Glad to see you got Pulled Back Into the Game FrankD even if just temporarily!!

Met Banditbeau on Saturday. Packed an hour and a half of material into a 15 minute convo before the second race. Great guy and great to put a face to a name! He thought favorites would rule the day and I told him Gun Runner was my play. He likely won huge money and meanwhile I lost on the day. I believe I have more to learn from him!

Lost $300 total on the weekend, minimizing my losses with a straight FU/GR Double and hitting the late pick 4 Sat. Bet Carina Mia W/P, bet 14 to win only in same race (never bet two horses to win but had to here) and believed this Cup favored clean trainers,...... you know guys like John Kimmel but never gave that one a look. Had 1 and 14 with nearly everything in tri and exactas and starting pick 3's....but not Bar of Gold.

Baffert's horses ran exactly like his horses at Del Mar in Graded stakes this summer. Place and Show's the norm and I didn't capitalize on this opinion either b/c even on Saturday I wouldn't put him in second and third on my ticket. Stubborness was costly. Regardless, Baffert won ZERO BC races.

One of my closest friends who I was at Del Mar with was alive to the Pick 5 to 8 horses for 6k to 67k and didn't use Stormy Liberal. I encouraged him to invest win money in the four long prices he didn't have and he refused. He is still sick he somehow didn't use SL and that RB didn't get there. Personally, I hated Lady Aurelia for the win and screwed that race up also.

Euro's seemingly didn't perform well in 2017 when shipping in for grass stakes all over the country (no numbers to back that assertion up just yet but bear with me). But they did fantastic in BC in Cali again.

Pletcher has become a master trainer of dirt horses at longer distances (recent Belmont years, Marathan win, recent 1 5/8 miles Belmont winner MadeforLucky while his BC and Keeneland results the past month have been abysmal. In fact, very few entries in the actual BC races (Marathon not an official BC race anymore). Several he announced wouldn't run as they weren't ready and Keen Ice wrenched an ankle. Just poor luck for getting them ready and prepared.

All of this leading to the belief that the BC did a stand up job with testing, security, new steriod rule, etc in my opinion. Now if the entire game could get on board with uniform rules and enforcement. You would see who can REALLY train a horse then. Guys like Dallas Stewart and John Kimmel might start winning some races of significance again......oh wait.

Del Mar as fantastic as ever. I hope they have it again one day for me to return for a BC! If you don't love going to Del Mar, then take up a new interest. Woke up today thinking the year has basically ended; but then realized I'll be chasing a Churchill score or Hawthorne score soon most likely. And my new favorite hangout in the winter months down in Hot Springs, Oaklawn, will be right around the corner!

Last, I lost money on a bet I made with a gambler at Fairmount from a few weeks ago. I took the position Gun Runner would be under 2.00-1. Actually I thought he would go favored but didn't wager on that. He had more place and show money than Arrogate in the final flash I saw before the race went off while Arrogate went favored in the win pool. I normally don't think this but did these two Classic favorites get underbet based on the wild results all day Saturday?? I was certain one of them would be less than 2-1 and very confident both would be less than 2-1. Another swing and a miss on the BC!