God bless Carol Cedeno!

Playing Aqueduct today was painful as I narrowly missed two $500+ trifectas—and then Carol Cedeno brought Ready Read home to win in race 9! My thinking in selecting this one: consistent speed figures this year at 6f on the inner track, and not only had he finished just behind Mass Charles (who was odds-on favorite today) four races back, but had thoroughly defeated him only three back. Mass Charles had a big speed figure last out, first off the claim, so I figured he could bounce. Thankfully, no one else took Ready Read seriously, and he went off at 22-1. I matched Ready Read with Minister’s Appeal in the exacta—his jockey Angel Arroyo had brought home 16-1 Climb to the Stars ($34.60) in race 4, plus Vladimira ($6.60 place) in race 5, and 22-1 Prairie Boy ($6.00 show) in race 7. I figured he was having a good day, so why not throw together the two longest shots—did you hear me hootin’ and hollerin’ where you live? Yes, my $1 exacta paid a sweet $234.50, plus my $2WP on Ready Read paid $45.60 and $17.80, for a total of $297.90—heehaw! Now if I had only included the favorite Mass Charles in a $1 tri box I would have earned a cool $1,155.50…better not tempt karma, though. If I had, no doubt the favorite would have won and my winnings wouldn’t have been so great. God, I love this game!