What's the dumbest mistake you ever made?

[shouldacoulda]

There are so many to choose from so I will relive my latest blunder. I figure we have more of these stories than winning streaks.

This past Sunday I figured I would take my time in the morning and go have breakfast at the diner, do some errand running and devote the rest of the day to playing with all the busy stuff out of the way. By the time I got in front of the computer I was mulling over the P4 for the contest. I was rushing to get the selections posted when I heard the announcer say "1 minute". Oh crap! I better hurry. And hurry I did. I did it so fast I put the 7 in as a selection in the second leg and there was no 7 in the race. I have no idea what the hell I was looking at. It gets even better. I started to play and kept missing so I play a pick 3 at Oaklawn I think. The winner of the first leg pays $17.40 Great! The next leg the winner pays $7.40 Great! The next and final leg I single and get beat by a very strong odds on favorite that I completely overlooked. :bang: Did I play any of my selections to win? OF COURSE NOT :bang: :bang: :bang: . But wait, it gets better. I have a spot play pop up in Gulfstream 7th race. I see it's 12-1 on the morning line. I keep looking at the 12-1. I see the odds are way up. ON THE 12! Which of course I bet to place and show. It ran a dismal race. I was like, how the hell was it so bad? It was so bad because the horse was the 4 Toe Tappin Teddy which won and paid $25.40. The 12 I believe is still running to the far turn. :lol: At that point I shut the computer off and called it a miserable, STUPID, rotten day. I had my head in an anatomically improbable place all day.

[Greyfox]

"What's the dumbest mistake I ever made?"

Bill Gates phoned me as a kid and said "If you loan me that silicon transistor that you are throwing away, I'll let you in on an idea I have."

I replied: "No. It's the best thing I've found for plugging a hole in my toque."
(transistor radio or whatever will do.)
:rolleyes:

Well I helped this thread start...sort of.

P.S.
The truth be known, I have made many dumb mistakes in my life.
It would be hard to judge the "dumbest" or even confess to them.
But dumb they were.

Having said that my late Dad once said that the "dumbest" thing in his life was when his brother Angus would not loan him the money in the 1920-30 era to buy a franchise for jukeboxes in our area. Had that happened:
1. my Dad would have made $ millions
2. I would have never been born- Dad became a soldier and I was born in the resulting relationship in England

We all make mistakes. That's why pencils have erasers, especially when I golf.

Every non-fatal mistake is a learning experience. Something comes from it.

[Dave Schwartz]

Well, I divorced her in 1996.

[PhantomOnTour]

I presume this is the worst horse gambling mistake you ever made.

Mine was loving War Emblem all spring at FG and in Illinois and ignoring him in the Derby...but i bet the crap outta Proud Citizen though, who ran 2nd all the way around.
I was a big fan of the Russ Reineman/Bobby Springer combo in Illinois and in the winter at FG. Reineman sold War Emblem to the TBred Corp. after the Ill Dby, thinking he wasn't KyDby material, and even publicly said so.
Oops on both our parts...oddly enough, both Reineman and Ahmed Salman (chief of the TBred Corp) both passed away not long after the Triple Crown.

EDIT: actually, Reineman passed away 2yrs later in 2004, and Salman died about 2 months after the Belmont.

[shouldacoulda]

Yes, I meant playing the horses. Sorry for not clarifying.

Well, I divorced her in 1996.

I could write a book about that Dave. I would call it "One Flew into the Cuckoos Nest".

[Tic-Tac]

Making my first bet on horses

[dnlgfnk]

Running bets for my father who would have had a nice winner...he told me the name of the horse to bet rather than the number...I misplaced my program and so counted down the field to the name, and what I thought was the horse's number, using the Racing Form...you can guess from here...there was an entry, so that the program numbers didn't match the Form.
Dad= :bang:
Me= :blush:

[CincyHorseplayer]

Being conservative in this years Breeders Cup because I got banged up last year.I promtly went 11-4-3-1 at an average mutuel of 9-1,had 7 cashes and 3 of the 7 exactas were my 1-2 combinations,2 of 3 over $100.I had a 165% ROI but it could have tripled that if I had played "Normal".Aaarrrggghhh!

