What's your biggest mistake.... that hit!!??

[Canadian]

Strangest thing happened yesturday. I was down at the simulcast betting some B-harness tracks on a tuesday night. I was up about 40... or maybe I just had 40 left to lose and ready to leave. It was race 5 at Northfield Park and I spotted a sweet driver change that I was sure was going to win.... Almost 3-1. So I went to the terminal bet the 40 to win on the 5 and got ready to see if my trotter was going to get away clean. He did...... got away second and I thought I had an easy winner..... then his odds popped up under the number and it read 30-1!!! I couldn't believe it..... I glanced quickly at the program and realized I bet the wrong horse!! I meant the 6 and bet the 5 (Just as I'm typing this I realize it must have been because it was race 5)..... I was disgusted... there was no way the 5 was going to keep up..... He had Charles Smith Jr driving..... I have a rule against betting on anything Charles Smith Jr drives......but he did..... a coulple of horses broke that would have beat him. My 6 finished 3rd......... Again.... I couldn't believe it......over $1200 I made on that mistake. What a night.

So does anyone have any similar tales? And for a laugh check out race 5 at Northfield last night.

[lamboguy]

i was playing poker at the Bally's hotel on the corner of las vegas blvd and flamingo, a guy gives me a tip on a horse running that night at garden state racetrack in new jersey. he said bet the 3 horse in the fifth race. i went to the window and looked up the horse and thought it was 5013. the teller punched out the next race. the horse that the guy gave me happened to win the race and paid something like $8.00. i wound up bettting the wrong race and the wrong horse i bet paid $96 to win.i had $10 across on the horse. it was the bigest winning price i have ever cashed to this day i think! that was about 25 years ago.

[MONEY]

It's funny, that I was thinking about this all day. I can not recall ever making a mistake on a ticket and winning, but I know that I have made many mistakes that cost me money.

Today while at the track I meant to bet on Suffolks 4th race, after I made my Monmouth bets. Somehow I didn't switch tracks and bet Monmouths 4th instead. Of course had I bet the correct track, I would have cashed over $150.00.

money

[Pell Mell]

This didn't happen to me but to one of my best buddies about 15 yrs. ago. He always drank at the track because he only went once in awhile to have a good time. He was pretty well tanked up and bought a $1 tri box at PP, or so he thought. The tri lost and he threw the ticket on the table. His uncle picked up the ticket to check it and found he had bet the Meadowlands instead of PP. The race was just coming up and we sat there and watched the tri win and pay $24,000. for a duece.
Being drunk, he insisted on not leaving without his money. We tried to talk to him but he wasn't hearing it and got a 10 percenter to cash it. Not only pd the guy about $1,200. but lost the 3 grand they withheld.
Because he was drunk he gave away 4 grand but on the other hand if he wasn't drunk he wouldn't have hit it.

[Java Gold@TFT]

Maybe 2 years ago my wife wanted to go to Saratoga. She doesn't know anything about betting and I always tell her to just bet names and birthdays after she asks which horses I think have a good chance. So she gets her $20 voucher for the day. In the first race I tell her I like the 1 and the 6 so she should bet a birthday exacta box. Our grandson was born 6/17 so I told her to go up and ask for a $1 exacta box of 1,6,7. She comes back to the table and has a $2 tri box. Evidently she just told the teller to box 1,6,7 - teller asks tri? - sure - $1 or $2? - 2 - so she comes back having spent $12 of her $20 on the first race. Of course it hits and she doesn't know because she still hasn't learned how to follow a race. Stupid thing comes back about $250. If she had played what I told her she would have been happy with the $35 she would have had from the $1 exacta. Oh well, she hit two more tri's that day and came home over $500 ahead. My stories are generally in the other direction. The last one was last fall when I missed a $1,900 tri at Keeneland because I didn't look closely at the ticket and the teller gave me race 3 instead of race 6. The numbers were right and the amount was right but I didn't check the race number, duh!

[nativenova]

This is not so much a big win ,but a friend of mine we were at Fort Erie ,he went to bet $100 on a horse ,teller prints the ticket,the horse loses .he gets ready to throw out his ticket and the realized the teller printed a $100 voucher in stead.

