Over the weekend we made a trip to Del Mar and it is as beautiful as I remembered it to be. You see, it has been possibly 15 years since I went to Del Mar.
If you have never been to Del Mar, you are missing a very cool experience. It is not as big as Santa Anita but it has been kept looking like a track from a time gone by. Where else can you sit in a pleasant 70 degrees with a wind coming off the Pacific and playing the horses in the summertime. When you sit in the stands you can see the Pacific Ocean to your left and the hills of Solano Beach right in front of you. Say what you want but the two best places for scenery are Santa Anita and Del Mar, hands down.
In years past Del Mar has been a difficult track to handicap. The track tendencies change at a moments notice. It was difficult to determine if early speed would hold up or if the front end was dead when the track was dirt. Now with a poly track, that determination is even harder. Since I have my new system, we were going to see if it would work here at Del Mar.
Since Del Mar is a summer meet, the majority of the crowd are not exactly horse players. They have come to have a few drinks, have a laugh and bet on a horse that sounds good. They aren't exactly your standard handicappers. This is good for your serious horse players because the odds will be so askew, you will get a price. Remember, Del Mar starts later in the day so the track will take little money from other parts of the country.
For example, the Cougar II Handicap, which is a Grade III race, had some good entries. The favorite in that race was Richard's Kid and the opening odds were 1-9. The fans at Del Mar were betting this horse like he already won. When the gate opened, Richard's Kid was 2-5 and the second choice, Fly Lexis Fly was 5-1. The other four entries were 15-1 through 22-1. Granted Richard's Kid won with a thundering close in the stretch but a small 2 dollar bet on any of the long shots would of scored you some cash. Worth Repeating and Balladry placed and showed and they were some high priced horses.
I will tell you a funny anecdote that sums up the crowd at Del Mar. There was a table right next to us and they were playing the races like everyone else but you can tell that they were just having a good time and not serious handicappers. The Cougar II Handicap went off and these bettors had money on the number 6 horse, Fly Lexis Fly. I know this because they were screaming for him the minute the gate opened. A bit of info on this race, it is a mile and a half race that starts on the back end of the track and basically goes around twice. So, the race starts and the 6 horse has taken the lead and it is coming down the stretch, for the first pass. This table is on it's feet screaming. They think that it is the end of the race and they don't realize that they have to go one more lap. When the 6 horse crosses in front of us, they are all hugging each other, high fiving each other and really whooping it up like they won. They then realized that the race was not over and they got real quiet. I found it amusing but hey, it's Del Mar. Sad thing is that the 6 didn't even show.
My system came up with only two races at Del Mar. In the second race, the system chose the number 1 horse, Huntington Harbor and he came in third. The second race that it came up with was in the 5th race. The horse was the number 5, Format, and he won. If you just played these two races with an outlay of 20 dollars per race, you would of made 98 dollars with a profit of 58 dollars. The system also hit on the last race from Woodbine. I played my horse and boxed it in an exacta. My total outlay for that race was 24 dollars. I hit with my horse and also hit the exacta. My profit for that race was 53 dollars.
The system has it's ups and downs but even though it was a spot play at Del Mar over the weekend, it still paid dividends.
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