[Dave Schwartz]

I could write a book about that Dave. I would call it "One Flew into the Cuckoos Nest".

Priceless.

:lol:

Okay, truth be told, she really wasn't THAT big a mistake.

But I still get a lot of mileage from my favorite ex-wife joke (which is also not really true). That would be the one-liner where I say that if you gave my ex-wife an ice cube she could hold it for about a week.

[CincyHorseplayer]

Priceless.

:lol:

Okay, truth be told, she really wasn't THAT big a mistake.

But I still get a lot of mileage from my favorite ex-wife joke (which is also not really true). That would be the one-liner where I say that if you gave my ex-wife an ice cube she could hold it for about a week.

Both those are pretty funny,I gotta go with Rodney Dangerfield though,"I'm an earth sign and my wife is a water sign,together we make mud"!!:)

[PhantomOnTour]

Being conservative in this years Breeders Cup because I got banged up last year.I promtly went 11-4-3-1 at an average mutuel of 9-1,had 7 cashes and 3 of the 7 exactas were my 1-2 combinations,2 of 3 over $100.I had a 165% ROI but it could have tripled that if I had played "Normal".Aaarrrggghhh!
That's the dumbest thing you've done?
:eek:

[Elliott Sidewater]

Part wheeled a trifecta. 1 horse for win, 1 for place, and all but one for show. The elimination had the outside post in a one mile race at the "new" old Garden State, very short run to first turn. He breaks slow and jock takes him to rail, he gets 3rd by a neck, 8 lengths behind the top two, after never leaving the rail the entire race at 35 or 40 to 1. Trifecta pays around $1800, I go home muttering under my breath.

At least it never happened again....................

[CincyHorseplayer]

That's the dumbest thing you've done?
:eek:

I think in the long run I've been more hurt by conservatism than aggression.

[Robert Goren]

Taking a job that left me no time for horse racing. As far as betting, I put $40 to show on an entry once when at the time the biggest bet I had ever made before was a $6 combo. I sat through a photo and survived an objection to net $4.00.

[rrpic6]

I'm sure I've posted this story before, but it comes to mind quite often, especially when someone asks the question "what's your biggest mistake" or something similar.

Its May 4th 2002, Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs. There is a huge Pick 6 carryover, about 150K, a lot for CD and its $1 wager back then. I prepare a $600 ticket the night before. I throw out the favorite in leg one and only like War Emblem and Medaglio D'Oro in the last leg, the Derby. There are two DQ's in that sequence that go my way. No one hits the Pick 6 that day and the carry over is $346K. Alas, I don't play the ticket, deciding to play the Pick 4 and wheeling War Emblem in the Tri. $13K is a nice payday but $346K is a nice retirement home.

http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbPDFChartPlusIndex.cfm?tid=CD%20&dt=5/4/2002&ctry=USA

RR

[wisconsin]

2 instances come to mind.

1989 Las Vegas
1st time starter out of Air Forbes Won. Called out the wrong letter (that's how Stardust did it), horse paid $24. $50 out the window.

1996 Richmond, IL OTB
3 straight races Detroit-Delaware-River Downs
3 straight winners all vertical wagers with one horse on top, not one win bet, horses all paid something like 5/2, 5-1, and 9/2. Lost over $300 those 3 races.

:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:

[ldiatone]

well i have 2. down at MNR i go to the teller and call my #'s and race #. alas, i called the wrong race #.....and a i miss a big win bet plus a ex. box. the race that the selections where for......nada :bang:
my wife and i are at Penn National for one of the "world seris of handicapping" tourny. one of the rounds in aug. i go sit in the players area, wife was sitting in one of the boxs. race 1 turf #1 horse wins and pays $33+. i go down to visit bewteen races and she shows me what HER selections where. #1 right there.
race 2 goes off and again i don't have the winner. go down to visit wife and once again she shows me her pics and the horse that won is there! i said "why didn't you go up and at least bet the double...?"........answer..."the tellers scare
me" :bang: :eek: :faint: double pd $330.00

[Robert Goren]

Taking a job that left me no time for horse racing. As far as betting, I put $40 to show on an entry once when at the time the biggest bet I had ever made before was a $6 combo. I sat through a photo and survived an objection to net $4.00. I didn't bet the Rainbow 6 today, so the above example still stands.