[samyn on the green]

A few years ago I was out in Vegas on one of these frequent excursions I go on. As much as I like playing horses I am also a card player going back to 1981. When I was 5 years old I played gin rummy just about everyday with Rose Casini and her elderly friends who used to babysit me.


For years I have been making money playing blackjack using my own personal martingale system, while the house had come close, they had not busted me out in years. As my winning streak grew year after year my confidence did not identify the danger of a big bust out while using my Martingale system. This was the day things went haywire for me in blackjack for the first time in a long time.

I had a large bet down after winning a bunch of hands in a row just a few minutes after arriving from the airport. I got dealt a pair of 6's which I split because the dealer had showed a bust card. Then unbelievably I got dealt another 6 and then yet another. So I was split four ways to the dealers bust card. The way things worked out I ended up doubling two of the hands and had a significant portion of my bankroll on the table. Long story short but the horror of defeat rushed over me and the dealer pulls a twenty one from out of nowhere. So now I was down and out. I went on tilt and lost the rest of the bankroll shortly after this bizarre hand just thirty minutes after arriving from New York. Dejected and rejected I moseyed over to the sports book to play my last $5 before I turned this gambling trip into a hike to Red Rock Canyon. With the bankroll brutalized I needed to walk off the pain/kill time. As I last ditch effort I sit down in the sports book to look at the racing form and try to make something out of nothing.

It was a Tuesday and 5 MTP to a race at Colonial downs. On Tuesday the Vegas racing form does not have program numbers only names. Quickly looking at the form the third horse down looked tremendous on paper. Form, class, speed and nice works. I look up and the horse is 75-1! What a great price! I run up there to the tellers and bet my last $5. Then I go back to the seat and notice my huge mistake. There was an entry and the 3 that I thought was 75-1 was actually the 4 horse One Genius who was returning from a 7 month layoff and was first time turf coming off horrible races while stepping up in class.

The horse I thought I was betting at 75-1 was actually the 6-5 chalk. As we move to post time the number 4 horse I am now stuck with clicks up to 99-1. Not only did I lose my ass at blackjack with uncharacteristic liberal play but now I am betting my last $5 like a moron on the wrong horses in the sportsbook.

They break from the gate and I have my head in my hands as I am mumbling some gibberish to myself. The 6-5 chalk takes the lead with the 4 horse One Genius tracking the pace in the pocket. They stay that way around the clubhouse turn and along the backside.

As they turn for home One Genius is still in the race. One Genius switches out and I switch out from the seat to the aisle of the sports book. I drop to my knees and start pounding the floor with both fists as I am yelling as loud as I could for One Genius to get up. This was championship rooting drawn from my days at a dirty OTB in Queens, you know the kind of rooting that offends people. It was a nip and tuck duel for the entire length of the stretch with the chalk and One Genius head bobbing for what seemed like forever.


By the slimmest of margins one Genius scores by a zop in a very dirty photo. The feeling came over me when I knew I won like the feeling you get when you ride the Cyclone in Coney Island for the first time. It was a huge thrill almost like the adrenaline rush you feel when you get away from someone that is trying to kill you if you have ever experienced that. I was out of my mind in the sports book and the whole room was looking at the spectacle I had made of myself. When they post the prices I could not believe it. One Genius paid $236 to win. I have hit much bigger tickets and have done so with thought, handicapping, shrewdness and logic but this mistake hit was the biggest thrill I have ever had in horseplaying.


When someone who watched my hysterics stopped me after I cashed how did I pick this crazy 99-1 horse? I paused for a nanosecond and was going to tell him about the program numbers/mistake. But them off the cuff I told him the horse was bred for grass and I knew he would run on grass and he was worth a shot at that price. Dumb luck is highly underrated.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

I've mentioned this before on another thread, but one time I handicapped a race for the dirt even though it was on the grass. It was the first part of the win 4. I used three horses in that race, and one of them wound up winning through disqualification.

My win four ticket was 3 by 4 by 2 by 2 costing $48 for a buck base. The other three parts came in and I wound up getting the pool which was over $27,000.

I didn't realize the race was on the grass until the horse's starting loading on TV.

