There is just one problem after another in getting Seattle to the races. He was ready to go when the horse tattooer noticed that the papers were slightly off. Two weeks to get the jerkey club to make a minor change in the paper work. We are now all set, we enter the horse for Thursday, and the race does not fill. NYRA runs nearly 50% maidens and Finger Lakes has trouble filling MSW races.
NYRA announced that purses will be increased 36% for the Aqueduct winter-spring meeting. Maybe this will bring in some horses over the winter. Last year was a disaster and NYRA was thinking of going to a 4-day raceweek over the winter.
I want to thank Richard Eng for taking the time to respond to my email concerning his article about the new $50 application fee for Kentucky Derby tickets. His article struck me as somewhat elitest in that he seemed to be saying that if you don't pay it or can't pay it then stay home. He clarified his position somewhat. Using his arguments then we should expect NYRA to sell personal seat licenses for boxes and clubhouse seats at Saratoga. Horse racing seems to be trying its hardest to shoot itself in the foot.

Final day at the Spa. Yesterday was my last public picks for the Saratoga Special for this year. What a day for seconditis to return. Ended up 5th of five for total wins but third of five for money won. I met Erin Finley for the first time yesterday in the paddock. I introduced myself and she said I was the best handicapper for live long shots. She is a very pretty girl and obviously quite smart too. John Shapazian stopped by my seats each day to say hi and rehash races. I met Gaile last week when her horse ran fourth. I never did meet Dean Keppler. We have a mutual acquaintance but we never could work out the logistics. Overall, it was fun and for the last two weeks of the meet I showed a net betting profit on my top pick.

Yesterday was Halloween in August at the track. A few hundred kids dressed up for a costume contest and trick or treating at various spots around the track. I for one thought that was a terrific promotion to bring kids and their families to the track.
So far, this week has been quieter than usual, I think because of the hurricane. A lot of the nearby areas have been without power since Sunday and are now just getting back to normal. Attendence should pick up as we get into the great weekend. There are now three Grade 1's for Saturday, including the postponed Personal Ensign. I cringe when I heard tv pundits say the race was canceled on Sunday when it was merely postponed. That is what happens when one is married to an English teacher.
NYRA unveils its plans for the slots money improvements to Saratoga today. Dorms, new roofs on the grandstand and clubhouse, electrical and plumbing seem to dominate. I still think that NYRA should take a long look at the retired priest's building on Lake Ave near St Clements. I think that it could be adapted to use by the backstretch employees at a cheaper cost than building new dorms and it is only a short distance from the Oklahoma track. There is also mention of new barns in the annex area along with a three story dorm in that area. I would also love to see wi-fi available everywhere in the plant.
I had only two winners in the paper yesterday and am getting my butt kicked in terms of wins but am only a few dollars out of second place in terms of money won. My average mutuel is substantially higher than the other handicappers in the Saratoga Special. I fully expect to be no worse than second place in terms of money won but will finish last in races won.
I am still trying to get the Clancys to include money won in the paper and have suggested a betting contest among the Special handicappers next year.

Since the Alabama and hanging out with the Pace and Cap crowd, my handicapping has improved and I showed a profit of $30 on my top picks last week. Back to reality today as I only won 2 of 11 races but they did pay almost $16 in total.
Skedaddle was supposed to run last Thursday but I got a call from Mike Ferraro at Finger Lakes that the paperwork description did not exactly match the horse. Up to ten days to straighten it out. I expect the horse to run very well his first time out.

Tropical Storm was devastating in the surrounding areas but Saratoga was relatively unscathed. Unbelievably, the track was fast on Monday after 15 or 16 hours of torrential rain. Spent the off day on Tuesday visiting relatives in Massachusetts. Every river we saw was deep, fast and very muddy. Fourteen communities in Vermont still cut off from the outside world because of washed out roads.

Had a great weekend in the Festival tent with some of the Paceandcap and Paceadvantage guys. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday shuttling between my seats and the tent. Brought some people up to the seats so they could see a live race. A highlight of the weekend was getting to see Bill V again. He was able to adjust his schedule enough to spend his down time with us in Saratoga. He left Sunday afternoon to resume his trucking. I got to know Patrick a little bit better and he seems like such a sweet guy who is trying hard to win with RDSS. Another highlight was getting to meet Rich P. in person for the first time along with his lovely girl friend Karen. He really does exist.
Sean Clancy had a funny item in his Sunday column. His column was about things he was wishing for. One of them was that he knew the correct totals for the Special handicappers. So I sent him my figures. Hope they help. I keep a spreadsheet of all the Special handicappers so I was able to send him wins, number of races and total money won by each handicapper.
This public handicapping gig has been a bit of an eye opener. It is a little more nerveracking to put your picks out every morning after picking them at least 36 hours earlier. In the past, when I handicapped for Trackmaster and Equibase, only the paying customers saw them live. Everyone else had to wait until the next day. In addition, I used to list four horses so that I could cover some scratches and still have three horses. I was also able to suggest betting strategies and give some indication of how strong I felt about the race. In the paper, I get to list only three horses and have to live and die by them with each race treated equally.
However, once I got used to it, it has been fun.

