Another post-mortem...

We (few friends pooled together $625 and played tris and supers) threw out BGC's Kee race and had him in all underneath slots under SNS, APW, and the winner...alas, Steppenwolfer blew up all our tix. I thought he was ridiculously underlaid. Every know-nothing-about-racing/Derby's-my-one-bet-of-the-year person I talked to last week said the same thing, oh, that Steppenwolfer closed at a mile and an eighth he's gonna love the extra distance...to me he was the classic sucker, MOTO, Joe Public horse, on offer at about one third of what his true odds were. Thought he'd be nowhere. As always in this race, you can be close to completely right, to the big score, only to blow it with one mistake.

On a karmic note...my seven year old son is a huge Edgar Prado fan, and he wants to be a jockey when he grow up...with a 6'4" father and a 5'10" mother, his prospects are dim, he's already as tall as some of these guys. Anyway, my son hangs around outside the jockey's room at Saratoga getting autographs and generally trying to converse with these guys, and the one guy who ever pays any attention to him is Prado. We got Prado to send an autographed picture for my son's birthday and he was more into that than any of the other presents. All last week he kept talking about Prado winning the Derby. When he did it, my son acted like HE hit the super. And then I had to listen to my wife tell me over and over how between our son's love of Prado, the plane crash survivors in the stands, etc., etc., that Barbaro was, as she put it, "the karma play of the century." I guess we could have put $400 of our pool money to win, but that's not how we roll...one of these years we're gonna get one of these things, I swear...

Hansel, version 2006...Sweetnorthernsaint? Just an idea.

Was BD's trip THAT bad??? I know it wasn't ideal, but am I supposed to give him extra points because for once he didn't get his Charmin-soft lone-f six horse field trip? I thought the best horses were the ones who could win under adverse circumstances, but that's just me.

Red-board of the weekend...English Channel at 7/2, what's wrong with that, I oughtta have my head examined, played $60 of gimmicks with my own money, Milk It Mick blew me up in that one, but geez, 30 times $9, that's what we call bread-n-butta. Sometimes it's hard for me to employ normal, basic wagering strategy on days like this...especially in a house full of people, while drinking heavily...

The horses I was most off on...Sharp Humor, thought he'd run well, and given he ran Barbaro to half a length and was four times the price, thought he was big value. Has he finished the race yet? AP Warrior as one of my three key-on-tops? Ouch. That's just embarassing...

Been watching the Derby for 20 years now, and I thought Barbaro was the most impressive winner I've seen in those two decades. I thought the field was decent and well-matched and he won under a hand ride while finishing up in around :24. Hope he's The One, think it would be good for the game...