I'm not sure what my selections would have been in that first leg since it was a maiden race, and many horses had zero turf experience. I may have had four or five plays in the race, and it might have changed the way I played the race, and I'm not entirely sure I would have used the winner either.

[Onion Monster]

I hit the Barbaro Preakness trifecta (I was hoping he would bounce not break down). I'm strictly a win bettor, but it was the Preakness, so I went a bit nuts. Bernardini and Sweetnorthernsaint were logical and I was hoping Like Now could hang for third. I made a straight trifecta bet. After the injury and the confusion I checked my ticket and saw that I had placed the 3 horse, Hemmingway's Key, third and not Like Now.

A complete goof on my part that netted me my biggest score ever. I'm guessing the error was due to my inexperience with exotics and confusing program numbers: Hemmingway's Key was the :3: horse.

[ezrabrooks]

"This was championship rooting drawn from my days at a dirty OTB in Queens, you know the kind of rooting that offends people..."

Now that is good stuff.. Laughed out loud..

Ez

[garyoz]

Was betting a Pick-3 at Belmont in 1999 during the Spring Meet. I was studying the form really hard. The horse with the #1 post position was at the top of the form but his number was #2. The number #1 was an entry trained by Leo O'Brien--with a morning line of 20/1. In the pick-3 I used the number one, when I meant to bet the saddle cloth #2. One of the Leo O'Brien horses won (it was a turf race of course) and the entry was 55 to 1. Pick 3 returned more than $2 or $3k (had it for a nickel).

There is a flip-side, which is the mispunched ticket. And there is a karma element--I've seriously lost money on mispunched tickets since this score. Humility and diligence.

[castaway01]

Good story Samyn on the Green.

I've been wagering from home the past few years, which has greatly cut down on the screwups (obviously after saying that I'll screw one up today). I only remember the ones that cost me money anyway.

[LottaKash]

I Dejected and rejected I moseyed over to the sports book to play my last $5

I sit down in the sports book to look at the racing form and try to make something out of nothing.

By I was out of my mind in the sports book and the whole room was looking at the spectacle I had made of myself.

Wow, can you imagine if you had more $$$ on that one.....The 911 call would probably have been made for you...Lucky you that day...:jump:

best,

[lamboguy]

the worst thing that ever hapened to me was i was in tampa bay downs, i bet $100 w+p on the horse, the horse paid $4.60 in $3.00 place. i went back to the window where i bought the ticket to collect my winnings. the teller had punched out $10 w+p instead of the hundred. the guy gave me my winnings and and the difference in money that i gave him. i went back where i was sitting, i was with ray stiffano, i told him the story, he said was that the teller in window 12? i said oh yeah! he said that guys been taking shots at people for years doing that.

i waited for the races to get done, i followed the guy out to his car and made him give me the money he tried to screw me out of, he told me he knew i was going to come back at him and he gave me the money.

[Bettowin]

Had a teller two weeks ago that couldn't figure out how to make the ALL button work on the bottom of dime super bets. So after telling me that it couldn't be bet a few times I said ok try this.............

Called out my combos in the first, second and third spots and then instead of ALL said 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Low and behold the bet went through. The race gets run and a 24-1 wins, 28-1 second and something like 14-1 third with a something around 10-1 fourth. I figure I am set for a very nice payoff and am totally surprised when the tote board comes up with an ALL in the 4th spot. I pull the ticket and the teller missed the 2 in 4th which cost me the entire super pool.

I know it was my fault for not looking at the ticket to be sure but I had her punch out 5 or 6 so the amount didn't cause me to look either. The funny thing about it is that I always use the self betting machines but this day they didn't have any of them out because it looked like it might rain. Yes, this was a small bush track where the machines actually sat outside next to the line of tellers.

