Birthday Week: July 27 - August 1

 Happy Birthday To Me!

It was a great week personally, and a good week for racing.  Spent nearly a full week with my grandson here at the house, especially enjoying each and every morning when he'd awaken early and say, "Grandpa, is it time to go to Wawa now?"  And he'd ride with me and fix the coffee for me and his Grandma.  And with my family from Ohio here for a week, and my daughter and youngest son & wife for the weekend, it just couldn't be much better.  Below you'll some of the many (nearly 300 social media hits) friends and family that reached out to wish me a happy birthday which made it an even more special weekend.  But we're here to talk about racing right now.  Here's how the week unfolded.......

Wednesday I went winless with three picks at Saratoga, and with the way the week played out I've made the command decision that it just isn't happening at the Spa with the Progressive Handicapping angles, so I'm putting a stop to the daily picks from there.  Thursday I had seven selections from Saratoga and Del Mar.  The good news I won with the BEST of the Day at Saratoga when Chad Browns Price Discipline drew off handily.  The bad news is I lost the other six with two seconds and four thirds.

Friday was a much better day.  At Monmouth I only had three selections from the standard, abbreviated eight race card.  And the first one scratched.  But the other two were much the best.  None of the races at Saratoga provided anything worth betting, so it was a "No Bet" day there for me.  Then at Del Mar in the opener trainer Brian Kornier has one angle that gets him in the 40% Club - class droppers.  Yo Yo Mama set the pace to the top of the lane, was headed, then came back and edged clear at a big $9.80 payoff to allow me to cash for nearly $50 and make my Friday!  And in the other Del Mar winner, Little Rachel was the DRF's Brad Free's BEST Bet in a $20K nw3L sprint.  Drew off as tons the best with my triple investment to top a 4-for-5 day.  WHOOOO HOOOOO.

Saturday I had handicapped four cards but still only had fourteen picks.  I played Laurel because they had multiple stakes events, as well as my usual Monmouth, Saratoga, and Del Mar selections.  I only had one win on the Jersey Shore, but it was in the featured 2yo stakes, the Tyro when Sharp Aza Tack ran away impressively.  Of the multiple Laurel picks I had only one win, and Divine Huntress was a narrow nose winner in a three-way-photo in the Miss Disco Stakes.  The BET of the Weekend came in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga where sprint champion Jackie's Warrior looked to make history as the only horse in the more than 150 year history of Saratoga to win a Grade 1 there at ages 2, 3, and today 4.  Well in hand while collaring the leader on the turn and then jogged home in an amazing and decisive win.  WOW.  That he went off at anything more than 1-9 was free money.  Topped the day with two winners, one of which was a Bob Baffert firster that I went "prime time" on.

Sunday I had the three tracks going.  I thought I was heading for a good day when Truancy ran away with the Sunday opener at Saratoga.  But I missed on the three graded events of the day and only had a single winner at Del Mar when Laurel River was easily best.

Monmouth began their season with races only on Saturday and Sunday.  Then in June they began their standard Fri-Sat-Sun programs.  This year, for the next six weeks they are racing on Fri-Sat-Sun AND on Monday, and with it being my birthday it was a perfect way to end the extended weekend.  It's a late start (2 pm) and a short card (8 races) just like Friday.  And like Friday's card I had a scratch in the opener.  Then lost.  Then another scratch but went with my second choice, Golden Bell who won for fun.  And finished the day when Pugilist was much the best on the turf.

So for the week I was 14-for-40, my standard "well done" 35% win average!

Birthday Week Highlights

Happy Birthday Wishes

My very favorite birthday wishes came from many of my former students and former colleagues....

Social Media

Right after our return I sent CBS-4 Weekend Anchor Karli Barnet a link to our video from the cruise where I'd used her greeting to me on FB Live chat as part of the video.  She not only watched it but thanked me for sending it.

Heard from Jen after I complimented her daughters as being adorable like their Mom :)

Lauren Pastrana - CBS Evening News anchor posted about teachers spending their own money and she loved my reply.

Our friend Shelly asked for my help on looking at Alaskan cruises and I told her that as her "travel agent" my "fee" would include an air ticket to come visit her personally :)

July 14 - 24: Great Lakes Cruise Racing

 Our Great Lakes Cruise / Racing at Saratoga, Monmouth & Del Mar

Obviously, over the last two weeks my racing took a secondary spot to our first trip outside the continental US since November of 2019 as we flew to Milwaukee and boarded the Viking Expeditions Ship Octantis and sailed for eight days with our great friends Tom & Mary Pat over the Great Lakes and into Canada (eh?).  Right before our trip began, the Saratoga meet opened and while we were gone Monmouth's signature day, Haskell Invitational day came and went.  And at the very end of the trip Del Mar opened.  Here's how the nearly two weeks played out for me.  Opening Day at Saratoga I had three selections and ran third twice and fifth.  On Friday, the day before our trip I had picks from both Monmouth and Saratoga.  Only two selections at the Spa and again went winless running third and fifth.  But on the Jersey Shore I had a good day!  I had six bets and won with FOUR of them.  In the opener at Monmouth it was a 2yo MSW going five furlongs on the turf.  The Wesley Ward first timer Insanity It Seems went wire-to-wire under Paco Lopez.  And then in the second, Paco rode Princess Betty to a convincing win.

