A Sunday night at Hou
Nothing better to do last night so I headed out to Sam Houston for a beautiful Sunday evening at the races. The weather was ideal, and with Daylight Savings in full effect it was nice to be catching some races there in the daylight. They have a 5 p.m. post on Sundays, so I encourage anyone with the opportunity to take advantage of it and enjoy twilight racing.
Two random tidbits from my night out...
A great piece of news that I missed from last weekend was the occurrence of three 20-plus-length winners in two days! I'm still trying to grasp this. In all my years of visiting tracks, including three years of working at one and seeing several hundred races annually, I don't think I've ever seen a single 20-plus-length winner in person. I can recall one spring season at Lone Star when Dallas Keen had a few huge ones, but even then I think the widest margin was 18 lengths. If you've never seen an 18-length winner from above the track in person, let me tell you that it is an unbelievable butt-kicking of the highest order. It's not really awe-inspiring, because this kind of thing tends to happen when one pretty good horse is put up against a bunch of not-very-talented ones, so instead it's just funny. I guess that's why they call it a laugher. The big winners at Sam Houston last week were: Chief Monarch, a 5-year-old gelding who broke his maiden by 23 for trainer Paul Renia Mann (under replacement rider Jose Figueroa, who took over the mount when Bobby Walker Jr. reportedly refused to ride after warming up the horse!); Becky's Blarney, a 3-year-old filly who broke her maiden by 23 3/4 for trainer Kharina Hunt (Richard Eramia was up); and State Power, a 4-year-old colt who took a maiden special weight by 23 3/4 for Bret Calhoun (Walker did ride this one). All three were post-time favorites.
I am in love with ten-cent supers as something fun to do after I've blown my real bankroll. Not that I've ever hit a decent one, I just like that I can mess with them and have tickets with numbers of combinations I used to only ever dream about. I know it's different for some people, but I get just as much thrill playing dime bets as I do for whole dollars. I'm sure cashing is not as satisfying, but it's fun to play races without anything substantial on the line. I'll be looking forward to whichever track is the first to offer dime exactas in a few years.
Two random tidbits from my night out...
A great piece of news that I missed from last weekend was the occurrence of three 20-plus-length winners in two days! I'm still trying to grasp this. In all my years of visiting tracks, including three years of working at one and seeing several hundred races annually, I don't think I've ever seen a single 20-plus-length winner in person. I can recall one spring season at Lone Star when Dallas Keen had a few huge ones, but even then I think the widest margin was 18 lengths. If you've never seen an 18-length winner from above the track in person, let me tell you that it is an unbelievable butt-kicking of the highest order. It's not really awe-inspiring, because this kind of thing tends to happen when one pretty good horse is put up against a bunch of not-very-talented ones, so instead it's just funny. I guess that's why they call it a laugher. The big winners at Sam Houston last week were: Chief Monarch, a 5-year-old gelding who broke his maiden by 23 for trainer Paul Renia Mann (under replacement rider Jose Figueroa, who took over the mount when Bobby Walker Jr. reportedly refused to ride after warming up the horse!); Becky's Blarney, a 3-year-old filly who broke her maiden by 23 3/4 for trainer Kharina Hunt (Richard Eramia was up); and State Power, a 4-year-old colt who took a maiden special weight by 23 3/4 for Bret Calhoun (Walker did ride this one). All three were post-time favorites.
I am in love with ten-cent supers as something fun to do after I've blown my real bankroll. Not that I've ever hit a decent one, I just like that I can mess with them and have tickets with numbers of combinations I used to only ever dream about. I know it's different for some people, but I get just as much thrill playing dime bets as I do for whole dollars. I'm sure cashing is not as satisfying, but it's fun to play races without anything substantial on the line. I'll be looking forward to whichever track is the first to offer dime exactas in a few years.
posted by Jimbo @ 3/26/2007 06:10:00 PM
1 Comments:
At 4/12/2007 9:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
Jim -
I agree on the 10-cent super. I look for the tracks that offer them as it's a great and inexpensive way to pass some time while you are waiting for a race you are interested in to come up. I've hit several over the past year and am continually surprised how much they pay. I'm not sure whether people are piling on the favorites or what, but if you put together something like a 2-4-5-all ticket and some bomb lands fourth you going to do OK.
Thanks for your site.
caperintexas@yahoo.com
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