Had a good day betting yesterday although only one of my top picks won and that was an even money favorite. Spent the day in the Festival tent with paceandcap.com and paceadvantage.com folks. Had a good time seeing old friends and meeting new people. Looking forward to meeting Steve Stewart today--at the tent. I worked with him many years ago down on Long Island and haven't seen him for several years.
Met with some paceandcap people last nite at the high rock condos in downtown Saratoga. Went over the RDSS2 program and handicapped two races for today. We have pretty much decided that the Alabama will be won by either St John's River or Inglorious with a slight chance to Its Tricky. The first race is tricky as there is a graded stakes runner making his first start in nearly three years.
An added bonus last nite was seeing Bill V. He used to live in New Jersey and came to Saratoga each year. He is now a long distance trucker based in California. He happened to be in the area and will be here until Sunday nite when he has to leave to pick up a load.

Amazing. For the second time in two days, a horse was dq'd from first and one of my top choices was moved up to first place. This one was really a no brainer. In yesterday's 8th race, the three horse, Retire To What, was on the rail and the two horse, Chernobyl's Hero, was on the far outside. That did not keep Retire To What from crossing about 7 or 8 paths under a lefthanded whip to interfere with my horse. What made it even sweeter was the fact that two of my fellow handicappers with me also had bet the horse.
I was in the paddock for the feature yesterday to see a friend's horse. I had a little chat with Sean Clancy, one of the hardworking Clancys who put out the Saratoga Special. Suggested that next year, we keep track of the money and have a battle among the Special handicappers similiar to what the Post and the Daily News do. He didn't sound too thrilled as he appears to be one tired puppy.

Had a great dinner last night at the Ripe Tomato with Ted Craven and his mother. They are visiting from Canada and he is the programming brains behind RDSS which is the latest program implementation of the late Dr Howard Sartin's handicapping ideas.
Interesting card yesterday. I had very little confidence in my selections in the first half of the day but I felt better about the second half. Turns out I was right. Had wins in the 6th, 9th and 10th. Yesterday just goes to show that usually it all evens out in the end. In the 8th race, I scratched down to just one horse, My Man Nell. Coming out of the chute on the backstretch, the horse appears to stumble or clip heels after Cap The Thunder came in on him. Tosses the rider, Irad Ortiz Jr., who lies on the track for about five minutes and then is loaded on a stretcher and then put in the ambulance. Appears to be seriously hurt. However, he returns to ride the 10th race and wins the race but is disqualified. The second horse who is moved up to the win was my top choice, Pure Home Brew.
Gave up my usual seats this weekend so that I can hang out with the Pace and Cap people and the Pace Advantage people in the Festival tent. Should be a lot of fun as they usually crush the races.

Today concluded the third week of the meet. My early tenure has been marked by a lack of confidence. I have 27 wins after 14 handicapping days. The Saratoga Special does not publish on Monday except for today because of the sales starting tonite. I had 3 wins today and I have been very disappointed with my handicapping so far. I am missing too many long shot horses. I don't really care if I don't hit any favorites on top.

Today, I went to watch the races from the backstretch. As soon as the horses hit the track for the first race, a monsoon hit and they ran the first race in a driving rainstorm. By the start of the 2nd race, the sun was shining. I drove home to Long Island after the second race. I ran into a 10minute thunderstorm with the sun shining the entire time. Weird.

Fairly formful day at the Spa yesterday. Unfortunately, I was able to come up with only one winner on top. However, I had several live longshots and my choices in the first race ran 1-2-3 but not in that order. Tiznow ran a bang up race and it was nice to see James Bond win a big race at the spa again. He has come a long way since his days at Finger Lakes. There was an inquiry in the last race which lasted a while. If the winner had been taken down, there would have been a carryover of some $800,000 into today. Congratulations to the 8 or 9 winners of the pick-6 who collected some $87,000.
I spoke to two breeders in the paddock yesterday whose horses are making their Saratoga debuts today. Both breed on a small scale and are both thrilled to have horses at Saratoga. Mad Fast in the second is bred by the Zwirns and is owned and trained by Linda Rice and is making her debut. The other one, Silver Squaw, has been running at Finger Lakes and Suffolk without much success. She has been known to put on a show while being saddled and should be interesting to watch in the paddock.