[wisconsin]

I didn't bet the Rainbow 6 today, so the above example still stands.


in my early years, I was playing not to lose, so betting 7-5 shots to show in a 5 horse field was SOP for me.

[castaway01]

I've done the old "Pick 3 where I had 10 of 12 horses in the last leg" but one of the ones I left out won. So, I saved $8 but missed out on 2K. That was long enough ago that I've mostly blocked the details out of my mind. Very stupid though.

[plainolebill]

I refused to believe Smarty Jones could win the Derby, one of my super combos was Lion Heart over Smarty Jones over Imperialism and Limehouse, it paid 41k.

A little humility would have gone a long ways.

[appistappis]

there isn't enough space here for a proper answer...but the wife jokes above were great.

one time i didn't speak to my wife for three days, I didn't want to interupt her.

[Capper Al]

Being conservative in this years Breeders Cup because I got banged up last year.I promtly went 11-4-3-1 at an average mutuel of 9-1,had 7 cashes and 3 of the 7 exactas were my 1-2 combinations,2 of 3 over $100.I had a 165% ROI but it could have tripled that if I had played "Normal".Aaarrrggghhh!

Go easy on yourself here. International racing is a whole other game. Little guys, like us, have to walk softly as if we are on thin ice when it comes to the Breeders' Cup.

[Capper Al]

My mistakes aren't as glamorous. Usually I might mess up my ticket and play the wrong numbers. But once I was playing on XpressBet and scanning for odds, when all my horses were going off at incredibly high odds. I couldn't believe my eyes and bet them all only to find out that for some reason the screen was on the wrong race. Of course, I lost.

[FiveWide]

Made a bet one time in a self service machine at the track and walked away forgetting my balance voucher. Yep, when I realized it and went back it, of course, was long gone. I think the amount was around 100 or so....

Well I've learned my lesson since and double and triple check before i leave now!

-Five

[dkithore]

Both those are pretty funny,I gotta go with Rodney Dangerfield though,"I'm an earth sign and my wife is a water sign,together we make mud"!!:)

I love that!

[dkithore]

My mistakes aren't as glamorous. Usually I might mess up my ticket and play the wrong numbers. But once I was playing on XpressBet and scanning for odds, when all my horses were going off at incredibly high odds. I couldn't believe my eyes and bet them all only to find out that for some reason the screen was on the wrong race. Of course, I lost.
I bet you, converse does happen too. Luck is really dumb.

[HUSKER55]

i would like to think i haven't made it yet :rolleyes: :p :D

[castaway01]

Made a bet one time in a self service machine at the track and walked away forgetting my balance voucher. Yep, when I realized it and went back it, of course, was long gone. I think the amount was around 100 or so....

Well I've learned my lesson since and double and triple check before i leave now!

-Five

I saw that when I came up to the machine and I meant to give that back to you, but I, um, couldn't find you. Yeah, that's it. ;)

[RainMan]

This one actually belongs to an old racetrack buddy. Back in the early 90's my best friend and I were playing small to midsize Super 6 (Pick 6) tickets at Louisiana Downs almost every race day. One day my friend bet a $32 ticket (1x4x2x1x2x1). He was out of cash so he restructured the ticket to a (1x3x2x1x2x1) for $24 exchanged the ticket and bought a hot dog and a beer with the difference because he was hungry. Of course the horse he dropped from the second leg wins leaving him with a 5 out of 6 consolation and what would have been the only winning ticket. It was forever known as the $22,000 hot dog!

[mountainman]

Forgetting how tough the game is to beat and getting reckless when a partner and I had amassed an incredible win-streak several years ago. We got cocky, set our sights on 7 figures (from just 500 in seed money), and blew a chance at financial security. God, I knew better.

[Robert Fischer]

Forgetting how tough the game is to beat and getting reckless when a partner and I had amassed an incredible win-streak several years ago. We got cocky, set our sights on 7 figures (from just 500 in seed money), and blew a chance at financial security. God, I knew better.
:ThmbUp:

I've made some dumb plays in the midst of winning streaks this year.