At least I got about 1/4th of the pool for getting top three:)

[Bruddah]

Back in '95, I was leaving the card room of a Casino in Vicksburg Ms. Truthfully, I had lost my ass that day. I think, I had $20 or $40 left. I thought, I would get a couple more racks of red and go back to the card room and try it again. As I was heading to the cage to get a marker, for some reason I decided to stop at a $10 Blackjack table. To make a long story short, I ran my $40 into $25,500+. I was "golden". I could do no wrong and the dealers couldn't beat me. The House even changed decks on me 3 times during the shift. Anyhow, in a period of about 6 hours, I cleaned their clocks. They sent me a lot of very nice offers and perks to comeback. I didn't make it back there for another 10 years or so. :cool:

[lamboguy]

Back in '95, I was leaving the card room of a Casino in Vicksburg Ms. Truthfully, I had lost my ass that day. I think, I had $20 or $40 left. I thought, I would get a couple more racks of red and go back to the card room and try it again. As I was heading to the cage to get a marker, for some reason I decided to stop at a $10 Blackjack table. To make a long story short, I ran my $40 into $25,500+. I was "golden". I could do no wrong and the dealers couldn't beat me. The House even changed decks on me 3 times during the shift. Anyhow, in a period of about 6 hours, I cleaned their clocks. They sent me a lot of very nice offers and perks to comeback. I didn't make it back there for another 10 years or so. :cool:boy did you just make me feel good! i love it when someone beats those guy's for that type of money with nothing that the house could have won. those boys in the suits in the backroom must have been sick to their stomach's to see you get them.

[magwell]

I wish I had a good story to tell, but every time I make a mistake it cost me money.......

[bisket]

back when internet wagering first started i signed up for you bet. they were the only guy in town. well it was friday evening and i was planning to play on saturday. i thought you know i oughtta make one wager just to make sure i'm doing things right, wouldn't want to srew up a wager you never know it may be the best one of the day. it was somewhere around midnight eastern, and there wasn't any american tracks running, but there was australia racing available. they had some sort of chart that showed past performances. it was a maden race and theres must have 25 horses running. well one had looked like at the end of his last race he was improving position so i figured he'd be as good as any. 2$ on his nose. well i'm looking at the odds and he's like 90-1. i'm thinking well it only cost 2 bucks and now i know how to bet. so the race starts and i'm watching my horse, but its hard cause theres so many. well at the end of the race it looked like he surged, but i wasn't sure. i had a telephone line for my internet service, and if anyone is familiar. you see the horse one minute and then the next second there a 1/4 mile down the track. well dam if he didn't come in and paid 180 some odd dollars. to this day thats my longest shot i ever hit on. its good to be good at what you do, but i'll take luck anytime i can get it. :ThmbUp:

[BombsAway Bob]

In 1996 Karen & I went to Vegas for a week with a bunch of schoolteachers & professional drinkers on February Vacation. Spent the flight out studying DRF, arrived on a Saturday @1AM. Sunday was GREAT, crushed exactas & Tris at Gulfstream (Pre-Frank) & Inner Aqueduct. Even gave a bunch of the gang that flew out with me a +$100 Exacta to start the Day! 4AM Monday, finally found the hotel room.
8AM Monday, decide to cross the street from the Excalibur where we stayed & played the first 27 hours, & visit MGM GRAND.. TYSON on one side of Marquee, Tom Jones on the other.. Aqueduct starts @ 9:30am in Vegas, so it was a Bloody Mary Monday Morning after 4 hours sleep. Like a Longshot in 2nd race.
Bet A $1Tri: (All)(2)(4)=$6. Back then DRF didn't have entry numbers listed back then, it was just in post position order. In my fog, I didn't realize there was an entry in the race, so my #2 wasn't the horse I wanted.. Long story short(too late), Diane Nelson boots home a 25/1shot, the #2 runs second, #4 third.. $1 Tri returns +$1,250... lasted me until the final 5 hours Saturday.. Playing $25 Table of a Brand New Game... "LET it RIDE", without knowing simple strategy & keeping chips up with a pair of 3's... UgLY Beating..I'm thinking.."This game is Simple..I gotta turn it around soon!":bang:

[InControlX]

Ok, here's mine. I was working a job in Princeton NJ in 1975 doing assembly work for a bunch of eggheads at the University. Since they quit early one day I grabbed a form and saw Monmouth was running. I saw an old spot play running in the second race, so I was off to make the track on time. Not knowing the Jersey back roads and having to contend with the circles (I'm a Wisconsin lad) I took several bad turns and knew I was late, but had a broken watch. I arrived, parked and jumped out of the car and sprinted up what seemed like 1000 steps. Arriving at the window I heard the post time announcement but was able to place my $50 on #4 to win. Now relaxed, seated and sipping a beer I glanced at the tote board providing all you needed for RACE #1. The #4 turned out to be a 10:1 shipping in from some three-legged track. It won. I cashed the ticket with a red face and left. My horse in the second ran out.

