Somewhere In (On) (Not New) Jersey

When it comes to racing I have always liked the offbeat. When you've seen 25 or so runnings of the GI Mother Goose S. at Belmont, the Mother Goose just doesn't do it for you anymore. So while many of the finest 3-year-old fillies in the country will be racing at Belmont Park I will be some 3,500 miles away trying to figure out the card at Les Landes Race Course in Jersey.

Not that Jersey. Not Monmouth Park Jersey or Bruce Springsteen, Chris Christie, Snooki or traffic circles, but the Isle of Jersey. It is part of the Channel Islands, a small group of islands just off the coast of Normandy, France yet part of the United Kingdom.

Why I am I here? Because different is fun.

Les Landes runs nine meetings a year. There is also one meeting on another of the Channel Islands, Guernsey. The Les Landes races will be held Friday and there is a five-race card, one jumper and four flat races. I can tell you that the feature race is the one jump race, the Channel Islands Champion Hurdle, and the winner will receive £2,380. I also know that Mark Johnson, the track announcer at Churchill Downs between 2009 and 2013, is the regular caller at Les Landes. Go figure.

I also googled away and found out that our New Jersey indeed comes from this Jersey. New Jersey was named by James, Duke of York (the brother of King Charles II of England), who was given New Jersey by his brother. James later gave New Jersey to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. James named the colony New Jersey to honor Carteret, who had been the Governor of Jersey, a British island in the English Channel.

But that's about all I know. Who are these horses, jockeys, trainers and where do they come from? Why would a remote island with just 92,000 residents have a racetrack? Can they compete on the mainland of the UK or are they hopelessly outclassed. Are there any past performances? I searched long and far for that information and could come up with little. Racing at Les Landes is a mystery, and I hope to have a at least a few answers tomorrow.

In the meantime, Thursday was spent exploring the island. The easiest way to get here from the East Coast was to fly to Dublin and take a puddle jumper from there. Upon my arrival I asked the nice man at the Avis counter for a GPS, which just as well could have meant to him a Geothermal Protective Spaceship. Ok, strange country, windy roads, drive on left, no idea where I'm going…yep…I'll be fine. Though I've driven in the UK plenty of times, it still takes some getting used to and I was so conscious about staying away from the right-hand side of the road that I veered too far to the left and scratched up the driver's side door. (We'll be burying that one deep down on the expense account right under dinner with some trainer the bosses have never heard of).

Being that these are islands out of the middle of the sea, one would think the main reason tourists come here is to enjoy the sunshine and the beaches. If they do, they're nuts, that is if Thursday was anything typical of a late June day in Jersey. The high was 62 Fahrenheit, it was dreary and it drizzled on and off most of the day. Not a soul could be found on the beach. At my hotel, a lovely place called La Haule Manor, there is a swimming pool, but I'm guessing the last time anyone jumped in was 1984 and they were soon afterward whisked off to the hospital with an acute case of hypothermia.

Apparently, they don't share their French neighbors' affection for fine wine. In the first liquor store I went to the shelves were loaded with three packs of wine selling for a total of £9. Sorry, we'll pass.

I was also surprised to see no signs of the secretive banking businesses that are part of so many of these islands. Jersey is supposedly like so many of the rest, a place where the mega-wealthy go to hide their money to avoid paying taxes. I expected to see ridiculous mansions and Mitt Romney driving around in a chauffeur-driven Maserati. I saw nothing of the kind. In fact, I couldn't even find a bank and had to hit an ATM at a Shell station. Maybe I just didn't know where to look.

I did stumble upon one of the more endearing features of Jersey. There are plenty of unattended farm stands here where the owners leave out flowers and produce and expect the customers to do the right thing and leave the appropriate amount of money in a box. I paid £2 for some flowers.

So, tomorrow will be the races at a place everyone says is quaint and picturesque, as it sits right on top of the sea. The first race goes off at 6:30 p.m. and it's a seven-furlong handicap. Thirteen are entered, including two from the stable of Alyson Malzard (the Linda Rice of the Isle of Jersey?) and two from the barn of Angie Corson. I believe there's a Pick Four on the card and I'm hearing that Rossetti is the Arkle of Channel Islands steeplechase racing and is lock city. Other than that, I haven't got a clue. Tips? Expert opinions on racing at Les Landes? Send them my way or come meet me at the track. I'll be the guy wearing a parka.