If you\'re not up and waiting to bet the first race yet, you risk the chance of being labeled a FUGAZZI horse player!!!
Hot, humid and a matter of when and where a T-storm will land in Saratoga sometime late afternoon or evening.
The opening card is challenging to say the least and I\'m not crazy how the horizontal sequences line up for me today. I\'ve been texting back and forth with Richiebee since 630 just discussing the Lake George.
9th The Lake George:
Typical Saratoga turf stake, 2 Chad Browns, (4 in the Diana tomorrow) a Euro invader with the fastest TG number(not by much) and getting 1st Lasix and the rest of the field within 2 TG points of each other!!!!
Sky MY Sky looks to be the pace setter, Try Your Luck from the outside and Thundering Sky from the rail will have to be in the pace equation as well or lose all chance. Both Chad\'s are moving forward and both will take money deservingly so. The Euro Diamond Fields may get overlooked at bit in the betting and I expect the ML or above. My real interest in the heat lies in Enjoy Yourself. Many would consider him coming off an 0-2-X, I don\'t as per definition of this often misunderstood pattern, his first and 2nd race in the pattern are 55 days apart. The true definition says no more than 42 days between races. Her 0 and the 3 preceding races make as pretty a sheet as you ever want to see. She was very rank in her last and had a lot of traffic in the one previous. The Belmont Oaks results flatter her and she is 20/1 ML and will probably be more than that!!!!
So Enjoy Yourself today with a nice win bet and exacta\'s with the Chad\'s and the Euro invader, toss in Sky MY Sky at a price for a triple and super salad.
Good luck, (we all need it at this marathon)
Frank D.
Frank
Not that it matters all that much but Try Your Luck will probably scratch, she ran at Indiana Grand Wen. finishing 3rd in a $100K Stake. Tin Type Gal already scratched.
Best of luck today!
Going with the #3 Euro Diamond Field.
An extra 1/16th shouldn\'t be a problem if she handles all of the other stuff racing first time here.
Post helps if Junior can figure out a trip.She caught some traffic in her last.
Big:
An interesting Euro, but her lone lifetime win was on synthetic...
What a dirty beat on that #8 horse.
Figures don\'t have her better on synth than turf and if she can duplicate the last one on grass here she\'d be tough.
She\'s 6-1 early even with four scratches and Junior seems live today so I\'m gonna take a shot she handles the firm turf.
Yes, it sure was, pk4 and pk5 for me. Point me to the bar.
Frank, Jean and I got there for the 3rd after a slightly delayed train from PENN. It was so damn hot we went after two races to Siro\'s bar inside where they had lost the credit card machine communication, yet were able to sustain a quite entertaining group at the front end of the bar - even before the 7th race! Big hat contest was easily won by the woman to the far right. If there was a \"loud contest\", she\'d have won both easily....
See you tomorrow for sure...
Shanny,
Tell me how hot it was!!! I had my oil changed and tires rotated the other day, I\'m on my way to the track, here a vibration on the north way, get off at 13N to route 9 to the track. It\'s under construction 2 narrow lanes at 35 MPH brilliant planning to not have it finished by track season, my F\'in right front wheel falls off, no shoulder, 1130, 90 minutes till the first race and I have one lane blocked in a construction zone. Traffic was backed up for miles, triple AAA and the state police got there fairly quickly and I was on the flat bed truck by noon. I had the tow driver drop me off at the harness track and I hoofed it from there with 4 lawn chairs and a cooler!!!! I was a little bit hot to say the least. Not to mention the F bomb tangent I went off on my guy at the only garage I\'ve had all my personal and business vehicles serviced at for 15 plus years.
After all that Jimbo was texting and calling me saying WTF are you, he was about 20 feet away. After my adventure I knew the tire not falling off on the highway was my luck for the day. Today\'s cashers were a saver pick 3 that paid $36 in a sequence I invested $136 and the scratch of the 8 horse in the 10th. That\'s 2 more tickets than Jimbo cashed! Magic night stopped by flashing his media pass now that he is famous! Uncle Bill and TGAB got there for the last 2 races.
UGLY day back at them tomorrow with the pressure on TGAB at the seminar to help bail the boys out after a BAD opening day.
