SIX WINS TODAY!
February 2
With "the kids" (Julie, Brad & Lauren) visiting for the weekend, with my Mom here, and big plans for the day --> dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and then 8:00 pm "Wicked" performance - I was very selective in my picks for the day. And I was rewarded with wins in nearly every one of them. Of course, there weren't any big prices either, but I scored a solid profit for the day. Ironically of the four losses on the day, THREE of them as the runner-up, my first two races were misses. My first selection was in the opener at Gulfstream. I refuse to pass by on any Todd Pletcher runner, and even though, as I wrote in my analysis, "...is not the most likely winner...." I doubled the investment. Silista was 4/1 on the turf and was a good fourth. But I KNEW I'd win in the next pick, one of only three non-Gulfstream picks. Nicole H is one of the best filly-mare sprinters in New York, and a perfect 5-for-5 over the Aqueduct inner track. She was the 2/5 pick in the Correction Stakes. She came to the second choice as they spun out of the turn, poked a nose in front, but could not hold off the determined winner.
I had co-"best" bets at Gulfstream, and the first was in the co-feature, the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint Stakes. The crowd settled on Great Attack as the favorite. I figured as much - he was a Grade 3 winner and had run very competitively in the last two Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprints. But that's the problem with him - he is always well bet, always runs competitively, and typically doesn't get there in time. Case in point back-to-back runner-up finishes in this very race over the last two years. I went instead with Varsity. He was the clear speed-of-the-speed, and had the rail. Joe Bravo was interviewed on camera and stated the obvious....."What strategy - he has one way to run, right to the front and run fast!" And that is exactly what he did. He set sizzling fractions and when the field started to come to him at the top of the lane he accelerated away for a convincing win. WHOOO HOOOO!
I came right back to score in the very next race at Gulfstream, and it was my other co-"best" with a triple investment. #7-Crown Polis had been entered in a race Thursday where there were two Gulfstream Park 40% Club choices to pick from, and I'd said at the time that I thought he had "issues" with winning - in relation to the rest of the field. But he scratched out of that spot to run today. I thought he towered over this field. I tripled the investment! He, like Varsity, went right to the front and drew off with authority! Another big time winner and now I am in the black for the day!
I scored my third in a row in the very next race, the fifth at Gulfstream. My comment on him proved also to be prophetic, ".....ran away from his rivals in his career debut on New Year's Day, that he might be something special....." They were going a mile today and he was dueling on the lead as they hit the far turn. Announcer Larry Colmus called out the half mile split in :45 and change. I told my Mom as she watched the race with me on HRTV that those splits were too fast unless he was something really special. Indeed he was as he drew off to win by 163/4 widening lengths! I commented "WOW, that was ultra impressive!" HRTV analyst Jeff Siegel was beside himself and said that no matter what the three-year-olds did today at Gulfstream, THIS was a Derby horse to reckon with. The headlines on all the online sources I follow said the same. I was really, REALLY impressed. He may be "the chosen one" if the Florida Derby is on his radar!
The next race on my schedule was the second of three off-track selections. I had told the story of the highly talented Bind in an earlier journal. Debuted as a sensational 3-year-old, had issues, but had come back a month ago to romp in a Fair Grounds nw1x sprint. He took the next step today in a nw2x sprint. Though the margin was not dominant, it was interesting that the horse that dogged him to the wire was last year's 99-1 winner of the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, obviously a horse of some quality. The two selections I had at the Fair Grounds, this one and one later, were both co-"best" as well at triple the money on the table. Bind was my fourth winner on the day :)
My continued good fortune with Mr. Todd Pletcher, a charter member (if not the founder!) of the Gulfstream Park Handicapper 40% Club, in the 8th. Dougherty represented a rare instance in the "Pletcher files." He did NOT win his 3-year-old debut here when unveiled earlier in the meet! But he looked much the best to me. In fact the statistics from the GP Handicapper book point out Pletcher is even stronger with his second time starters at the meet than with his debut runners. He pressed the pace and as they spun out of the turn I thought to myself, "if he's as good as I think, he'll open up here." And he did. ROMPED home for my FIFTH winner on the day!
Most unusual, I lost with a Todd Pletcher runner when Forty Tales was a late-running 2nd in the Grade 2 Hutcheson, and then lost with another Pletcher sophomore in a maiden special. Oistin's Town set the pace to deep stretch at 4/1 - oh that would have been nice! My last selection on the day was not on my original schedule. But as I watched HRTV they were talking about the long-awaited return to the races of last year's Fair Grounds Oaks and Kentucky Oaks winner, Believe You Can. We had been on track that Friday in Louisville when she'd won for jockey Rosie Napravnik and trainer Larry Jones........
And I thought she was a logical winner. But when I read the online analysis of Katie Mikolay that she'd had several sensational workouts, I knew it would be easy pickin' today. She was a miserly 1-5, but she rolled home in dominant fashion! I had joked with my Mom after yesterday's sensational handicapping results that I had had my best two days of handicapping at Gulfstream since she had arrived Thursday. And I said if I had another good day today (Saturday) that she would be required to move to Ft. Lauderdale as my permanent "good luck charm." I guess I'll call the moving van! Since my Mom arrived:
Thursday: 6 selections - 3 wins (50%) - PROFIT
Friday: 6 selections - 4 wins (67%) - PROFIT
Saturday: 10 selections - 6 wins (60%) - PROFIT
TOTAL: 22 selections - 13 wins (59%) - PROFIT
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