Track Day With Mom
Yesterday morning before we left for Orlando we had a chair repairman come to the house to give us an estimate on my recliner. It had broken last weekend. He had said if we were lucky he could fix it on the visit to give us an estimate (which was free of charge). He looked at the chair for about ten minutes, took the back off (which I had not been able to figure out) and a screw/rivet fell out. He said there was the problem, and I was thinking that would be pretty inexpensive to repair as that was all that was the problem, so he said. He looked at it and said, "That will run you $225." I was stunned. No thanks I said and he gave us an estimate and left, leaving the bracket attached to the chair with one rivet which meant now we couldn't sit in the chair. I had looked at new furniture sets and told Kim that on Monday I would go check some out. So today when I looked at the chair, I thought to myself that even though EVERYONE knows I cannot and don't do repairs, this cannot be that hard to repair from the way he explained it. It looked like something I COULD do. So I got some screws with backings and pulled the chair open to check. Looked simple, so I took the bracket off and thought, if that truly is all there is to it, I CAN do this. I asked my sister to help me and it took us about a half an hour to figure out how to get the chair back off the base, but when we did I had the bracked firmly attached in less than two minutes. We popped the back on and viola! Repaired! Saved $225 and I am a genius of a repairman!
So Mom and I headed out and I took with me nine tickets from when the boys went to the races with me to cash. I had added up the returns and was looking to cash for $199 and change. We had a nice drive out and Mom, like the boys had been, was duly impressed with the giant Pegasus fountain under construction. We headed inside and it was fifteen minutes to the first at Saratoga. I took my tickets to one of my usual tellers and gave them to her. I watched the numbers on the screen and was delighted when he total was $250.25 instead of $199.....I win without even betting for the day! I made my first bet, $10 to win on Star Gazing in the Saratoga opener, then gave the teller 75 cents, so she returned $241 to me - this will become important for a story later in the day! Mom and I went to the simulcast screens and watched as Star Gazing ran I second all the way to the final 16th and finally surged to be up in time! WHOOO HOOOO! One-for-one! I missed in the opener at Gulfstream and then at Saratoga I took Chief Kitten from the Chad Brown barn with Javier Castellano for Ken & Sarah Ramsey in a Maiden Special 2yo turf event. I noted in my analysis that it would be "race track logic" if the uncoupled entry mate, Starship Nation were to win because he figured to be a bigger price. Do I need to tell the rest of the story? Chief Kitten came running wide on the turf with dead aim on the juvenile who'd emerged in front, but could not catch him a close second. And yes, the winner was the "other" Chad Brown runner at 9/1! WOW. I ran off the board at Delaware and Gulfstream before finishing second at Arlington. The fourth at Saratoga was up next. It was their feature of the day, the Birdstone Stakes going fourteen furlongs (1 3/4 miles). Todd Pletcher's Micromanage was the clear class of the field as he'd twice earned triple digit figures recently while winning graded stakes at marathon distances like this. But to back he was the clear class of the field on the undercard on Belmont Stakes Day in a listed spot like this after having won the Grade 3 Skip Away on Florida Derby Day, but he'd disappointed that day. So to me, the only question was would today be one of his days he ran his "A" game. I thought the chances were fairly good as he just towered over his rivals. He stalked the lone speed into the turn and thought if he was going to lose, it would be in a situation like this where someone got loose on an easy lead......but he hit high gear when they spun out of the turn and blew by the leader to draw off by a pole!
He was the 1/2 favorite, but I'll take my $15 and be happy! I was fourth at Arlington and then scored with a nice maiden win at Delaware when Aces Are Wild romped home by daylight. He was the 6/5 favorite which I had anticipated as he was dropping in class for a barn good on turnbacks and with a 30% winning jockey for this outfit. Meanwhile my Mom had started to cash a few tickets and had a couple of winning tickets for my sister and my niece who'd made ten selections at $2 apiece.
Next up I was back in Chicago (where I will be in about ten days for the Arlington Million) and in the third at Arlington it was a non-winners of two lifetime claiming event sprinting six furlongs. I had landed on Harmony Place who I was certain would be on the front end for my former student, now top jockey Rosemary Homeister, Jr. Her past performances said she wanted and needed the lead, and I even noted that she was NOT a good bet as the favorite, but was at the program listed 9/2 price. Well, as they left the gate she WAS the favorite at a short 8/5, and within a quarter of a mile she'd been outrun to the lead. Sigh..... still, I was hoping Rosemary would get her best effort. Harmony Place tracked the pace setter into the lane and looked to have plenty of run to take her down, but as they hit the sixteenth pole she wasn't by yet and it looked to me like Rose had not pushed her hard. About 100 yards from the wire Rosie gave her the "GO" button and she accelerated to the wire JUST up in time on the head bob! After it was official I messaged Rosemary that I'd had her and was hoping to see her over Million weekend, and she responded positively!