ICX

[Shemp Howard]

Liberty Bell Park trotters in the late 70's. Was going to bet $100 to win on a trotter #5 driven by Harold Dancer Sr. so long as he was even money. He kept bouncing 4-5, then even, 4-5, then even. Right before there set to go off he jumps to 1-1 and so holler $100 win on #1 and then realize my error but "There they go"

Some plow horse from the Ohio fairs driven by an Amish with a beard as long as my arm and 25-1. Goes right to the front and increases his advantage from there with Amos driving like a madman. $2,500 score.

[Steven Kolb]

This is straight from my book near the end of Chapter 2. Exactly as it happened.
_________

I firmly believed that horse racing was much more exciting than most other forms of gambling. It’s certainly better than buying a $10 or $20 lottery ticket.
When playing the lottery you know that the odds are many millions to one against your winning a big jackpot. With horse racing the payouts may be a little smaller, but cashing in a winner is a much more realistic possibility. Plus you can do it more than just once or twice a week.
I spent the rest of that Friday afternoon taking care of errands. It was early evening before I headed home. I was eager to get back to the computer and view the day’s racing results. Whether I was a winner or loser mattered a lot, but it was the anticipation of finding out the results that kept me eager and a little on edge.
I have to admit that I was now hooked on thoroughbred racing. Not just the races, but the entire industry. It was in my blood now, and it was going to be a part of my daily experience and way of thinking. Dad’s system taught me about the horse racing business and handicapping, but it took a fluky winning streak to make me fall in love with the sport.
After I returned home I immediately went online to Equibase to view the race results for Santa Anita. I scrolled slowly trying to get my money’s worth of enjoyment and excitement. In the first race I wasn’t even close on two $12 Trifectas. The second race was close, but my Trifecta had the second- and third-place finishers in the wrong order: down another $26.
The third race was the initial race for the Pick 6. I had not picked the #3 horse Flaming West, which was the Morning Line Favorite at odds of 8-5; instead I had selected the #6 horse Kern Ridge at 5-2 odds. A horse named Venus Genus at 4-1 odds ended up winning the race, paying $10.80 on a $2 Win wager.
Disappointed, I realized that I wasn’t going to be a winner of the Pick 6 or another Trifecta. I proceeded to go through the results of the remaining races. For the Pick 6, in the fourth race I had two picks: the favorite and an 8-1 choice. The 8-1 selection won. For the fifth race I had selected five horses, one of them also at Morning Line Odds of 8-1. That horse turned out to be the winner. In the sixth race I had the top two horses covered: Artax at 4-5 and Futuristic at 2-1. Futuristic hit the wire first.
Each race I checked my Trifecta and Superfecta tickets. None of them were winners. However, I was feeling some excitement begin to build as now the possibility of having a winning five of six Pick 6 ticket looked good. It would be nice to end the day by making a small profit from the Pick 6 consolation pool.
For the seventh race I had singled the best horse of the day, Ladies Din. He won easily. Finally, for the eighth race, I had four picks and my 5-1 choice came in first. I checked the payouts. Five out of six was good. Very good! It would pay me $1,294. It had ended up being a good day after all! Only one person had selected all six of six winners, earning a payday of well over $100,000.
To double-check, I took the Pick 6 ticket out of my wallet and reviewed the winning numbers showing on the screen. In order they were: 6, 1, 6, 3, 4, and 8.
I looked again at the monitor, then back at my ticket. Was there a mistake? My notes showed that the #6 horse in the third race was Kern Ridge and yet the results chart showed that Kern Ridge came in third place. Then I felt my blood begin to rush. Kern Ridge was listed as #5 on the monitor and Venus Genus was listed as #6. Confused, excited, and with my heart pounding rapidly, I found the program page. Sure enough, it listed Venus Genus as #6! How could this have happened?
With a few more clicks I investigated a little further. I found the Santa Anita Entries for the day on the Equibase Web page. This was the page from which I had made my selections. It showed Kern Ridge at post position #6 and Venus Genus at post position #7. Evidently two other horses in the race were a coupled entry: #1 and #1A.
By using the Entries page on the Equibase Web site as the source for my selections instead of finding the page with the true program numbers, I had just become the Pick 6 winner of $118,401. I double-checked the results on the Equibase Web site and quickly confirmed that #6 Venus Genus had indeed won the race! I was the only player to select all six winners that day. This horse racing “mastermind” had won the Pick 6 and was going to collect a cool $118,401!________
________
If you'd like to read another excerpt or three, stop by my website.
sk