Whitney day

Well back to reality. Dean had two winners in the Special and the other four handicappers (including me) had no winners at all. Strange thing though, when I went over the races that night I should have had three winners on top. I don't know what I was thinking when I handicapped the races. Anyway, for good or bad, today is another day. Today is Whitney day. There are probably six or seven horses who can win the Whitney. Four of them have won Grade I races already. I settled on Apart, Tizway and Flat Out. I debated a long time on whether to use Rail Trip so that horse will feature in my betting. Good luck to all and enjoy a great day of racing at the Spaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Yesterday was my second strong day in a row. Four winners on top and showed another net profit on the day. As I said previously, I try to handicap for a profit not necessarily for winners. I think it is easy to pick winners but much more difficult to show a profit. That is why the meet that John Dasilva of the New York Post is having so far is so impressive. His profits are showing a net profit to date. That is my goal.

All around good day

Handicapping wise I had my best day of the meet so far. Five winners on top, a cold pick-3 and two cold doubles. I also had a cold exacta but I pretty much ignore them.That is nine winners in the last three handicapping days so I may be coming alive.

Skedaddletoseattle had a half mile work yesterday at Finger Lakes. He was the sixth best out of sixteen horses who worked. In addition, he worked in company and he handled that just fine. As trainer Michael Ferraro says repeatedly the horse does everything he is asked and does it well. One more work out of the gate. That will get him a gate card and he will be ready for his first start--probably in two or three weeks at the latest.

Jockey's small brains

You have to watch today's running of the Four Star Dave handicap at Saratoga today. It was apparent from the opening of the gate that the jockeys were riding for second place behind Sidney's Candy. That horse was allowed to set fractions of 25, 50 and 114 without anyone coming close to challenging him. So we learned nothing about Sidney's Candy today since he was just having a public workout. If this was Hong Kong, the rest of the jockeys would be suspended for lack of trying to win.
I had a poor day with my win selections. However, one of my top choices paid $18.40 to place which I was happy to take. In other races, I identified long shots which were needed for exotics. I hope that people who read the newspaper realize that I am not necessarily trying to pick just winners but trying to identify live longshots.
As I said yesterday, I had four winners on top but was credited with only 2 in the paper. Sean Clancy promised to find out why.

A breakthrough

Finally had a good day today. Four wins on top and one of my second choices also won. In addition, I would have had the last race winner after redoing the race after it was taken off the grass and moved to the dirt at the same distance. Good or bad however, we have to do it all over again tomorrow. That is a great thing about handicapping. No matter what happens there are more races the next day.
Tomorrow is the first giveaway of the meet. Saratoga ball caps. Black. Should be very popular and will draw a big crowd. Probably cause some big prices. The rain yesterday seems to have a beneficial effect on the turf courses. Today, grass races were more normal. Slow early pace and strong running in the stretch needed. It did not seem to matter the pace, early runners were not holding on. Hopefully, this will continue and I can get more winners tomorrow.

This is getting ridiculous. Three more second choices won yesterday including one that paid more than $20. In horseracing lingo, I am losing contact with the field regarding the top choice winning. However, I have had seven second choice winners in the last two days. Maybe I should just start reversing my picks. This happened to me once before when I was handicapping for Trackmaster and Equibase. I just had to work through it. The track was finally downgraded to muddy for the last race yesterday. Intermittent rain (mostly light) fell throughout the entire card. That should really help the turf courses as they have been pretty hard.
I sat with friends yesterday who have horses with trainer Kate Demasi down at Parx in Philadelphia. She shipped up a horse in the fifth yesterday. Neither the trainer nor the owner were there and the assistant trainer saddled the horse. The horse led the turf sprint most of the way at about 15-1 and hung on for third.

Seconditis

Well, for the second day in a row I have one winner on top at even money. However, four of my second choices won. If I had only reversed my picks, I would have had a great day. Never mind, tomorrow is another day (to steal a quote). I feel strongly about my picks for tomorrow and expect to make money tomorrow. Four more days in the second week in which to salvage my pride and show off my handicapping skills.

