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.