I have so many security features in place on my computer since the last identity theft incident that I can't access the Sheets Bd, so I don't know what was said either, but this is one issue I can put to bed based on 1st hand knowledge. On day 1, derby1592 & I sat together in the area reserved for the top 10 finishers. Big mistake on my part picking those seats, as it turned out, since they were directly under some very bright & very hot television lights, but more on that later. Unfortunately, we both had to move on day 2, so I went down a little early to see if we could get seats together, since spending two days handicapping with derby1592 was the highlight of my contest. derby1592 is an even better dopester than I imagined, which is saying something.

In any event, the only way we could sit together was if I convinced the guy who was assigned the seat next to mine to move. The guy in question turned out to be Jamie's father. The 1st thing he told me was that his son was doing pretty well in the contest, & that he had put in a request to sit next to him, because they went to contests together & always compared notes. Pretty neat, I remember thinking, as there is very little I would like more than to do the same thing with my son. Also, you don't have to be a horseplayer to understand the attraction of something like that, which is one among a number of reasons that Jamie is the perfect winner for the 1st televised contest. He went on to explain that the way they worked was that independently Jamie doped things out using Thorograph & that he used nothing but the Form, & then they would get together & compare notes. I told him I would be interested in meeting Jamie & I did about a minute or so later. He definitely uses Thorograph & is a fairly regular reader of the Bd, about which he had some interesting comments. Not long after that derby1592 arrived, & I told him the story when I introduced him to Jim Sr. It turned out that Jamie was a member of Chris' YouBet team, which had a chance to win the team title, so Chris introduced himself to Jamie as well.

So derby1592 was able to sit next to me on my right & as luck would have it, the person assigned to sit on my left was none other than Steve Wolfson, last yr's winner & the victim of an unfounded attack on his character on the Sheets Bd. After exchanging pleasantries, I asked him if he was aware of what was said about him after he won last yr. He was, & couldn't understand why anyone would launch such an attack, given that what he said about using TGraph was true. I didn't have to ask the 2nd thing I was curious about, namely whether he ever got the apology Robes still owes him. I can attest to the fact that he uses a lot of handicapping tools, which are on two separate computers, one large, one small. In any event, I mentioned that at least one person stuck up for him & his family at the time. He paused, smiled, & extended his hand again, saying, "You're Mall, aren't you?" I then told him the story about Jamie & his father, & he responded that he knew them both pretty well, evidenced by the fact that he was in Jamie's wedding. Hopefully, the telecast will make something out of all this, as excellent handicappers who also happen to be young, articulate & good looking maybe, just maybe, might give this sport the shot in the arm it so badly needs.