He did it, he silenced Jimbo!!!
Congrats to TGAB as he nailed the 4th race exacta for $ 293.00 cold both at the seminar and given out as a best bet on the analysis. A perfect blend of number power and trainer intent made for a nice score. The result thoroughly ruined Jimbo\'s week; as stated he was on best behavior at work and home all week conserving his barbs for Alan.
On a rainy Saturday just under 25k came through the gates and braved the elements to see a less than stellar race card filled with long shots capped off by an all chalk pick 4 that NYRA posted an incorrect payout on.
Yours truly was wondering how a sequence of 6.20, 5.50, 5.60 & 5.80 could come back @ $ 308.00 and did not find out that it actually paid $220.00 until I got home. Either way is was a bail out for both Jimbo and I on a tough betting day. I\'m personally doing a self examination of ticket structuring on my horizontal plays; In pick 3 & 4 sequences I had $22.00 & 59.00 horses in races where I only went 3 deep and did not cash.
A couple of newcomers to the Carolina deck as magic night & shanahan joined the mayhem; it was great to meet both as well as many non posters who come by for the seminar and Richiebee\'s autograph.
Awards for the weekend:
The tough beat goes to Shanny for sure as he had the early pick 4 going with the 4,5 & 6 in the 5th race for 7,11 & 13k to get swamped by runaway Cajun Ronny Moquett\'s $ 77.00 horse.
Parent of the year to Jimbo who told the story of when his recent college graduate son was an infant he would tell his wife he was taking Jimmy to the park. His wife had no idea it was Monmouth Park.
Best rested handicapper to Richiebee who reportedly had a little 3 race nap (7-9) on Friday\'s twilight card; that 2:30 post is a killer.
Worst weather forecaster over a 3 day period to MOI and every other meteorologist in the capital district in a dead heat. No one was even close as today was the clear and sunny day; it\'s rained all night with 6 of 11 today scheduled for grass. 70\'s and cloudy with only a slight chance of rain at Monmouth today for a nice 14 race card!
A lot of fun with both new and old friends, crappy weather, some good handicapping & bad betting strategy, TGAB has a free pass until next year and the pot roast sandwich is definitely rookie of the year at the Carolina BBQ, a real big hit with the boys.
Good luck,
Frank D.
It had been a long week, and a tie-up in the Bronx contributed to it taking an hour and fifteen minutes to navigate the seven miles from Chelsea to the GWB, so, by the time I made Columbia County it was 9pm, and even if I still had any brainpower remnants, the wife - who had been upstate all week - would have clocked me with her grandma\'s cast iron skillet if I so much as cast a wayward glance at the pps.
So, even though I was able to break through the domestic gate by noontime Saturday, I got to the Spa knowing only that there would be some thoroughbreds racing, and not much more. But one thing I did know was that a friend owned a small part of a runner in the 4th, so, after watching the 3rd (minutes after my arrival), I stopped by the paddock to see her.
It was only after the 4th that I stopped by Carolina BBQ to see Alan and the TG crew. After asking Alan if he had anything good he pointed to the monitor tree and the $293.50 exacta. So, that \"hello and good luck\" turned out to be bad timing on my part. Oh, well.
It\'s always fun to see and hang with Alan, and also to hang with Richiebee for a while (he walks his talk about NYRA\'s offerings, and I hope he lets us know whether he got through the entire weekend without betting on any of the NYRA races). And it was great to meet Frank D, who was in fine spirits even if his forecasting was in the crapper and he could not complete those horizontals (ed). Also a great pleasure to meet Shanahan, proudly supporting his WS champion Cardinals and with an interesting story as to how he fell into horse racing twenty or so years ago (baseball and Arlington Park are involved). And great to see Jimbo66 in the middle of it all, who, clearly, is one hell of a dad! Great stuff. Thanks to Steve Byk for providing such a convivial atmosphere for the gang. It\'s a must-stop, even for vegetarians.
Two improvements I noted and appreciated. The craft beer garden (about a sixteenth towards the far turn from Carolina BBQ) has a great selection of NY-made draft beers, and at $5 for a 12oz pour, it\'s great beers at fair prices. Also, the wi-fi (which, as Shanahan noted, sucks on Amtrak), worked beautifully, and allowed me to use my smartphone for making fast bets, which was helpful when the rain made me want to stay under the beer garden tent. [I don\'t like talking on the phone and would much rather use the internet for my NYRA account.]
Looking forward to some weekdays and another Saturday or two coming up. Even with the unpredictable weather and results (just watched that bomb/bomb $2100 exacta race), there\'s no such thing as a bad day at Saratoga. Good luck today, boys! Wish I was there.
As always, Frank D. gives a seminar wrap up sticking basically to the events
and dialogue as they happened, leaving only the necessity of some brief
supplemental annexations.