Tough day

Back to reality today with Wednesday's card. Only one winner on top and that was an odds on horse that all five handicappers had. Kudos to Erin Finley who had four winners today. She moves into second place and I drop into the basement. I usually have poor days on Wednesday as the track is usually different from the weekend. At least, I use that as an excuse. Tomorrow is the first steeplechase event. This year there are 9 jump races compared to 5 last year. It is good that jump races are getting a little more emphasis this year.

Skedaddle had another 3 furlong work yesterday. This time it was in 37 flat which was 6th best of twenty two works. He continues to show some promise and we still have our fingers crossed.

The chance of showers later in the day started as steady rain just before the first race and it was still pouring when I left just before the fifth race. The races were taken off the turf after the second race was run on the inner turf. This created an interesting situation as the pick four betting had already been closed. According to the state wagering law, this meant that race three winner in the pick-4 was "all". Hopelfully, not too many live tickets were thrown away. All in all, a pretty formful racing day with the usual small fields on rainy off the turf days. Attendance was less than 8000.

Day four dawns a lot cooler and more pleasant. Showers on tap for later in the afternoon and evening. The Saratoga Special does not publish on Mondays so today is very relaxed and I was able to wait until the last moment to handicap. The feature is the Evan Shipman for NY bred horses. It looks like a chalk race as the ML favorite, the 1A, Friend or Foe, looks very solid here.

Day 3 of the Saratoga meeting started off with a bang. I was the only handicapper to have the first race winner on top. It paid $22.60. Although I had only one other winner on the day, I had a net profit on today and for the first 3 days in total. Altogether, I had 6 winners out of 31 races so far this meeting. As long as I continue at that pace and show a betting profit, I will be happy. I wish they tracked money won, but the Special only looks at total wins. I don't know if people have caught on yet, but I almost never select a favorite on top. I try to identify live long shots.

On the way home from the track, I ran into an old friend who is a horse owner and client of trainer George Weaver. He told me that he spent all yesterday with Weaver who told him that although he had four horses entered today, none of them had a chance. So I pulled out the Saratoga Special and showed him my pick for the first race. The $22.60 winner was trained by George Weaver. Makes me wonder about the handicapping skills of trainers.

NBC at work

I visited the paddock yesterday on two occasions to visit friends and their horses. During one of the visits Mike Battaglia was filming a piece for NBC to be shown during their broadcast later in the day. He was standing in one of the few shady spots at the time talking into the camera and being watched by a woman apparently in charge. She kept hushing the crowd saying he was on the air. When he gets done, she tells him she tried to keep the crowd noise down. He laughed and said that it wasn't necessary as he was just rehearsing and in any case, he prefers to be in the middle of a crowd of people as it helps him to concentrate. Once he is on the air, he is able to shut out the background noise. What a consummate professional.

Much better handicapping day today. Had the early pick-3 cold and then had several near misses later in the card. Two of my second choices won at decent odds including the feature race. Personally, I made money again and have won both days at the meet so far. In the paper, I now have 4 wins in two days and am tied for third among the five handicappers. No handicapping for the next two nights for the paper as it does not publish Monday and Tuesday is a dark day. Overall, I am off to a so-so start for the paper but doing well in my betting. Like Anthony Mormino of the Capital OTB, I feel I must bet my picks if I bet any race.

Well I got thru the first day. Only one victory on top but noone in the Saratoga Special had more than two. At least my winning price was bigger. The day did not seem as hot as forecast as a steady breeze helped the comfort levels. A decent opening day crowd of 25,500 saw several unlikely horses win. This produced a pick-6 carryover of over $67,000 into the first Saturday of the meet. A highlight of the day was the seventh race which was named for wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Her husband Commander Kelly gave out the trophy to the winning connections.
Tomorrow sees 11 races including the Coaching Club American Oaks.

It has been a long time coming but Skedaddletoseattle had his first 3f work last week. Mike Ferraro is his trainer at Finger Lakes and he says that so far the horse has done everything that he has been asked to do so far. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Our first horse that we bred is named Bazoo and was a playmate of Skedaddle when they were babies. He broke his maiden in May in his second career start. He finished sixth last time out but was only beaten four lengths. I think that the trainer Mike Hushion and the owners are thinking grass for his next start.

Nerve wracking time. For the first time, I am handicapping the Saratoga meeting as a public handicapper. Some of my picks are totally different from the other handicappers so we shall see. Either I will look like a complete fool or a genius. If you are in Saratoga, pick up the Saratoga Special or check out the digital edition on line.