I\'m really wondering what I\'m doing wrong in life? We got rear ended on the way to the Belmont. My front wheel falls off on opening day, I tipped the tow driver generously, put my traditional opening amount in the veterans bucket outside the gate and got back ZERO from the karma Gods!!!!
Better days ahead,
Frank D.
Sorry Frank, but I got a big laugh out of your misfortune. Only true T-generates have these kind of encounters. In the future, May the horse be with you.
great to be back at the spa after missing two meets and getting to spend the day with Frank D and Laura, his better half.
As for the gambling, I took a duck, hoping TGAB will help replenish the bankroll with a good seminar today.
The day was not a total loss for me, as frank D gave me a lesson in patience and value betting. Arrived early and after speaking with Frank and getting the obligatory non-gambling stuff out of the way (how are the kids, etc), it was time to talk racing. Frank informed me that he was sitting out until the 4th race. He went on explain that with the wisdom and patience he has acquired through all these years of spending time with TGAB and others at the spa, he had learned to pick his spots and the 4th race represented his early \"value play of the meet\". Hmm.. Now this is a man who recently cashed a 5 figure pick-4 play, so I waited for 90 minutes to hear the play.
Sentiero Italia over Selenite and distorted beauty in exactas. I was crestfallen with disappointment, which I believe was part of the reason I went 0 for the day. I said, \"Frank, the exacta are $3.70 and $4.30........
Word has it that Frank D may have a big push on the songbird - Carina mia exacta box Sunday. Possible value play of the year 😀
Good luck to all,
Jim
FrankD. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I\'m really wondering what I\'m doing wrong in life?
> We got rear ended on the way to the Belmont. My
> front wheel falls off on opening day, I tipped the
> tow driver generously, put my traditional opening
> amount in the veterans bucket outside the gate and
> got back ZERO from the karma Gods!!!!
>
> Frank D.
Sorry to hear about your travails, Frank, but payoffs at the karmic window are not guaranteed in time nor currency. However, since most horseplayers eschew the wisdom of the east (e.g. the cornerstone of Zen teaching is \"no expectations\"), perhaps some of these nuggets of wisdom from various mystics and masters of the backside might provide some solace:
\"A bookie is just a pickpocket who lets you use your own hands.\" - Henry Morgan
\"Any money I put on a horse is a sort of insurance policy to prevent it from winning,\" - Frank Richardson
\"Fortunately my wife is understanding. When I come home from the races, she never asks questions if I tell her I just ate a $380 hot dog.\" - Tim Conway
\"Horse sense is what keeps horses from betting on what people will do.\" - Raymond Nash
\"In betting on horses there are two elements that are never lacking -- hope as hope and an incomplete recollection of the past.\" - Edward V. Lucas
\"No one has ever bet enough on a winning horse.\" - Richard Sasuly
\"The horse I bet on came in so late it had to tiptoe to the barn not to wake the other horses.\" - Anonymous
Better luck, Frank. Thirty-nine racing days left to try to cash that karmic I.O.U.
Jimbo would never let the truth get in the way of a good story :)
My value exacta play was proclaimed while the 3 was still in the race. Uncle Bill would never speak to me again if I ever bet a $7 exacta!!!!!
To think I told Jimbo I missed him?
FrankD. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Shanny,
>
> Tell me how hot it was!!! I had my oil changed and
> tires rotated the other day, I\'m on my way to the
> track, here a vibration on the north way, get off
> at 13N to route 9 to the track. It\'s under
> construction 2 narrow lanes at 35 MPH brilliant
> planning to not have it finished by track season,
> my F\'in right front wheel falls off, no shoulder,
> 1130, 90 minutes till the first race and I have
> one lane blocked in a construction zone. Traffic
> was backed up for miles, triple AAA and the state
> police got there fairly quickly and I was on the
> flat bed truck by noon. I had the tow driver drop
> me off at the harness track and I hoofed it from
> there with 4 lawn chairs and a cooler!!!! I was a
> little bit hot to say the least. Not to mention
> the F bomb tangent I went off on my guy at the
> only garage I\'ve had all my personal and business
> vehicles serviced at for 15 plus years.
