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This weekend marks the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby, certainly the jewel of the horse racing industry in America. But could the jockeys you see this weekend be an endangered species?

For those that have grown up around the sport, it seems like a silly question to ask. Still, at least one well known jockey thinks that's a very realistic possibility. C.C. Lopez, a jockey at Monmouth Park, tells the Wall Street Journal he wouldn't be surprised if jockeys were all replaced in the future.

"We're talking about drone planes in Afghanistan," said Lopez, who's competed in the Breeders Cup, said. "Is it really that big a stretch to have someone at the race controlling a robot from the stands with a joystick? It isn't far-fetched at all."

Lopez believes a horse controls 95 percent of a race, with the rider involved 5 percent of the time, possibly more if its very close finish. "I might have a role in it. But if the horse wins by five or 10 lengths, that is the horse," he said.

Aside from the horse-racing industry not thinking about such a change, Darren Rogers, a spokesman for iconic Churchill Downs, told the Wall Street Journal "we wouldn't even entertain the thought," he said (of riderless horses).

Others are more openminded about the idea. For instance, Walker Blankinship, the director of New York's Kensington Stables. "It would require radical change from the way things are done now," Blankinship said. "But I believe it could be done."

Ultimately, one of the biggest problems with the very idea of jockeyless racing, is getting the horses to race without someone on their back to encourage the process. "There is no way to teach a horse to chase a carrot," trainer Gary Contessa told the Wall Street Journal. "He's not going to chase anything at full speed—unless it was a male horse and you had him chasing a female horse. That might work." Without jockeys, he added, "You'd have a lot of 1,200-pound objects running in every direction."

It seems that machines replacing jockeys are the most likely scenario, should this fantasy ever become reality.

-- Follow Ben Maller on Twitter @BenMaller.full story >>

Tags:

Horse Racing, Jockeys, Kentucky Derby

It makes some New Yorkers cringe, but the phrase "Brooklyn is the new Manhattan" is gaining ground -- and digital translation company Ortsbo has found one way to capitalize on New York's booming borough.

As construction of Brooklyn's Barclays Center (soon-to-be home of the Nets and plenty of other sports and entertainment events) progresses, Ortsbo is creating an online world for global fans to engage with anything and everything happening at the arena. Barclays Center TV will offer pre- and postgame interviews by a multilingual host, plus two-way communication between fans anywhere in the world and those lucky enough to be sitting in the stands.

But what makes the social media experience unique is the ability for users to instantly translate interviews and other content into multiple languages. The arena opens Sept. 28.full story >>

Tags:

Barclays Center, MOA, NCAAB, New Jersey Nets

You're departing your house or office, and a machine beeps to prevent you from leaving if you forgot your wallet, keys, iPhone, iPad, sunglasses or jacket? Sound cool?

That day may not be far away, which is great for distracted people like me who have the ability to forget the bread in a PB&J sammy.

While it's not quite ready to tell us if we've lost our minds, at Park City Mountain Resort and some others, a technology reasonably new to ski resorts called Radio Frequency Identification is able to decipher if you have your lift ticket anywhere on your body. In any pocket. Zipped and tucked away. Those pesky triangular pins and adhesive tickets can go stick themselves.full story >>

Tags:

Apps, Outdoors, Skiing

"Don't forget to scan Arian Foster's hair before halftime."

That phrase was probably not uttered in any Houston-area homes when the star running back unveiled the Texans logo designed into his head during the AFC playoffs. But just wait.

The Bromley soccer team of the English Southern Conference recently partnered with Betfair -- the world's largest Internet betting exchange -- to shave Quick Response codes (a.k.a. "QR Cuts") into the back of every team member's noggin (see below left). When scanned with a smartphone, the QR barcode sent spectators directly to Betfair's web site, giving them a chance to put some money on the game.

The players revealed their new 'dos ahead of their first-round clash with Leyton Orient late last year. Each intricate style took more than an hour to create.full story >>

Tags:

Arian Foster, Bromley, EPL, Houston Texans, NFL, Soccer

Piers Morgan freely admits his first year as Larry King's heir apparent could have gone better but there is another endeavor in which the controversial talk-show host is having supreme success.

The 46-year-old Brit, who hosts Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN, has spent much of the past year wasting no opportunity to poke fun and taunt the players of Manchester United on Twitter with the stated intention of getting under their skin.

Morgan is a huge fan of United's English Premier League rival Arsenal, and regularly takes great delight in teasing players such as Wayne Rooney, whom he calls "Shrek" and often-injured Rio Ferdinand ("Sicknote"), regularly sparking angry responses.

With United's season lurching from one mini-crisis to another and the club in danger of losing its grip on the English Premier League title, Morgan’s Tweeting has gone into overdrive.

While Morgan also exchanges Tweet messages with the England cricket team, as well as former heavyweight boxing champions Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, the United squad is by far his favorite target.full story >>

Tags:

EPL, Manchester United, Piers Morgan, Rio Ferdinand, Soccer, Wayne Rooney