Breeders' Cup 2014

Quote: FinsRule

Yesterday, my big bet was the Pick-4. ALL / Goldencents / ALL / Untapable.

How soon before somebody tries to claim that Untapable should be taken down as Rosie Napravnik should have reported her pregnancy to the California Horse Racing Board?

(BTW, apparently there's no rule that says pregnancy prevents someone from being a jockey - in fact, the CHRB rules say that nothing prevents a less-than-four-months-pregnant horse from running!)

My favorite joke from yesterday: Looks like Rosie wasn't untapable...

Got a winner in the first contest race today.

So at halfway through the contest I'm tied for 31st place out of 133. If I can do better in the 2nd half then I did in the first half, then I definitely have a decent shot at cashing.

In the 5th, the F&M Turf, I didn't expect to see the tote board offering me anything like 7:1 for a bet on Secret Gesture, the nice English Group 1 placed daughter of Galileo who in 11 lifetime starts has finished out of the money exactly once, ever, in one of the world's premier events for long distance grass fillies at Longchamp on a day the track in Paris was basically a swamp. So I will. Good luck to me.

EDIT: And she ran a good race in a paceless contest that played keepaway in 1:13 & change and a 26+ split to the mile, to finish within about a length of 2nd at the line, but off the board in about 5th. Which is worth approximately as much to me as this slightly used cocktail napkin. Bah, humbug. Anybody wanna buy a themed napkin?

Simply amazing sums of money churning thru those windows ..... giving me flashbacks to Breeders Cup 2002

http://thorotech.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/692607226/m/6236047351

Looking forward to California Chrome getting trounced in less than an hour.

Not making a move in Classic until Drawing Dead weighs in.....DD. FYP......

I make one bet all day horse wins and will get booted for sure

PAR FOR THE COURSE

WOW I cant believe those useless judges

Quote: FinsRule

Bayern is the only one I'd throw out. Because if he wins, that means that speed is going to be with him, and you don't have the other speed horses in there. I guess I could see him finishing 3rd, but then I would construct a different type of bet.

Speed bias all day. Can't believe Bayern went off at 7-1. He still should have been taken down.

Well then, I simply couldn't have possibly been more wrong, every which way. On the other hand, the money I cleverly turned to vapor in the book this weekend should now provide me with a very generous comp balance, which will supply me with plenty of Sterno to roast pigeons near the refrigerator crate I'll be relocating to under the freeway, so there's that. Other than that, it was a hella lotta fun.

Now pardon me while I head out to panhandle enough change from some tourists to buy a Derby future book ticket on Carpe Diem.

My sister would have won trifecta if she bet but we stayed home. Stayed home primarily because friend didn't want to go to track, so friendship will be on probation.

I am very excited to say that the trifecta box I posted is what I bet, for $120. It came in. Color me astonished to the tune of $2087.20. I only sent $100 with my friend, and had her loan me or join me on the last $20 to make it a $2 ticket. I'll never know which it is; she placed the bet for $120 and got paid!!!! So of course it was her $20 and that's fine.

The truly astounding thing was that I nearly had her do it as a Superfecta, which would also have come in, with Shared Belief 4th. But I'm quite pleased with the results.

Even a blind squirrel, guys. WooHoo! I am a lifetime horses winner! One and done!

She sent me this pic of her at the track with our ticket. As you guys say, picture or it didn't happen.

Well done beachbumbabs! It is good thing you stuck with your original play and made no changes.

Humbling BCup weekend for me as well. Only cashed a small trifecta (in the Juvenile). Great racing/horses and I enjoyed watching the event. Next stop: Keeneland in 2015.

