St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Well the sad news is Voorhee's Ballad, a 5 year old horse sired by Mecke out of Sweet Ballad by Saint Ballado, broke down in the first race yesterday and was euthanized on the track. Voorhee's Ballad had a lifetime record of 37 4-9-6 with $164,109. R.I.P.

In the 3rd race, the winner, Meli, did not get her picture taken as she was vanned off the track. I'm sorry to say Meli's condition is unknown to me at this time. Getting information on horse injuries is difficult to say the least.

Not a great day for the publichandicapper.com picks either. At least at Gulfstream I had the right horse on top, Duke Of Homberg; however, in the contest, I won't even get credit for that as I tried to get cute in the contest and get a better price with Adari. For investment purposes, the race was a pass.

In the remaining two races, I was completely off the board. I thought the invaders would fare much better at Tampa Bay Downs but was mistaken as all my contenders finished off the board. The correct wager, based on my contenders was Cliffy's Future who was never a factor in the race.

Meanwhile at Santa Anita, Mistical Plan was the play. Apparently, the folks at Santa Anita knew something I didn't as Mistical Plan was the longest price on the board and ran accordingly.

I'll try to do better next week.

Meanwhile, as I was entering my $0.50 Pick 4 wager at Gulfstream next to the $50.00 minimum bet window (catch the irony there?) a man comes up to the $50 min window and lays $1000.00 on the 2 at Aqueduct to win. Well your intrepid horseplayer figures this guy must be pretty confident to lay that much money on a horse to win. I looked up at the Aqueduct monitor and saw they were beginning to load. I went to an open wagering machine, and, miraculously, the machine accepted my voucher without a fuss. Then I had to find the Aqueduct track from among the other tracks button, and place my $5.00 investment. When I rechecked the monitor, I could see the race was already running. Hmmmm, what's up with that? At any rate, it turned out well for me. The "2" was the 2-1 2nd choice and, obviously, the inside speed on the Big A's inner track. The 2 wired the field, at least from the point where I joined the race, and paid $6.40.

So here's today's handicapping lesson. Hang out around the $50 minimum bet window and wait for the whales to come in and ride on their coattails.