "R KIOSKI" locations that saw a lucky gambler/fan/newcomer win a horse for the year! I know, sounds crazy, but they feel the idea of someone winning a horse and getting the proceeds from it for the year might entice people to pay a little more attention to the game! They must be nuts, right? I think they might be on to something, even if it's nuts. You have to love the attitude and passion from the people in charge.

Vermo is the biggest track in Finland in regards to everything that is racing. They race for the most money and have the best horses racing there, as well as usually the best drivers from around the country getting first call from the trainers. Today I arrived early at the track to take the lead host of MTV 3 around on her very first horse experience in a tandem sulky. We got hooked up with microphones, and headed for the track with the cameras in the starting gate. She had a ball and decided that instead of just doing a quick "one off" chat on her show this week that the best thing to do was a feature on Friday about the track and her experience and what horse racing is about. This will mark the first time that the channel or even the show has featured harness racing. All great things for Finnish trotting.

Antti Teivenen, the perennial leading driver in Finland, arrived and always waves and says moi (which is Finnish slang for hello) and wanted to let me know about the horses I had for the night. The news, I'm afraid was not great, as he said they were not good. I thought, what the hell, I'm here I might as well prove him wrong and win three or four!!!!! Yeah, well, he was right...the horses weren't great and couldn't help me get to the winners circle. It's never a surprise when the top driver knows all the horses and is able to navigate around the rest of the field. Such was the case with Antti in the fifth race tonight.

I was driving a horse everyone thought would be last and I got away from a vault start in third position on the rail at the first lap mark and held that place through the third and fourth turns until, with a lap to go, Antti arrived first over and looked at me as I was having difficulty holding my steed on the rail and gave me a distinct head nod to move into the second over position behind him. Little did I know but soon after I moved out that my horse decided it was time to stop pulling and stop miserably. We finished close to last if not last and once again I was defeated. The point of the race is that Antti knew that my horse was only pretending to want out and that if I did come out my horse would simply be in the way of the other contenders in the race. When a driver can drive more than his own horse in one race it is truly is a mark of brilliance. One that is not lost on myself, as I believe, that all great drivers drive more then their own mount in any given race. Antti Teivenen continues to rule the Finnish Trotting world for a reason!

Mikkeli tomorrow and then an off day Friday, Lahti on Saturday and home on Sunday to see the most precious being on the earth, Hailey bobbins.