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.