I had big(for me) bets on the 3/5 shot that Dominguez went down on, and Mucho Macho Man's last place finish in the Sunshine Millions.

Sure I've made some bonehead errors, and near misses, but any time I over-bet my bankroll it's pretty dumb.

[raybo]

Probably the dumbest mistake I have ever made, in horse racing, was not betting the superfecta ticket, I already had constructed, when the Derby super paid $287,000 (don't remember which year but the winner was 50/1, Big Brown, Mine That Bird? Don't remember off hand, just 1 of many coulda-shouldas over the years, but the one that cost me the most money for sure).

[pondman]

I was drinking heavy, living on the hill above mountaineer. A Bererra horse came to town and was the heavy favorite. I had jockeys (I lived with them) lay out how they were going to shut the horse down. They wanted me to play a twin tri with a 4 month of carry over. Nope. Didn't bet it. And they did it.

I had a number of these in that hole. A broken down trainer had nothing left but his pony horse. Told me it was going to be a set up. Nope. Didn't bet it. It won.

But it wasn't all bad. Capitalized on plenty of larceny at that hell hole. Had a number of jockeys who would make their signal move in the warm up. Insiders would know.

None of this matters when you are a drunk. You live to drink, and that's about it.

[JustRalph]

I was drinking heavy, living on the hill above mountaineer. A Bererra horse came to town and was the heavy favorite. I had jockeys (I lived with them) lay out how they were going to shut the horse down. They wanted me to play a twin tri with a 4 month of carry over. Nope. Didn't bet it. And they did it.

I had a number of these in that hole. A broken down trainer had nothing left but his pony horse. Told me it was going to be a set up. Nope. Didn't bet it. It won.

But it wasn't all bad. Capitalized on plenty of larceny at that hell hole. Had a number of jockeys who would make their signal move in the warm up. Insiders would know.

None of this matters when you are a drunk. You live to drink, and that's about it.

Wow!

[HUSKER55]

and again,... WOW!

[rrpic6]

Do you mean races were fixed at Mountaineer? I'll be Roy Cave's Uncle.

RR

[raybo]

Do you mean races were fixed at Mountaineer? I'll be Roy Cave's Uncle.

RR

Sure it wasn't Delta? :lol:

[beaupurple]

Lost a fleet of cabs when Prairie Bayou broke down in '93 Belmont. I have 1
four-letter word that I stammer to this day -- "TAXI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!."
-sigh-

[nijinski]

I presume this is the worst horse gambling mistake you ever made.

Mine was loving War Emblem all spring at FG and in Illinois and ignoring him in the Derby...but i bet the crap outta Proud Citizen though, who ran 2nd all the way around.
I was a big fan of the Russ Reineman/Bobby Springer combo in Illinois and in the winter at FG. Reineman sold War Emblem to the TBred Corp. after the Ill Dby, thinking he wasn't KyDby material, and even publicly said so.
Oops on both our parts...oddly enough, both Reineman and Ahmed Salman (chief of the TBred Corp) both passed away not long after the Triple Crown.

EDIT: actually, Reineman passed away 2yrs later in 2004, and Salman died about 2 months after the Belmont.

Shows you what a skilled horseman Baffert is , keeping War Emblem together with those chips , through a triple crown campaign .

[MightBeSosa]

Wasting time making NYRA my main focus this winter.

[Hoofless_Wonder]

This one actually belongs to an old racetrack buddy. Back in the early 90's my best friend and I were playing small to midsize Super 6 (Pick 6) tickets at Louisiana Downs almost every race day. One day my friend bet a $32 ticket (1x4x2x1x2x1). He was out of cash so he restructured the ticket to a (1x3x2x1x2x1) for $24 exchanged the ticket and bought a hot dog and a beer with the difference because he was hungry. Of course the horse he dropped from the second leg wins leaving him with a 5 out of 6 consolation and what would have been the only winning ticket. It was forever known as the $22,000 hot dog!

Wow. Reminds me of a buddy of mine from Alabama who arrived at the Birmingham Race Course in late afternoon one Saturday to play the pick 6 from SA in the mid 90s. He stopped and argued for several minutes with the parking attendant who informed him he was the first patron to have to pay $1 to park for that evening's dog racing card. He ended up just getting shut out of the 4th Race start to the Pick 6, which he would have hit for $2200.

