Bill Mott is Hot, Bad Luck Bennie the Exercise Rider is Not

Started by richiebee, February 10, 2014, 07:41:47 AM

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richiebee

About two weeks ago, Bad Luck Bennie the Exercise Rider sat down next to me on
the third floor at Aqueduct, and told me that Bill Mott was ice cold, to stay
away from anything coming out of that barn.

I follow GP only peripherally, but it seems that ever since Bennie\'s
pronouncement, Mott has won what seems like a slew of races at GP, including
yesterday\'s Donn, and a feature race at Aq.

Bennie has galloped a few fast horses in the morning but has bet on ALOT of
slow horses in the afternoon. Over the 35 or so years I have known him, he
probably owes me four or five thousand dollars, money I will never recover,
because Bennie borrowed it in $5 and $10 increments.

I have always admired Bennie\'s entrepreneurial spirit though. About 10 years
ago, when winter attendance began to sag noticeably, Old NYRA threw its loyal
racegoers a bone: without much fanfare, NYRA decided it would no longer charge
$1 to enter the parking fields.

The first day of absolutely free parking, maybe a Wednesday, I drove over to
AQ, looking forward to blowing past the parking booth. To my surprise there
were three or four cars lined up at the booth and no \"Free Parking\" sign to be
seen. When I pulled up to the booth, the attendant gave me an overly pleasant
\"Good morning, sir!\"

\"Bennie, what the f--k are you doing here? There\'s no charge for parking
anymore.\"

\"Lots of people don\'t know that.\" Bennie flashed a decent sized wad of bills
at me \"That will be one dollar sir\".

I gunned my car past the booth. I saw Bennie later near the paddock.

\"How much did you collect Bennie?\"

\"About 45 bucks. Gone now.\"

\"Why don\'t you go back out to the booth and collect from people on the way
out?\"

Bennie ran his scam for one more day. On the second day more folks seemed to
question the legitimacy of Bennie\'s parking tariff, and Bennie got cold feet.

Boscar Obarra

Desperados at the racetrack.

 Used to chart the exacta board by hand, so went though a lot of crosshatched paper, like the rest of the crew.

 One day, one of these hand to mouth types offers to sell me a box of this paper, with the boxes pre printed. I did this myself anyhow, but I ask him how much....

 I don\'t recall exactly but it was either 10c for each sheet, ridiculous, or maybe even 25c, ludicrous.

 Told him no thanks, you must be kidding,  and that was the end of it.

Edgorman


Topcat

richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> About two weeks ago, Bad Luck Bennie the Exercise
> Rider sat down next to me on
> the third floor at Aqueduct, and told me that Bill
> Mott was ice cold, to stay
> away from anything coming out of that barn.
>
> I follow GP only peripherally, but it seems that
> ever since Bennie\'s
> pronouncement, Mott has won what seems like a slew
> of races at GP, including
> yesterday\'s Donn, and a feature race at Aq.
>
> Bennie has galloped a few fast horses in the
> morning but has bet on ALOT of
> slow horses in the afternoon. Over the 35 or so
> years I have known him, he
> probably owes me four or five thousand dollars,
> money I will never recover,
> because Bennie borrowed it in $5 and $10
> increments.
>
> I have always admired Bennie\'s entrepreneurial
> spirit though. About 10 years
> ago, when winter attendance began to sag
> noticeably, Old NYRA threw its loyal
> racegoers a bone: without much fanfare, NYRA
> decided it would no longer charge
> $1 to enter the parking fields.
>
> The first day of absolutely free parking, maybe a
> Wednesday, I drove over to
> AQ, looking forward to blowing past the parking
> booth. To my surprise there
> were three or four cars lined up at the booth and
> no \"Free Parking\" sign to be
> seen. When I pulled up to the booth, the attendant
> gave me an overly pleasant
> \"Good morning, sir!\"
>
> \"Bennie, what the f--k are you doing here? There\'s
> no charge for parking
> anymore.\"
>
> \"Lots of people don\'t know that.\" Bennie flashed a
> decent sized wad of bills
> at me \"That will be one dollar sir\".
>
> I gunned my car past the booth. I saw Bennie later
> near the paddock.
>
> \"How much did you collect Bennie?\"
>
> \"About 45 bucks. Gone now.\"
>
> \"Why don\'t you go back out to the booth and
> collect from people on the way
> out?\"
>
> Bennie ran his scam for one more day. On the
> second day more folks seemed to
> question the legitimacy of Bennie\'s parking
> tariff, and Bennie got cold feet.


 You can\'t make this stuff up.