Like Drawing Dead said, I also liked the race Carpe Diem had. He certainly should be considered the favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Before the Juvenile I was @ Wynn yesterday to check the futures odds for the Derby:
Carpe Diem 24-1
Upstart 65-1 (I was hoping to get 100-1 or higher on this one)
I did not bet either horse and am going to watch the development of a few other horses. (Tough Customer, Bold Conquest, Keen Ice, Daredevil?)

judges press statement today

http://www.hrtv.com/videos/?VideoCategoryId=2&VideoId=AIMmDeCx2yzprq6jtA3t36rM%2Fn5Fxb5eeGWoxLztHck%3D

Quote: beachbumbabs

I am very excited to say that the trifecta box I posted is what I bet, for $120. It came in. Color me astonished to the tune of $2087.20. I only sent $100 with my friend, and had her loan me or join me on the last $20 to make it a $2 ticket. I'll never know which it is; she placed the bet for $120 and got paid!!!! So of course it was her $20 and that's fine.

The truly astounding thing was that I nearly had her do it as a Superfecta, which would also have come in, with Shared Belief 4th. But I'm quite pleased with the results.

Even a blind squirrel, guys. WooHoo! I am a lifetime horses winner! One and done!

Congrats! Now you have to hit the derby next year!

May I suggest a $10 donation to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund? Or to rerun, that helps find homes for retired racehorses?

Once again, Congrats!!!!

More on rerun. They are having an eBay auction right now. You can bid on paintings made by actual breeders cup horses. Go to eBay and search for moneigh.

I have a bid active and I have bought from there before. It's real cool.

Quote: FinsRule

More on rerun. They are having an eBay auction right now. You can bid on paintings made by actual breeders cup horses. Go to eBay and search for moneigh.

I have a bid active and I have bought from there before. It's real cool.

Moneigh. That's flat-out funny. I'll go check it out; thanks! Hadn't heard of it before.

Reviewing the weekend to see what I think can usefully be learned to apply to other races, an honest appraisal may sound cranky and might tend to make some fans mad or at least annoyed, but it is what it is:

1. Anyone who follows the game should be thankful that the Breeders' Cup is not returning to Santa Anita, and is moving to Keeneland next year. I really miss the glory days of excellent quality racing on the Southern California circuit, but I have to stick a fork in it and admit that's mostly just gone and not gonna be back. It has been deteriorating on many levels for many reasons for a long time, but now it is well and truly done. So long Santa Anita and Hollywood Park. First class racing is something to be found at other venues three time zones away.

2. I'll be giving absolutely no weight whatsoever to results of any Breeders' Cup performance in the main track races, unless it involves someone who miraculously managed to run a creditable race from off the pace against the extreme bias on the conveyor belt surface created by the pathetic condition of the hard packed dirt track. It would not be wise to try to translate any of Saturday's results on the dirt track, and even less so the resulting absurd times and speed ratings, to other races on other days, even at the same track. Bet any of these off their Breeders' Cup 'form' at your peril; not a good idea going forward with these at all, unless it happens to be a race scheduled for asphalt around a mall parking lot, IMO, FWIW, etc.

This is the second year now in which the Santa Anita grounds crew has done a spectacularly poor job on at least one of the two days, even though the new surface, with entirely different material installed all the way to the base, had been in reasonably acceptable shape prior to the weekend. They may have overreacted to the rain forecast, packing it down to "seal" it, but that cannot excuse failing to work the surface to open it up as the damage they'd done became so obvious to even slightly astute observers. It is lucky there weren't any apparent breakdowns, in front of a national and worldwide audience of millions no less, or at least none of the shockingly catastrophic kind that were obvious at the time.

3. Apart from that serious day-long problem, the result of the Classic this year became trash calling for a line drawn through it on past performance sheets for other obvious reasons. With the pace pressure eliminated from the race at the break along with some of the most serious competition potentially suited to stay the trip, it was a replay of the two facile speed fests laid out for Bayern this summer at Monmouth and Parx. Shared Belief may have actually been best on the day, or perhaps another, but we'll never know. I agree with Jim Rome's admirably restrained remarks, and compromising his horse wasn't even the worst of it; eliminating the pace drawn to his inside effectively ended the race for any possible legitimate classic distance contenders.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Nice teeth. But can she get ten furlongs?