[Canadian]

This is straight from my book near the end of Chapter 2. Exactly as it happened.
_________

I firmly believed that horse racing was much more exciting than most other forms of gambling. It’s certainly better than buying a $10 or $20 lottery ticket.
When playing the lottery you know that the odds are many millions to one against your winning a big jackpot. With horse racing the payouts may be a little smaller, but cashing in a winner is a much more realistic possibility. Plus you can do it more than just once or twice a week.
I spent the rest of that Friday afternoon taking care of errands. It was early evening before I headed home. I was eager to get back to the computer and view the day’s racing results. Whether I was a winner or loser mattered a lot, but it was the anticipation of finding out the results that kept me eager and a little on edge.
I have to admit that I was now hooked on thoroughbred racing. Not just the races, but the entire industry. It was in my blood now, and it was going to be a part of my daily experience and way of thinking. Dad’s system taught me about the horse racing business and handicapping, but it took a fluky winning streak to make me fall in love with the sport.
After I returned home I immediately went online to Equibase to view the race results for Santa Anita. I scrolled slowly trying to get my money’s worth of enjoyment and excitement. In the first race I wasn’t even close on two $12 Trifectas. The second race was close, but my Trifecta had the second- and third-place finishers in the wrong order: down another $26.
The third race was the initial race for the Pick 6. I had not picked the #3 horse Flaming West, which was the Morning Line Favorite at odds of 8-5; instead I had selected the #6 horse Kern Ridge at 5-2 odds. A horse named Venus Genus at 4-1 odds ended up winning the race, paying $10.80 on a $2 Win wager.
Disappointed, I realized that I wasn’t going to be a winner of the Pick 6 or another Trifecta. I proceeded to go through the results of the remaining races. For the Pick 6, in the fourth race I had two picks: the favorite and an 8-1 choice. The 8-1 selection won. For the fifth race I had selected five horses, one of them also at Morning Line Odds of 8-1. That horse turned out to be the winner. In the sixth race I had the top two horses covered: Artax at 4-5 and Futuristic at 2-1. Futuristic hit the wire first.
Each race I checked my Trifecta and Superfecta tickets. None of them were winners. However, I was feeling some excitement begin to build as now the possibility of having a winning five of six Pick 6 ticket looked good. It would be nice to end the day by making a small profit from the Pick 6 consolation pool.
For the seventh race I had singled the best horse of the day, Ladies Din. He won easily. Finally, for the eighth race, I had four picks and my 5-1 choice came in first. I checked the payouts. Five out of six was good. Very good! It would pay me $1,294. It had ended up being a good day after all! Only one person had selected all six of six winners, earning a payday of well over $100,000.
To double-check, I took the Pick 6 ticket out of my wallet and reviewed the winning numbers showing on the screen. In order they were: 6, 1, 6, 3, 4, and 8.
I looked again at the monitor, then back at my ticket. Was there a mistake? My notes showed that the #6 horse in the third race was Kern Ridge and yet the results chart showed that Kern Ridge came in third place. Then I felt my blood begin to rush. Kern Ridge was listed as #5 on the monitor and Venus Genus was listed as #6. Confused, excited, and with my heart pounding rapidly, I found the program page. Sure enough, it listed Venus Genus as #6! How could this have happened?
With a few more clicks I investigated a little further. I found the Santa Anita Entries for the day on the Equibase Web page. This was the page from which I had made my selections. It showed Kern Ridge at post position #6 and Venus Genus at post position #7. Evidently two other horses in the race were a coupled entry: #1 and #1A.
By using the Entries page on the Equibase Web site as the source for my selections instead of finding the page with the true program numbers, I had just become the Pick 6 winner of $118,401. I double-checked the results on the Equibase Web site and quickly confirmed that #6 Venus Genus had indeed won the race! I was the only player to select all six winners that day. This horse racing “mastermind” had won the Pick 6 and was going to collect a cool $118,401!________
________
If you'd like to read another excerpt or three, stop by my website.
sk