Length of Seminar: Epic. \"War and Peace\". \"Dr.Zhivago\". TGAB meticulously
dissected each of the 11 races, discussing almost every entry in each race,
plus I think a couple of horses entered on Monday and maybe at Penn that night.
I realize now that this was probably a strategy not to leave any dead air, to
prevent any sniping from Jimbo; if so the strategy was effective as Jimbo was,
for the most part, silenced.
[TGJB\'s seminars are more minimalist, more likely to focus on four or five
runners a day that he feels strongly (plus or minus) about. JB is also likely
to say \"I have no opinion\" about a certain race (though he will gladly discuss
that race if asked to). I am not saying long or short is better, its just that
I thought that we would have to break between the analysis of the Diana and
Jim Dandy to watch the first race]. [Obviously exaggerating a bit].[TGAB later
indirectly blamed the length of the seminar on a brief but distracting call
from TGJB]
I think Frank D may have neglected to mention that one of TGAB\'s strong
opinions was anti - Pianist, a short priced, arguably fastest odds on favorite
in race 8. When Jimbo and I pressed TGAB on this, he mumbled something about
life being to short to bet on favorites.
It also came out during the seminar that TGAB believes that Bernstein is the
best Jewish sire in America (topping I would imagine Freud and Mazel Trick),
and he later agreed with me that a horse sired by Bernstein, trained by
Jacobsen and ridden by Cohen would not race on Friday night or Saturday.
In Alphabetical Order:
Jimbo: My vote for Eclipse Award winning trainer: Ms. Jimbo. She\'s got Jimbo
on a new training regimen, and he\'s dropped what? 25-35 pounds? Less eating,
more running (5 times a week? It was exhausting for me just to listen to this).
Off the grey area meds, capping off the day at the races with a frozen yogurt
while Frank and I were comparing notes on the $2.00 Sabrett Hot Dog stand, etc.
Jimbo: keep up the good work. Jimbo\'s son, who I met for the first time, wears
his Ivy League education well, though I am inherently distrustful of anyone
who would voluntarily jump out of an airplane.
Maggie Wolfendale: If you are playing NYRA and have access to her paddock
reports, turn the sound up. The girl is good.
Magic Night: The man shows so much restraint. I mean if I had two screen names
and kept it concealed, my work persona and home persona would be locked in a
tremendous battle. You have to appreciate a man who works for a newspaper and
follows a sport that people love giving up for dead. Magic: My NYRA abstinence
plan was not to play any Sundays at the Spa; I played (poorly) yesterday. New
Objective: No Sundays in August, in order to protest the \"Belmontization\" of
Saratoga racing. What we are watching is downstate racing in a nicer setting
with more food options, part of NYRA\'s \"more is more\" business plan for racing.
Maryland Gang: Seem to see these guys each year and we always discuss how back
in the good days of Maryland racing (Bowie, Delaware, Laurel, Pimlico) the
trainers there were as sharp as any in the country, starting with the King,
and Delp, and Tricky\'s dad and to a lesser extent, Ron Alfano. I usually ask
after my old friend Vince \"Jimbo\" Bracciale, a very underrated rider who I
think is a steward now.
Rick B: Thanks to my similarly named pal from Chicago for the \"Steam\" horse at
Arlington on Friday. Easy as \"1,2,3\" indeed. Hope you scored well there.
Shanahan: Always great to meet a new face, especially when it is wearing an
iconic St. Louis Cardinals \"birds on a bat\" T- shirt. Like Bob, I loved the
story of how Shan and his wife kind of fell into racing at Arlington and are
now huge fans. Shan: get on the train to Monmouth one time this summer. NJ at
one point had 4 thoroughbred racetracks; go see the nicest of them while it is
still open. Hope to see you live at Belmont on one of the big racing days.
Steve Byk: As always, thanks to our host. The food gets better each year, and
I really think a Manhattan year round lunch truck would be well received. The
food at Carolina Cue is every bit as good as that at Mexicue, a wildly popular
truck which serves the same sort of fare.
Look at the length of that post. And to think I began it by criticizing TGAB
for the length of the Saturday seminar. Don\'t mind me Alan, I\'m an old man who
cant sit for too long without grabbing a beer or taking a leak...
Special Mention: Kindred spirit Frank D. Frank beat himself up over his
inability to accurately predict this weekend\'s weather, but nobody got it
right. I can imagine Frank had a bunch of conspiracy theories going when his
P4 payout was \"cut\" nearly in half, but thats NYRA being NYRA. Great to hear
that Frank\'s son will be progressing on to graduate business school.
The greatest compliment among my horseplaying buddies back in the 70s was to
say about someone \"They LOVE the game.\" Frank LOVES the game, and he reminds
me of some of my buddies in the 70s, when live thoroughbred \"doubleheaders\"
(NYRA/Meadowlands) were the order of the day.
