Thanksgiving Weekend - End of Fall Racing

 November 23 - 25

The Fall Season wrapped up over this Thanksgiving weekend.  Tampa Bay Downs opened for the winter on Wednesday and I played their opening day card.  Thursday, Thanksgiving Day USED to be the traditional opening day for the Fair Grounds, but they opened last week.  Still I played their holiday card.  And Churchill Downs had an early post with two graded stakes on Thanksgiving Day.  Closed out the Fall Season by playing Churchill for their big Clark Handicap Day on Friday.  We enjoyed having our youngest son Brad and his family arrive on Wednesday and stay with us through Sunday mid-day.  Lots of quality time with the grandson - most especially for me our daily early morning run to Wawa to get coffee.  He is so very excited to do this with his Grandpa and it's a very special time each day for me.  And he was such a big helper putting up our Christmas tree.  But certainly the highlight of the weekend was when the five of us went to the Florida Panthers game Saturday night.  Spent two of the three periods with just my grandson - so special times - and in spite the overtime loss it was an exciting evening that we all enjoyed.  On Wednesday there were on three races at Tampa that drew my attention and I won with one of them to score a small profit for the day.  The holiday racing was a mixed bag.  On the downside, I was shut out through a limited number of race selections at the Fair Grounds and only won three in Louisville.  But on the good side, I hit BOTH the graded stakes features, one of which was my BEST Bet of the Day!  Finished off the racing weekend with a solid-enough 3-for-7 day on Friday including picking the winner of the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere on the grass.  All of these led to my final fall statistics (see banner above) where I showed a nice flat bet profit for the four months.  

Native Hawk JUST UP At Tampa

Ironically with my grandson here over the weekend, the first winner Thursday was Olliemeister

And if you add up my racing numbers since Gulfstream's 2022 winter meet closed down.....I was only physically at the races twice - once on a weekend trip to Churchill Downs and once at Gulfstream - but played a whipping total of 1,087 races.  Scored at a 38% win rate and again, saw a profit for the eight month span.  THAT's IMPRESSIVE!

Social Media This Week

I exchanged Thanksgiving well-wishes with social media gal-pal Karli Barnett.  Nice that she wrote back to me (again, by name despite my Twitter handle NOT being my name).

I will be the first to tell you that it's hard to describe the relationship that "my girl Kimmy" and I have.  Since graduating - when she was one of my all-time favorite students - our friendship is more than that.  And it was rewarding to me when I told her I was thankful for our closeness that she responded that she felt the same.  Just a very special girl.

I very much enjoyed when Karli Barnett responded to my Antarctica videos with a message AND in it suggested I should be a Travel Show host :)

Watching the races on Thanksgiving Day I "joined" my favorite handicapper Acacia Courtney on "America's Day at the Races" and she reacted to my holiday wishes.

Also got a reaction from CBS Evening Anchor Lauren Pastrana to my holiday wishes.

The hockey game this Saturday had a 6:00 pm puck drop which put our event right in the middle of Karli Barnett's weekly FB chat.  While I certainly don't have to explain myself to her, nor would she expect me to, I AM a regular participant and I just wanted her to know I wasn't blowing her off.  Sent her a pic of Oliver and I and she messaged me back :)