.... and the winner is.......... Steven Kolb

[NJ Stinks]

My story is a bit different (and less rewarding) but, hopefully, of interest. In the early '90's my wife and I went to Vegas for a week. I'm not a big bettor but I do like to play the horses. Anyway, before we left a good buddy of mine handed me $4,800 and said he may want to bet some horses while I'm out there. This guy knows the casinos pretty well and he told me that his bets should be a help in getting us comped a few meals where we were staying. (It was at Circus Circus - oh yea, I'm a bigshot alright! :) ) He told me to talk to the race & sports book manager before I started playing and inform him that I intended to make some big bets on the horses during my stay. So I did and the manager said he would check my play and would let me know if I qualified for anything in the way of comps.

The first couple days neither me nor my buddy were doing much good. He was betting $200 across on his picks (maybe 2 or 3 a day) and I was betting around $15 to $20 a race. But his plan was working - betting $600 a race once in a while was the key and by the 3rd day we eating breakfast or lunch on the house. (Expensive meals when you think about it! :) ) Toward the end of our stay my buddy gave me three horses to bet. One of them was Salt Lake who I believe was running at Monmouth. I made the bet. (I can't tell you how many times I thought of backing some of his picks in the win slot that week. But I figured he was doing me a solid and I didn't want to root against his picks no matter how much I didn't like his horse.)

When they were loading Salt Lake into the gate, I looked at the piece of paper where I wrote down my buddies' picks and noticed that I forgot something. :eek: For the first time all week that he only wanted $200 on Salt Lake to place and show. Now I was stuck with $200 of my own money on Salt Lake to win! :bang: (My wife was there too. It wasn't a Kodak moment! :blush: )

You know the rest. Salt Lake went off at 7-2 and won like the champ he was! (A Kodak moment for sure! :))

Pretty strange way to pick up over $700 but that's what happened.

[ryesteve]

I wish I had a good story to tell, but every time I make a mistake it cost me money.......I'm glad somebody said that... I was beginning to think that the ROI on accidental bets is somewhere around +100,000% :D

[MooseDog]

I wanted to bet the 11-1 exacta in the 1993 Breeders Cup Turf, but turns out I forgot to change the race number on the self serve machine so the bet was entered for the Classic instead.

11-1 in the Classic turned out to be Arcangues to Bertrando...HELLO!

This is the ONLY time anything like this has ever happened to me.

[JohnGalt1]

A few years ago, I played a pick six at Hollywood that probably cost around $48.

After the first 4 legs I announced to the friends at the table I was sitting with that I was 4 for 4, but that I had singled the last two legs.

Then I noticed I reversed the numbers for those races. They felt bad for me, especially who I was stuck with in the last leg.

My chalk was beaten by another favorite, The first mistake won.

The last race was an open 10K claimer for fillies and mares. The horse I meant to play was one of the favorites. I was stuck on a 5 year old mare who won her last race, and was a closer. She was like 3 for 30 something.

She won. I collected $14k when I should have been 4/6.

I sure didn't feel like a genius. Luckily I've won 7 more with mistake free tickets.

[wisconsin]

I was playing dime supers via computer one day back in February, and there was a race at Aqueduct I was looking at. Well, my pencil rolled onto the floor, and I could not find it, and there was one minute to post, so I tried to fashion a ticket without writing it down, and we all know that never works, so I played this $7.20 ticket, but used a wrong horse on top. Was supposed to be :3: :4: but in a hurry I went :2: :3: . Well, this bomb, the :2: came from nowhere and paid $40 to win and the dime super paid over $300. I don't remember any other goof that actually made me money, and I've been playing for almost 30 years.