>
> After all that Jimbo was texting and calling me
> saying WTF are you, he was about 20 feet away.
> After my adventure I knew the tire not falling off
> on the highway was my luck for the day. Today\'s
> cashers were a saver pick 3 that paid $36 in a
> sequence I invested $136 and the scratch of the 8
> horse in the 10th. That\'s 2 more tickets than
> Jimbo cashed! Magic night stopped by flashing his
> media pass now that he is famous! Uncle Bill and
> TGAB got there for the last 2 races.
>
> UGLY day back at them tomorrow with the pressure
> on TGAB at the seminar to help bail the boys out
> after a BAD opening day.
>
> I\'m really wondering what I\'m doing wrong in life?
> We got rear ended on the way to the Belmont. My
> front wheel falls off on opening day, I tipped the
> tow driver generously, put my traditional opening
> amount in the veterans bucket outside the gate and
> got back ZERO from the karma Gods!!!!
>
> Better days ahead,
>
> Frank D.
Nice.
Wasn\'t on the premises, but there, in fiscal spirit.
For first time, lifetime, cashed in on a mispunched ticket I didn\'t turn in (crowded windows and NO time) -- the 5th-race EX featuring Scarlet Goddess. Better to be lucky than good.
UNlucky with Special Risk in 6th, who deserved better, going against the heavily-played Frenchie-ridden no-answers Colonel John filly.
Was intent on fading Asmussen in the Schuylerville (as well as headcase Olive Branch), and indulged in the multiple bull stories and appearance of the Tapit, under Johnny V, \'specially the way the track was playing.
Not a \"book\" day, but long ago learned to adapt to conditions. Looking forward to greater volume of my preferred TG-fig pattern developmental projections as meet settles in. GL to all.
Race 7: I encourage everyone to pay extra attention to Maggie prior to the race. Yesterday she explained how Kiarin\'s Sentiero Italia looked much fitter off a layoff than most KM layoff horses. Now granted she was pointing out a $.35 winner but the point is she knows how to identify if a horse is physically ready out of his barn. Then, Takrees wins off a layoff in race 7 yesterday. 2 winners yesterday for KM. I\'ll use Taghleeb as described below despite being in for a claim if Maggie gives any positive insight from paddock. If not, I\'ll stay away from him like the plague. Hothersal looks by my eye to be the TG play. I\'ll throw out Slim Shadey hoping DJ can\'t get it done up there at the Springs. I\'ll box Chad Brown, KM, and Jason Servis horses in tri and exacta....all trainers with two winners on Opening Day and horses with solid figs. If Maggie doesn\'t endorse KM\'s horse, I\'ll use With Exultation with solid Gulf numbers and an inside post.
Shanahan and Frank D. and the backyard crew, I almost wish I was there except I\'m going to cheer a TG tourney victory at Del Mar. It is simply spectacular and breath taking here! I\'ll say more when I have time but if you haven\'t been here....WOW! Most importantly, save me a spot for my CUBS chair on Travers weekend!! Shanahan I\'ve got your first 3 beers if you will be there on Travers weekend. I\'m already looking ahead to next year\'s Oaklawn I had such fun down there.....how many will make it there next April????
Best of luck to everyone today both at the track and in the tournament. I\'ll be following the leaderboard closely here even though I\'m not entered.
Fair,
Shanny and I had the Arkansas discussion today, I\'m there for my maiden Oaklawn voyage. See you Travers week and Shanny is coming up for the Whitney and thats it for him for the season.
Big attendance day for the TG boys, we now have seating for 11 and had a waiting list toady. Rezlegal, Michael D., Sean, Mathcapper, his cousin Tommy from Parx, Shanny, Jimbo and his friend John who came up with him, another Jersey boy named Billy of course Uncle Bill and yours truly with a few of my local friends stopping by.
Jimbo is going to do the seminar wrap up honors, we got our money back from yesterday plus a little. Jim and I had some of that early pick 5 and TGAB and I had the 11th race tri and exacta pretty good.
Songbird and Carina Mia tomorrow!!!
See you at the Spaaaaaa,
Frank D.