KMart,
Congratulations on a great debut. I just wanted to write and let you and Bill know how much I enjoyed sitting with you at the contest. Your knowledge, humor, and friendliness were greatly appreciated. We'd both have a seat at the NHC if Cigar Street could've got back to that GP #.
I'm back in Georgia (the country not the state ;-) ) after 33 hours of travel. Guys on my team over here are tolerant of my horse talk, but it was great being able to speak the same language with a couple of true horseplayers for a a couple days.
Largely thanks to T-graph, I was able to play the contest exactly as I planned. I only hit 2 contest wagers the entire weekend (Long on Value to win and the Judy the Beauty - Better Lucky exacta), but I was sitting with $13K+ going into the classic. My goal was to hit the top 15 and parlay the BCBC seat into a NHC entry, and if Cigar Street or one of my saver exacta's hit, I would've been right there. Finished with $9K+, paid for my trip to LA, and was able to show a healthy profit.
I'll be in Vegas the week of 21-28 Jan even if I can't win an entry to the NHC in the remaining weeks. Hope we can meet up again if you guys are in town.
Jack