We taunted him from then on about being the only person on the planet to pay $2200 to park his car, or at least in the state of Alabama.

One of my bigger mistakes was in the 2000 Breeder's Cup Mile. My buddy and I had put together an "investment pool" and had $2400 of funds from co-workers, with no one person buying in for more than $100. With roughly $200 left over from our published wagers we emailed out in the morning, we put a saver tri bet on the Mile with War Emblem looking awesome in the post parade. We play War Emblem, with ALL for second, with two of our four key horses in the 3rd spot. We briefly discussed playing all four of the key horses for third, but ended up wanting to save $26 for other bets.

Result - War Emblem ($9.00) wins with a major move in the stretch, bomb North East Bound hangs on for second ($29.60 to place), and Dansili ($13.80 to show) gets third - he was one of our two two key horses we tossed. We did play Muhtathir for third who was prominent at the top of the lane, and faded to 5th.

The $1 tri paid just over $7,000. We got shut out for the entire day, and have not put together an investment pool since... :blush:

[CincyHorseplayer]

Forgetting how tough the game is to beat and getting reckless when a partner and I had amassed an incredible win-streak several years ago. We got cocky, set our sights on 7 figures (from just 500 in seed money), and blew a chance at financial security. God, I knew better.

Dude!Holy $hit(yes I grew up in the 80's!).Five hundred dollars into nearly seven figures?How does that get blown?That's an awesomely bad story.You've ascended the heights though.Somewhere squarely in the middle I'm sure.Great story!Jesus!I've never been in that neighborhood but have had winning streaks that have allowed me to make more money than working would have for extended periods.It definitely spoils your ass!Again,wow.Love that story and I know you are for real Mountainman.

[MightBeSosa]

I've heard stories like that for years. Easier to happen than you think. The same 'lousy' money management that allows someone to run up a huge profit, comes back to bite them. They must see this in Vegas on a daily basis.

The trick is , to bet recklessly and too large only when you are going to win, and fold your tent properly the other times.

lol.

[SharpCat]

Wow. Reminds me of a buddy of mine from Alabama who arrived at the Birmingham Race Course in late afternoon one Saturday to play the pick 6 from SA in the mid 90s. He stopped and argued for several minutes with the parking attendant who informed him he was the first patron to have to pay $1 to park for that evening's dog racing card. He ended up just getting shut out of the 4th Race start to the Pick 6, which he would have hit for $2200.

We taunted him from then on about being the only person on the planet to pay $2200 to park his car, or at least in the state of Alabama.

One of my bigger mistakes was in the 2000 Breeder's Cup Mile. My buddy and I had put together an "investment pool" and had $2400 of funds from co-workers, with no one person buying in for more than $100. With roughly $200 left over from our published wagers we emailed out in the morning, we put a saver tri bet on the Mile with War Emblem looking awesome in the post parade. We play War Emblem, with ALL for second, with two of our four key horses in the 3rd spot. We briefly discussed playing all four of the key horses for third, but ended up wanting to save $26 for other bets.

Result - War Emblem ($9.00) wins with a major move in the stretch, bomb North East Bound hangs on for second ($29.60 to place), and Dansili ($13.80 to show) gets third - he was one of our two two key horses we tossed. We did play Muhtathir for third who was prominent at the top of the lane, and faded to 5th.

The $1 tri paid just over $7,000. We got shut out for the entire day, and have not put together an investment pool since... :blush:


War Emblem what a monster wins the Breeders Cup Mile as a 1yo then wins the Kentucky Derby as a 3yo.

[Stillriledup]

I've done the old "Pick 3 where I had 10 of 12 horses in the last leg" but one of the ones I left out won. So, I saved $8 but missed out on 2K. That was long enough ago that I've mostly blocked the details out of my mind. Very stupid though.

I cant tell you how many times i got beat with the 'almost all' situation. I think the biggest mistake i make is when there's an absolute no hoper, i seem to gravitate towards adding 1 more horse, i dont know, there's something psychological about tossing 2 horses instead of 1. I think if i toss 2 out and i get beat, i can justify it by saying that i was 'having an opinion' but if i toss 1 horse and get beat, it seems more stupid because its a lot cheaper to toss 2 horses than 1.

