I was alive in the Pick 5 at Saratoga to the 1,3,4,6,7,9 & 10, to some juicy payouts, after beating a 1/2 Pletcher favorite who I didn\'t like in the first. I was also alive to the those same horses on a $6 Pick 4 ticket. Just as I was getting ready to count my money I got beat by the 5, a first time starter by Charlie Baker who prepped over at Finger Lakes and took them gate to wire to win by a long nose. His horses have been running really, really well all meet, which I noticed, but he almost never wins with firsters. Time to start paying extra attention to anything he puts out there IMO.
Thank god for day drinking...
Tough beat mj. Sorry, that\'s why they make grey goose.
MJ,
This meet has many of us tipping the bottle!!! On the wrong end of 5 straight being nipped at the wire in the past 3 days out of exacta\'s and a pick 4. Any one of the wins changes a minus to a plus.Yesterday\'s first leg of the pick 4 was especially grueling as it was my Spa racino buddy Mr Blue who beat me!
For those too young or not in tune to east coast racing Leon Blusiewicz was a gambling trainer from Maryland who was a legend from the 60\'s-90\'s. The Blue crew, especially at the Spa. He used to love to come up here with a firster or a layoff horse and bet. His grooms went to the windows with horse poop on their shoes and made $500 bets. Yesterday\'s 6 yr old winner Spartiatis is his only horse and one of only 4 he has started since 2009, his last Spa winner was with Admiral Alex in 2010. Blue lives in Saratoga most of the year and is a regular at the racino holding court and telling racetrack stories. Steve Byk has him on his show occasionally and he is quite the character!
Yeah, that one beat me too. But today\'s beat really shook me. I didnt like the Pletcher at all for a few reasons, although i knew he could beat me in the first. I wasnt going to play the pick 5 or 4 but when the 13 drew in for the second and was a solid single i had to play. I thought the pick 4 payoffs were generous too given how the rest of the sequence went, and i figured i had the last race covered really, really well. Lot of 4 letter words flew out of my mouth as the 5 held on. Lot of em. Especially because i knew Charlie Baker was on as good a run as anyone and he usually does well at the meet. But firsters aren\'t his thing. Kicking myself all day for missing that as adding the 5 wouldn\'t have cost me much anyway. Got me in a mood as i hate it when i feel like i made a mistake. I don\'t mind getting beat, but that was a clear mistake.
Haven\'t even started on the Pick 6 yet to see if i think it can be hit for a reasonable sum. Getting loaded at the lake now. Will be better tomorrow.
When I was at Gulfstream this winter, I ran into a guy walking into the track who owns a restaurant in my home town. I knew him to be a gambler, though didn\'t know if he played the horses. I introduced myself, and one of the first things he said was that he had a tip on a Charlie Baker firster at Aqueduct who had been running his eyeballs out in the morning. I couldn\'t completely ignore this, but I wasn\'t emptying out the 401K either. The horse would have finished no better than third in the following race, and that was the next day. So, I saw this guy two days ago on the golf course, as I now do every Wednesday, and he had nothing for me about a Baker first-timer. The one thing I have heard about Baker from folks who seem to know what has taken place on the Finger Lakes backside over the years is that no one there outworked him.
How do the stewards not post the Inquiry sign in race five yesterday? The five came out once then veered out at the wire. The 9 was having trouble getting by him but at least give us a look. By not posting the inquiry, we don\'t get to see the head-on and back-on replays. When the race was official, the head-on replay showed the incident certainly warranted a look. When I have complained about it in the past, i was always told that they are looking at it but without posting the inquiry, the betting public isn\'t told that they are. Not saying the 5 should have come down, that is not the issue. But let us see for ourselves.
Dick
I\'m over it now. But I saw that too. There was no contact though. The 9 shied a way from the 5 when the 5 drifted out, twice.