Very intimidating to even try and add to this string after the full reports provided by Frank D and Richiebee.
I will only add that it was good to see everybody this weekend. Lots of good conversation and good handicapping, even if none of the latter was done by me.
As much as it pains me to say it, TGAB was in very good handicapping form this weeekend. Helping to put money in the pockets of quite a few seminar attendees. 27-1 shot on Saturday, 17-1 on Sunday, and a number of winners on the Monmouth Haskell day card. Only the most stubborn and hard-headed of seminar attendees could have lost money this weekend. (maybe just me?)
We had somebody hitting for 20k on Saturday and another investing 18 dollars into a pick-3 on Sunday and getting back 8500.
Learned a new \"avoid losing strategy\" from Richiebee, which I may need to deploy on my next visit. (He slept through 4 races on the Friday card...)
Good to see the \"Carolina regulars\" as well as meet some new folks as well.
Always a nice time and I highly recommend it to those that are thinking about a trip. (although I would target a weekend TGAB is giving the seminar as he seems to have cycled to a \"new top\")
Jim
Already made plans to return Labor Day wkend before the train hit Penn Station yesterday...great to finally put the faces to the monikers.
We had a terrific time, thanks to all for the conversation and stories.
I have to ask the important question-- where did Richie find a place to take a nap?
JB:
To assuage your worst fears, I was not sprawled out across one of the tables at
the Carolina Cue. I was neatly tucked away in a beach chair by a tree facing
the monitors outside the Cue.
Exaggeration is the stuff legends are made of, but I have to nip this one in the
bud before it is reported that I Rip Van Winkled the entire Friday card. I fell
asleep during the post parade for race 7, woke up for the post parade for race 9.
In my dreams, it was 30 years ago, 1982; that year they raced 28 consecutive
days, and the racing was the best in the world. The three triple crown race
winners (Gato, Aloma\'s Ruler and Conquistador) faced off in the Travers and were
dusted by Runaway Groom. I was working as a night watchman in the off track barn
now occupied by James Bond, and I had a tiny apartment on Caroline Street. I
weighed 45 pounds less than I do today, and I was single.
Gee our old LaSalle ran great...
You and Miff really should go out for a drink. Coupla Staten Island guys talking about how great it was in the days before modern dentistry...
richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JB:
>
> To assuage your worst fears, I was not sprawled
> out across one of the tables at
> the Carolina Cue. I was neatly tucked away in a
> beach chair by a tree facing
> the monitors outside the Cue.
>
> Exaggeration is the stuff legends are made of, but
> I have to nip this one in the
> bud before it is reported that I Rip Van Winkled
> the entire Friday card. I fell
> asleep during the post parade for race 7, woke up
> for the post parade for race 9.
>
> In my dreams, it was 30 years ago, 1982; that year
> they raced 28 consecutive
> days, and the racing was the best in the world.
> The three triple crown race
> winners (Gato, Aloma\'s Ruler and Conquistador)
> faced off in the Travers and were
> dusted by Runaway Groom. I was working as a night
> watchman in the off track barn
> now occupied by James Bond, and I had a tiny
> apartment on Caroline Street. I
> weighed 45 pounds less than I do today, and I was
> single.
>
> Gee our old LaSalle ran great...
That was the last Travers I attended, live. Yeah, we picked our spots, even then.
Easy big guy with the Staten Island comments...As an ex \'Islander\' I\'ve got your back Richie!! (though I did move 20+ years ago)
No argument JB, racing much better now, horses 10+ lenghts faster than back when. Must be nice living in la la land!
Frank, I like the Saturday card. 4 great races 8 through 11, and a very bettable late pk4 and pk6. A lot of maidens early, but all 6 1/2 f or longer featuring a ton of well bred horses.
Michael,
Looking forward to seeing you then; ugly day today with a healthy stab at the pick 6.
Frank D.
Michael:
Hope you have a great weekend. Bombs Away!
I know what you mean about well bred maidens. I mean its Saratoga. We\'re always
expecting to see the next Ghostzapper or Commentator, or the next 2YO phenom/Derby
Trail colt who will be retired by July 1 of his 3YO year. Sorry, couldn\'t resist.
Three very competitive stakes races at the end of the card, perhaps the most
competitive the ungraded De La Rose,which could have and should have been but alas
is not part of the late P4
Kind of like that 2-year old turf race on Saturday (Race 5). Sure people will jump all over red hot Chad Brown with good reason but Matz might have a nice one here in Fredericksburg. Sired by Speightstown, he\'s a 1/2 to Welcome Dance who broke her maiden at Saratoga going 8.5T, in 7 Starts: 3 - 0 - 1, $110,395 - 1st Walking in Da Sun S.(Del,8½fT) and 3rd Edgewood S.(CD,8½fT). This one is bred top and bottom for the green stuff and should be a price on Saturday.