Im trying everyday to be extremely careful at going ALMOST ALL and 'trusting' the '9 pack' in the 10 horse field to get me home.

[iceknight]

War Emblem what a monster wins the Breeders Cup Mile as a 1yo then wins the Kentucky Derby as a 3yo. Haha nice one. But I am sure the orig poster got War Chant mixed up with War Emblem.

[johnhannibalsmith]

I cant tell you how many times i got beat with the 'almost all' situation. ...

I didn't want to hunt for the post that you quoted in your reply - but how's this for a variation on the theme...

I played a pick 6, oh, almost ten years ago I guess in So. Cal. because I loved a second time starter that was switching to turf and stretching out - or something similar to that. It was one of those cases where it was 8-1 on the M/L but I was just sure that he'd go off at 9-5 or something.

I can't remember what the menu for multi-race wagers was at the time, but it wasn't quite what it is now and there was a P6 carryover and I really thought I could put together an affordable ticket. I had my key as a single and there were about three other races where I felt it was no more than a one or two horse race. Another that was just a glorified workout for a cinch of a single. Then of course, a bunch of horrendous bottom maidens to finish the sequence.

I made it through the first five - my key just paraded and did get hammered as I suspected - so I'm jazzed because the disaster of maidens in the finale was the race I went eight or nine deep in a twelve horse gate. The few that I pitched were bums that couldn't hit the board at Pomona at age five after 20 starts, firsters with bad works from Los Al, etc - you know - ones that just were too bad to believe even in this field.

So I'm basically thinking I'm home and cooled out. The will-pays were lovely. I've got about 80% of the field and 100% of those in the field that look like they have ANY chance of EVER winning a race.

Well, needless to say, some trainer went from 1% on the year to 2% on the year with about the least likely of the least likely, no shot it was on my ticket, in a blanket multi-horse photo with nothing but those that I DID have on my ticket.

I was so pissed off. I mean, tearing up the form into tiny pieces, throwing it across the paddock room. I cussed, ranted, and just generally carried on like a maniac and my blood pressure allowed me to literally float out the door and back to the barn to stew some more while I was mixing feed.

A friend cruises by the barn an hour or so later and knew I had been live after leg four and asks if I'm rich.

I launch back into another tirade about having all those horses in the last leg - eight or nine of them or whatever and getting shafted at the wire - and damn my bad luck.

"Hey, well look at the bright side - didn't five of six pay close to a grand? I'd take that eight times!"

My jaw just dropped. I got so pissed off and destroyed everything in sight because the only thing I could think about was having that seemingly certain pick six ripped from my hands by a half a head that my brain just shut down and I totally forgot about the consolations.

Needless to say, the ticket was in as many pieces and probably as many places as the form was, the track was locked up for the night, and it was a loooong time before I played a pick six again.

[Stillriledup]

JHS, that's an incredible story, a situation that you will never forget.

The Racing gods were cruel to you there no doubt. Anyone who's been at this a long time has had a situation where they were alive to a bunch of horses for a nice chunk of change in some horizontal bet and got beat by some ridiculous no hoper and then to add salt to injury, it usually ends up being the case that the no hoper who wins goes right back to being a no hoper in the subsequent starts and you have to see that horse in the PPs for the rest of its career with the ONE good performance it had to beat you.

I remember being at Santa Anita many years ago and it was a day of a HUGE carryover in the pick 6, it might have been almost a million dollar carryover, they bet like 5 or 6 mil into the pool...heading into the last race, a day of bombs, there were some amazingly high outcomes including a horse who was paying 4.5 million, the 1 horse who was 30-1 (could have been a David Bernstein horse?)

Anyway, that 30-1 shot circled the field and was pouring it on going to win by open lengths and broke down with 70 yards left in the race. That guy, whoever was alive to that one ticket for 4.5 mil took the worst beat i've ever seen, an unfathomable beat. Whenever i think i take a bad beat, i think of that guy, rooting and hollering for his 4.5 mil, drawing away in the stretch and all he needs is for the jock to not fall off or the horse to not sustain an injury and he couldnt get it.