Missed in the fourth but came back in the fifth with Luna Antonia, which was a good illustration of some "guidelines" for handicapping.  As a general rule, once a horse has run six time without breaking it's maiden, it's pretty clear that they don't want to win and I won't bet them.  BUT, the "rule" in handicapping is "THERE ARE NO RULES!"  So, despite the fact that this filly had already been out eight times, she was a triple investment for me.  And here's why......two starts had come over the new Gulfstream synthetic surface which still isn't clear if that's transferable to turf or dirt, so toss those.  Another came in a stakes race - yes as a maiden - easy toss.  That left four turf tries and she ran third in three of them AND those were all in MSW races, while today was a $40K maiden claimer.  Add in that the ONLY two Beyers that met par for this level BOTH belonged to her and it was easy to like her.  Pressed the pace to the far turn, opened up in hand and was geared down the final sixteenth.  Closed out the day with SEVEN time maiden Comedic Timing.  Again, easy to like dropping out of NYRA MSW tries to a cheap $10K maiden claimer on the Jersey Shore.  FIVE of his most recent NYRA tries had Beyers that met or bested par while the rest of the field had 60 numbers with only a combined THREE equal to or better than par.  Paco dueled between horses into the far turn then took off while finishing very wide through the lane.  A good day overall.

On Saturday we left for the airport early in the morning and arrived in Milwaukee to board the ship in mid-afternoon where our stateroom had been upgraded - YAY!  And because I'd known we'd be traveling and/or occupied during the day I had handicapped early and made my bets prior to boarding the plane.  When I checked the results for the day I had a hard time watching most of the replays with the WiFi on the ship while we were sailing on Lake Michigan.  But I was able to check the results of all the races - a mediocre day with only four wins from sixteen selections.  I did run second five times and third three times, so I wasn't "way off."  Scored in two stakes races and got my first winner at Saratoga for the summer.

I didn't play my typical Sunday races at Monmouth, nor did I play any races during the week.  We were flying home on Saturday the 23rd which was Haskell Day so I did download those past performances and had five picks on the day.  I honestly thought I would win at least three of the five if not four, but as it turned out I only got two winners - both in graded events.  I'll typically take 40% wins, but I really thought I had at least one if not two others that should have won, especially in the featured Haskell where I ran third behind a 7/1 upset winner.

Sunday morning when I got up, we'd arrived home around 10 pm after traveling all day Saturday, I knew that it would be a day with very little activity so I spent the morning handicapping some races and played them throughout the day.  I went an "ok" 3-for-11 with three runner-up finishes, one of which was in Saratoga's featured Grade 2 Shuvee where Todd Pletcher's Malathaat faced Chad Brown's Clariere for the sixth time.  She'd won four of the previous five and I thought she looked easily best today, but did not give an "A" game performance while that one ran big.  Two of the three wins were at Monmouth, and both with added money investments.  And I topped the day off with my first winner at Del Mar for the summer.

Check out our Great Lakes web page by clicking here:

And check out the video highlights of the trip:

Great Lakes Explorer - July 2022

Social Media......

I was surprised - and I must admit very pleased - with the social media interaction I had while on the trip.  On the day prior to our sailing I sent a personal Facebook message to gal-pal, CBS weekend anchor Karli Barnett.  When I had posted about our upcoming trips she had commented that these looked like amazing adventures, so I wrote to her that because she seemed interested in our trips she might want to follow along with our journals and photos.  Not sure if she did or not, but she wrote back to me.

I added to that message that I wasn't sure if I could, but her usual Saturday night FaceBook live video would come while we were sailing out of Milwaukee and that if I could get on I would say HI to her from on board.  I was able to make a connection so I did.  It was difficult to get a live video feed so I wasn't sure if she reacted to my comment or not.  But the next day when we were on Mackinac Island, in Michigan I had a much stronger connection so I pulled up the video and she DID not only see the comment, but seemed genuinely excited for us and wished us a good time.  I so enjoyed her personal reaction that I downloaded the clip and used it as an intro on the highlight video :)

On our next to last day on board I sent a photo to both Karli & Lauren and I thought it was very sweet that Karli sent me a message back.

Lauren had posted a photo of a new addition to the CBS news team which I reacted to and she liked my comment.  While she didn't message me during the trip there were three times she liked my message and/or photo I sent to her.

While at sea one day I tweeted to Karli a photo of me relaxing on board.  She'd said on the chat the first night that she hoped to one day take a cruise.  So I noted that I thought she could handle it - her cute reply noted that I was living a "rough life" :)

The day we left for home was also on a Saturday and I again sent a personal message to Karli.  I told her that I hoped she had enjoyed the pics, if she looked at them and said I would miss not chatting this evening on Facebook as we'd be in the air returning home.  Again, Karli messaged me back and wished us safe travels :)

And finally once we were home, Karli posted a picture of herself and a box of peaches that a viewer had sent her (why didn't I think of that?).  I commented that it was "adorable, and the peaches too" and commented she should have some peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  And like usual, she replied back to me.