Florida Derby Day 2018
What a great day! EVERYONE had a great time, the weather was super, we all WON, and I personally had seven wins...including three Derby Day stakes among which one was the Florida Derby itself. Just a sensational end to the best Gulfstream winter meeting ever! Click HERE to ready the stories of the big day of racing!
March 24 - 25
March 16 - 19: The Laurel Adventure: Baltimore
Saturday March 10
Kim and I drove across the state on Friday to her parents' west coast condo and then the four of us drove up to Tampa on Saturday morning to meet our good friends Anya and Jack at Tampa Bay Downs for their Tampa Bay Derby Day Festival. Had FOUR big wins on the Tampa card, including my BET of the Day and three stakes, while cashing on five other races (three from Gulfstream and my Oaklawn BEST on Whitmore in their featured Hot Springs Stakes). Had a great racing adventure and shared it with family & friends, cannot get better than that! Click HERE to read the journals for the week.
Fountain of Youth Week: 2/28-3/5
The good news is that for the five days of racing I was a solid 32% winner; the bad news is that on the BIG DAY, Fountain of Youth Saturday, I only had three wins all day long with only one of those coming at Gulfstream Park. But, as I commented at one point in the week's video highlights (at right) "....you can't expect to win them all...." although I always am surprised when I do NOT win! Certainly the two highlights of the week came on Friday when Todd Pletcher's National Flag won when I upped the bet to "BET of the Day" status ($50 to WIN); and then late that night, early Saturday morning when "the Mighty Mare," Winx won here 2018 debut race as my BET of the WEEK!
Click HERE To See WEEK 14 Results
Hawaakon UPSETS Gr 3 Razorback - Cash for over $100!
An extended week of racing was highlighted by the HUGE UPSET SPECIAL in the Grade 3 Razorback at Oaklawn on Monday and the big day of racing on Saturday - Risen Star Stakes Day at the Fair Grounds. For the long week of racing I had 36% winners and a profit of $75! Over the five days of racing I had not one, not two, but three "BET of the Day" wins. Click HERE to read the stories of the week!
Saturday February 17: Risen Star Stakes Day
At The Fair Grounds - FIVE Stakes WINS At Gulfstream!
At The Fair Grounds - FIVE Stakes WINS At Gulfstream!
Saturday Feb 17: A Fourteen Win Day (37%)!
I had spent hours handicapping not only the races for the Fair Grounds big stakes-laden card and Gulfstream's 11-stakes filled card, but also Tampa, Oaklawn, Aqueduct, Santa Anita and the multi-stakes race card at Laurel where it was their "Winter Carnival" Day. By the time the day had finished I'd won FIVE stakes at Gulfstream, and three stakes at both the Fair Grounds and Laurel with a grand total of fourteen winners on the day from thirty-eight selections. Click HERE to read all the details of the BIG day at the races.
Sunday February 11What a day, AGAIN! So, SO many times I am hesitant to play on Sunday afternoons because I point the big day Saturday with a full-out assault on the track, and then I have a big day. But then the glow is tarnished with a less than successful Sunday at the races. Saturday morning, I handicapped the Sunday races trying to be very conservative. But I found a BIG TIME bet of the day, and a "prime time" play. I won four-of-six, and both of those big plays paid handsomely. The bottom line was a profit of over $120 with a 4-for-6 performance. Amazing. Click HERE to read the stories.
February 10: Tampa Bay Festival Preview Day
It was a great day at the races with the highlight races coming at Tampa Bay Downs where there were four graded stakes. It was their preview day for the signature Tampa Bay Derby Day card which is March 10th, and we will be there! I met one of my all-time favorite former students, Jennifer (who lives in Colorado) at the track for the first part of the day and then my buddy Steve Leland and his wife (and their friends) later in the day. I won four races (from seven picks) at Tampa including two of the graded stakes, and the BET of the DAY on World Approval in the Grade 3 Tampa Stakes! Click HERE to read about the big day Saturday.
I only had two winners at Gulfstream, from nine selections, but one of them was a Pletcher colt who paid $9.20 and I cashed for almost $70. I also played Santa Anita where I hit the Grade 2 Santa Maria as Unique Bella made her 4yo debut a smashing success. And after heading for home I played the late night races at Delta Downs where it was Louisiana Premier Night, and won with Mobile Bay in the La Premier Championship. For the day I was an excellent 10 for 27 which figures to 38%! Whoo hoo!