The $5.40 payoff netted me nearly $30. I missed in Gulfstream's fifth and sixth and again in Delaware's 7th. WOW. The 8th at Delaware was a two-turn claiming event and I went with Dinny Dinosaur. I wrote he was my "UPSET of the Day" at 8/1 in the program. He was a horse-for-the-course with seven local wins and a 2-for-25 record at all other venues. As I looked down his past performances I saw valid excuses for all six of his last string of races. Today he dropped in class and was on the rail - which would play into his hand as he ran his best races on the lead. Well, he was bet down so that it was no "upset" at his post-time 2/1 price, but everything else went according to plan. Burst out of the gate, opened up by daylight and was never threatened as he ran a big race to win by daylight. The $6.60 payoff returned over $15, and now I wished I'd added money to the bet, sigh. I missed AGAIN at Gulfstream but as that race finished it was post time at Saratoga for the tenth. 
This was a nw3x allowance event going 1 1/8th mile on the turf. One horse who piqued my interest was Lochte. He had scored an upset at better than 20/1 on Donn Handicap Day when I was at Gulfstream, ironically with Mom, at this distance. I thought that race was a fluke by he came right back and nearly won the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita. But since then he'd missed not only in stakes action, but when dropped into allowance company like this. Would he get back on track at this distance? I was not convinced. But I was pretty confident that Shadwell Stables' Ghurair would run big. Since coming across the Atlantic he'd won an allowance race and run competitively in stakes company twice. I thought he would sit a perfect trip in here and score on the drop in class. It could not have worked out better. In fact the only thing I was "wrong" about was the fact that he was pinned on the rail before bursting clear to win a MUCH the best! Cashed for $20, and as I told my Mom, ".....after fifteen bets I've won six - 40% - which is what I've been hovering around all summer long!....." I had two double investments and two triple investments so I felt pretty confident I'd end up at well over 30% and have a fine day. But no dice.....through the final set of races I was second once and off the board in all the rest. So I finished at 27% and lost some money - but not all the "bonus" $50 I'd collected at the start. Which brings me to the final story of the day. As I was watching Ghurair win the teller I'd cashed the left-over tickets with at the start of the day came up to me at the simulcast screens. She asked if I remembered cashing all those tickets, and she held out a printout with a series of cashed bets on them. I said, of course, yes. And she said she remembered me specifically with those tickets because it had come to something and 25 cents and I'd given her three quarters to round up to an even dollar. Yes, I said, that's right. Well, she explained, she had inadvertently cashed a $50 voucher with my winning tickets and had overpaid me. My first thought was that was probably right because I didn't think I was getting $250, I thought it was $200. But the she said, "....because remember, I gave you two payouts of $88 each..." And I said, no, I was pretty sure that was NOT my string of tickets because I did not have two $88 winners. She said, remember, it came to the extra quarter....blah, blah, blah. Yes, I agreed, and if you overpaid me I have no problem giving you that money, but that string of tickets is not my tickets. Then I asked what the time stamp was as it read 15:53. I figured that meant 3:53 pm, about an hour and a half ago. She said that these tickets "I had cashed" had been cashed at about 4 pm. I said, I am certain that this sequence of tickets are NOT mine. She started to explain again, and I pulled my sheet out and said, I know exactly when I came to you......I showed her my first page and pointed to the first sheet. I said, "It as at about 12:50 because the total was $250.25 and I made a $10 bet at Saratoga in their second race, see? I gave you 75 cents and you gave me $241 back. Those are not my tickets there." She looked confused and said she could look through her tickets and find them. And I said, no problem and again I would gladly give the money back if she'd given me the wrong amount, I didn't want her to have to pay out of her pocket. She said I know you keep detailed records, do you know when those tickets were from? I said yes, and pulled up my web page on my phone. I showed her and said, "it was July 19 and there were six tickets - two from the 11th at Monmouth, two from the 11th at Saratoga, and two from the 11th at Santa Anita." She said she would look and I promised to check with her later. Well, when I went over to her later she'd found my tickets and again she seemed confused. She pointed to them and said, these are the only tickets I have from July 19, but they do not match this print out of when the money was paid out in the amount of $50 too much. I looked at the tickets and pulled out the old ticket I'd written the totals on. "See? These match the tickets I brought out. I'm sorry they don't match, but these ARE my tickets, and not the ones you overpaid on." She shook her head and said she wasn't accusing me of anything, I smiled and said I understood and was sorry she was out the $50, but she said, it's my fault for not being more careful. So in the end I DID get the extra $50! WHOOO HOOOO! I told this story to my Mom and shook my head saying nearly every day I am at the races (live or online) I seem to ALWAYS have stories to tell!
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