[thaskalos]

I remember being at Santa Anita many years ago and it was a day of a HUGE carryover in the pick 6, it might have been almost a million dollar carryover, they bet like 5 or 6 mil into the pool...heading into the last race, a day of bombs, there were some amazingly high outcomes including a horse who was paying 4.5 million, the 1 horse who was 30-1 (could have been a David Bernstein horse?)

Anyway, that 30-1 shot circled the field and was pouring it on going to win by open lengths and broke down with 70 yards left in the race. That guy, whoever was alive to that one ticket for 4.5 mil took the worst beat i've ever seen, an unfathomable beat. Whenever i think i take a bad beat, i think of that guy, rooting and hollering for his 4.5 mil, drawing away in the stretch and all he needs is for the jock to not fall off or the horse to not sustain an injury and he couldnt get it.

Wow...

I'll never complain about a bad beat ever again...

At least I'll TRY not to...:)

[mountainman]

Dude!Holy $hit(yes I grew up in the 80's!).Five hundred dollars into nearly seven figures?How does that get blown?That's an awesomely bad story.You've ascended the heights though.Somewhere squarely in the middle I'm sure.Great story!Jesus!I've never been in that neighborhood but have had winning streaks that have allowed me to make more money than working would have for extended periods.It definitely spoils your ass!Again,wow.Love that story and I know you are for real Mountainman.

We reached abt 480 k and set our sights on 7 figures. By the time we were done blowing, pointing fingers and paying taxes, our profits were far from "life changing." My partner was a filly, and let's just say it was a stormy relationship. We were both to blame and handled success badly. But nothing ends well , or it wouldn't end at all. Ces't la vie.

[Stillriledup]

We reached abt 480 k and set our sights on 7 figures. By the time we were done blowing, pointing fingers and paying taxes, our profits were far from "life changing." My partner was a filly, and let's just say it was a stormy relationship. We were both to blame and handled success badly. But nothing ends well , or it wouldn't end at all. Ces't la vie.

Write a book about it, i'd order a copy!

[CincyHorseplayer]

We reached abt 480 k and set our sights on 7 figures. By the time we were done blowing, pointing fingers and paying taxes, our profits were far from "life changing." My partner was a filly, and let's just say it was a stormy relationship. We were both to blame and handled success badly. But nothing ends well , or it wouldn't end at all. Ces't la vie.

Wow.Mountainman,still an awesome story.I personally cannot wrap my mind around it.You are part rockstar,part crazy man!I've lived an insane life myself so I can relate!I completely appreciate your tale man.Thanks for the honesty.

[magwell]

I've had so many tough beats, trying to figure out the worst just gave me an urge to start drinking ......;)

[Topcat]

I don't know if this is the dumbest thing I’ve done but it is memorable. I had made acquaintance with a handicapper that used to appear in the old Phillips Racing Newsletter by the name of Steve Martin. His claim to fame was triple crown betting and especially the Kentucky Derby. He had a nice win streak going for a number of years. Quite a character.

He would call me with some picks and we would discuss and I would often bet a fair amount of money-more on the longer odds horses-as this was turning a nice profit. Well the day of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson he calls me and says that he is upset. He says that he knows OJ, just had lunch with him a couple of weeks ago and he couldn’t have committed the murder because he told him that he and Nicole were going to get back together. Went on to say he can’t believe they were going to think of accusing his buddy OJ, he loved Nicole, talked about her all the time. (I remembered this even more when during the trial OJ’s dream team said that OJ had moved on from the ex wife relationship and had no interest in Nicole).
Then Steve shifts gears and said he was too busy to handicap much except for one stand out horse that should be the favorite, he gives me the horse and I say it’s 50 to 1 in the morning line. He says it should be no more than 4 to 1. Probably will go off at 10 to 1. Normally I would have put at least $40 to win on this horse and tied him up in the exotics but after hanging up I thought geez Steve is either BS me or has lost it, and I didn’t handicap the race and passed on the horse. I decide to pass on going to the races all together because I was on the phone with Steve so long that I was going to miss the first post. I got home hours later to a message from Steve saying well, “ he was wrong on the horse going off at 10 to 1,” it went off at over 50 to 1 and paid $112.80 to win.