Decided to kick off the new week of racing by heading out to Gulfstream for the first six races of the day. And it was an unusual sequence of selections for me. In the second a last out, cheap maiden claiming winner with a low Beyer; in the fourth, another last out maiden claiming winner claimed AWAY from Todd Pletcher; and in the sixth a last out winner for $30K DROPPING in for a $16K tag. WON with three of four selections on the day while I was there and was almost 40% for the entire day while scoring a flat bet profit to kick off the week.
The Road To The Florida Derby Begins!
It was a big day at Gulfstream with FIVE graded stakes including the Grade 3 Forward Gal for the 3yo fillies pointing for the Gulfstream Park Oaks and the featured Grade 2 $350K Holy Bull for the 3yo colts looking to reach the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 31st. After missing on my first seven picks at Gulfstream I scored in two of the last three, including the feature to nearly draw even locally while hitting nearly 40% overall for the day with a flat bet profit. But clearly the story of the day was the big win in the Holy Bull. How ironic that the colt's name was "Audible" ....... when I initially handicapped the race I had him on top; but when I came to Mississippi on the outside I changed my pick because that colt had a Double Beyer advantage and was oh so reminiscent of Gun Runner from last weekend's Grade 1 Pegasus Cup. Moved him to the top choice. Then I get to the track and discover that Mississippi is scratched so I "called an audible" and moved up the Pletcher colt who was just a couple ticks off the track record while scoring a decisive victory and enabling me to cash for nearly $65! Click HERE to read all the stories from today.
What a GREAT day! For the biggest day of the meet I was an amazing 5-for-12 and made a profit of over $150 on the card! The first of the day was a Maiden Special for 3yo and yes, there was a Todd Pletcher runner who paid $19.20 - and I cashed for almost $100 to start the day. The 4th was another MSW and another Pletcher runner was my BEST of the Day. And in the featured event, the $16 Million Grade 1 Pegasus, I doubled my own "prime time" bet on Horse of the Year Gun Runner who dominated the race and paid an amazing $4.20 - Click HERE to read all about the big day, wow, what a day!
It was another good day of racing as I headed out to Gulfstream with my father-in-law Ed and brother-in-law Tim for a full day of stakes action. After a slow start - won my BEST of the Day in Gulfstream's second then went 0-for-6 with four thirds and a second before the winning began in earnest. By the time the races were complete I'd correctly picked EIGHT winners from twenty-three selections - nearly 40% - and had cashed on the BEST of the Day at Gulfstream, Laurel, Tampa, and Oaklawn! Click HERE to read the stories behind today's big day of racing.
January 12 - 15: The New Orleans Invasion
Friday Jan. 12 (Arrival Day) - BIG WIN at Gulfstream kick-starts the weekend!
Click HERE for the write-ups on the week day racing.
Saturday January 6
It wasn't the greatest day of the winter season, but I most certainly enjoyed being AT Gulfstream in the brisk weather. Won two local stakes and hit the featured Gr 3 Sham with McKenzie (thanks to inspiration from our friend MacKenzie Brink that we met on our Avalon Waterways SE Asia trip last summer! Probably THE story of the week was the prime time Todd Pletcher win on Friday to seal a winning day - check out the video highlights at right! Very much looking forward to next Saturday's visit to the Fair Grounds and meeting up with my buddy Jim Anderson.
A ten - count them, 10, win day - was highlighted by three stakes wins on Laurel's "Christmastide Saturday Stakes" program, the featured Turf Dash at Tampa - the BET of the Day with Pay Any Price - the featured Woodchopper Stakes at the Fair Grounds with unbeaten Mr. Misunderstood streaking to his 8th consecutive turf win, and the featured Tropical Park Oaks at Gulfstream with Dream A While. Click HERE to read the stories!
Opening Day at Santa Anita!
The day after Christmas is traditionally the opening day of the winter/spring meet at Santa Anita and this year that fell on a Tuesday. So - I expect because they were running at SA - there was live racing at Gulfstream as well. My hot handicapping continued as I went two-for-three at Gulfstream for a flat-bet profit. The west coast card had four graded stakes and it looked like a "layup" in the Gr 2 San Antonio where EVERYONE singled Collected off a runner-up try in the Breeders' Cup Classic. But he ran poorly under what jockey Mike Smith admitted was a "terrible ride." Thought that would do me in for the day, but I bounced back strongly with Unique Bella in the Grade 1 La Brea (over a very talented Paradise Woods) and then big-time kudos to Brad Free who's the only public handicapper who's still in the business that his "BEST" is an automatic bet - that one scored in the finale and I cashed for nearly $40 to seal a 4-for-9 day and a profit on the combined cards of nearly $20. GO ME! Click HERE to see the photos and read the stories!
