I *Heart* NY

The longshots were live at Belmont on Wednesday, and, boy, we enjoyed ourselves at the OTW facility today! My very cautious friend who nearly always places $2 show bets, and recently graduated to $2 place bets, branched out and hit an exacta. And my luck at $1 trifectas continues, hitting two of them, although not awesome ones ($39.50 on race 6, and $51.75 on race 9). As I mentioned before, I just finished reading Thornton’s Not By a Longshot, and the final chapter in his book deals with the MassCap won by Running Stag. Therefore, when I saw in the 7th race that his daughter Stag Dancer, a beautiful gray, was running, I took a leap of faith and placed a $2 bet on her to win. Imagine my happy surprise when she had a monstrous kick to the wire and won, paying a nice $25.60. I guess there is a lesson to be learned here. Sometimes all the analysis in the world is worthless and you just gotta play your gut.

Good news from Churchill Downs! Friday marks the debut of the 10 cent superfecta. Amen! I know serious horseplayers may turn up their noses at these, but there is nothing more encouraging for a new horseplayer like myself than picking the top four finishers (boxed, of course) for $2.40. Picking them in exact order for 10 cents…well…all I can say is, baby steps.

Delaware Park’s leading jockey Ramon Dominquez posted his 3,000 career victory today, which was a nice moment to see. And the horses he has rode over the years…Better Talk Now…Invasor (who posted his first timed workout since winning the Dubai World Cup)…and Derby runner-up Bluegrass Cat.