A DAY AT THE RACES

Yesterday was a beautiful day at Santa Anita Racetrack. The sun was shining, it was in the 80s and the track was fairly empty, which is not unusual. I was kind of excited because I have been tinkering with statistics in the racing form and I came up with a quick and easy system that I wanted to see if it would work.

Before I go on to the results of yesterday's racing card, there has been a Mush update. Supposedly, Mush got into a fight with one of the other Stooges at Hollywood Park the other day. The fight went from arguing to actual fisticuffs. I was told that it was over money. The Hollywood Park security guards broke it up and Mush got booted from the park. Mush has a hearing in a few days to see if he can get reinstated at Hollywood Park. You have to be a degenerate gambler like Mush to even think of going to some hearing at the racetrack just to see if you could come back in. A person like Mush has to do this because Sandman frequents Hollywood Park and that's who gives Mush betting money. I was also told that Mush lived in Orange County and I am kind of wondering if Mush might be Dwayne from Bixby. I will take a picture of Mush and put him in a photo line-up and see if he can be picked out. I will have to admonish Magellen and the gang before showing the photo array.  More on that later.

Now on to yesterday's festivities:

We take our usual places and I start to handicap Belmont Park using my system. In my first race, my horse goes off at 2-1 and finishes third. That was a good sign that my system was in the money. I did not play this race because I am looking for bombs. I switch my attention to Woodbine (I really like to play the Canadian tracks). I have a play in the second race, a 5-1 shot, and he hits the wire first and pays, $10.00. Not bad. My next play is at Hawthorne and the horse that I like is in a fairly large field and Hawthorne was showing signs of no speed in front. This horse was a sheer speed horse so I played it to place. He ran great but was overtaken in the stretch and he finished second. Perfect.

I turned my attention back to Woodbine and I kept coming up with bombs. Three races in a row, my system had picked a 13-1 horse, a 22-1 shot and an 8-1 shot. Each of these horses touched the wire first. The 22-1 horse paid 46.90 and 21.40 to place. At this point of the day, my buddy was watching and laughing because this does not happen that often. The above picture is of the 22-1 shot, Sarah Lynx. She was ridden by Christophe Soumillon. She won the Grade 1, 1.5 million dollar Pattison Canadian International.

My system worked well yesterday. Of the 14 races played, it hit win or place on 10 of those races.

By going early and playing the east coast tracks, I was basically done before Santa Anita even started. It was one of those days that a horseplayer remembers. Good thing Mush was nowhere near us.