Christmas Week (December 20-24)
Another great week of racing results! Click HERE to read the journals and see the pics. The week was topped off by a wonderful "Christmas present" from the Todd Pletcher stable when Psalmody blew home at 9/1! Cashed for over $100 to end the week!
Week 3 at Gulfstream Park: December 13-17
After the sensational week last week I knew that this week would probably bring about a "return to normalcy" with lower than usual win percentages to balance out the big week. Well, I was half right as the numbers were lower....instead of 50% wins and a $200 profit, I "only" won 41% of my picks and "only" made a profit of $140! Click HERE to read about the week's adventures!
With the best racing in North America being raced daily right in my backyard I make myself the annual promise to try and go out for weekday racing at least once a week. Last week - for a variety of reasons - I didn't make it out there so I was determined to get out there this week. BUT, with the huge win percentage last week I was concerned that I might struggle to have a winning day. For YEARS now my winning percentage always hovers right around 35%. Which is good when I have a slow spell, I KNOW the wins will come; but conversely when I have a hot streak I also know that I will sometime soon return to reality. So as I handicapped the Wednesday card I tried to be very careful and conservative and only have betting selections I felt confident in. Yet, at the end of the card I had EIGHT live bets from a ten race card. So I headed out .... the weather was spectacular, never got out of the sixties! And, even better I won FIVE of eight; better than that four of them were Todd Pletcher runners - two at unbelievable big prices and Songuer in the 9th as my BET of the Day in a last-to-first win in dramatic fashion to close out the day! Nearly $150 in PROFIT made for just a sensational day.....could not have picked a better day to visit Gulfstream! Click HERE for a special journal devoted strictly to this big day!
I could hardly have had a better week at Gulfstream and the Fair Grounds this week! I cashed exactly 50% of my tickets and made over $200 in profits! WHOOOO HOOOOO! I entered the "Beat the Experts" contest at Gulfstream on Friday and correctly picked 8-of-10 including the longest price of the day on Todd Pletcher's Tiznow Times Two who paid $29.40! Saturday was "Louisiana Champions Day" at the Fair Grounds and I had three stakes wins on the day including my BET of the Day on Mobile Bay who won the Louisiana Champions Classic in a three way photo finish! The weather turned crisp and Kim and I went out on Sunday for a couple of hours where I won two of three including the best of the day Sunday. Click HERE....
Gulfstream Park: Opening Day December 2, 2017
The Championship Meet Is Off & Running!
It's difficult to explain how very excited I was for today, as I love this time of year when all the best horses, jockeys, and trainers are running locally. You can often show up on a Thursday afternoon and see stakes quality horses who go on to win big graded stakes later and you get a steady diet of graded stakes action every Saturday afternoon. The traffic was packed going the other way to the mall and I zipped to Hallandale on the I-595 Express Lane. Got there in plenty of time on a day that was a postcard picture perfect setting. There were two non-stakes races, and they were won convincingly by a 60/1 and 50/1 longshot - welcome to Gulfstream's competitive meet! I was able to win four of the ten races I had top selections (one scratched out) - all stakes events. The highlight was the win by my BET of the Day, Pay Any Price in the Canterbury Stakes and the upset by Special Ops in the Emerald Stakes at a $16.20 price. I won two races via simulcast including the one and only Grade 1 on the national calendar when Sharp Azteca won the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. For the day I had a profit of nearly $30 and considering I was under 30% for the day I was delighted with that. Click HERE to read the journals from the week and today's big day of racing!
Gayla McGonigle, my gal-pal from high school and I meet to in Columbus as the winter racing season begins
It's difficult to explain how very excited I was for today, as I love this time of year when all the best horses, jockeys, and trainers are running locally. You can often show up on a Thursday afternoon and see stakes quality horses who go on to win big graded stakes later and you get a steady diet of graded stakes action every Saturday afternoon. The traffic was packed going the other way to the mall and I zipped to Hallandale on the I-595 Express Lane. Got there in plenty of time on a day that was a postcard picture perfect setting. There were two non-stakes races, and they were won convincingly by a 60/1 and 50/1 longshot - welcome to Gulfstream's competitive meet! I was able to win four of the ten races I had top selections (one scratched out) - all stakes events. The highlight was the win by my BET of the Day, Pay Any Price in the Canterbury Stakes and the upset by Special Ops in the Emerald Stakes at a $16.20 price. I won two races via simulcast including the one and only Grade 1 on the national calendar when Sharp Azteca won the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. For the day I had a profit of nearly $30 and considering I was under 30% for the day I was delighted with that. Click HERE to read the journals from the week and today's big day of racing!
