Hosted by Lenny Shulman and Steve Haskin, "And They're Off" is a bi-monthly online video series sponsored by Darby Dan Farm. This week's topics include the aftermath of the Travers, Curlin and Big Brown, Synthetic Breeders' Cup, and Genuine Risk.
Three of the top four finishers in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (gr. IIT) will meet again Aug. 30, this time in the $500,000 Kent Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Delaware Park.
Day two of Doncaster's St. Leger yearling sale generated a gross of £5,036,500 (approximately $9,281,313), which represented a decline of 17.9% from 2007. The £37,868 average price and £30,000 median price, for the 133 horses sold, fell 4.9% and 4.8%, respectively, Aug. 27. The buy-back rate was 16.4%.
Undefeated Casino Drive, impressive winner of the Peter Pan Stakes (gr. II) in only his second career start, is scheduled to return to the United States in mid-September to begin his preparation for the Breeders' Cup Classic Oct. 25, according to a spokesman for the Japan Racing Association.
Retired Racing Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, the late track announcer Luke Kruytbosch, and multiple Media Eclipse Award-winning Turf writer Maryjean Wall will be honored later this year with awards presented by the National Turf Writers Association.
The Racing Officials Accreditation Program, in coordination with the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program, will host its first "Conference on Officiating Horse Racing" Dec. 8 in Tucson, Ariz.
Calder Race Course has asked the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering for permission to hold live racing four days a week, rather than five, during 11 weeks beginning Sept. 1.
I recently retired from the Air Force and am betting full time. It is going very well, but I do want to point out a few problems that anyone wanting to bet multiple tracks will want to consider. You can study all the information and database material you want, but you will never get everything as precise as you like. Here are a few reasons why:
1) Odds changes. I don't think you will find many positive angles that don't have some sort of an odds requirement. If you are playing smaller tracks, even using conditional wagering, you are going to make bets you would not have going by any database type rules. Further, you will miss making bets you should have made. (Yes, odds do go up sometimes, and many times significantly)
2) Scratches. Particularly, late scratches. Yes, when studying database results, you have them all. Keeping up with all of them throughout the day is pretty much impossible though. You will miss a few bets due to late scratches you don't have the time to account for while playing.
3) Post times. This country sucks when it comes to following post times. Most run late, but sometimes posts are pushed up due to weather or whatever.
4) Surface changes. If you aren't watching, this information is not always readily available. If you are playing lots of tracks, you will miss a few. Hell, I remember one day last year being shocked to see a scheduled dirt race at Turf Paradise being run on turf! I've seen it at Colonial as well.
Anyway, just a few things to keep in mind from my experience so far. Playing around with a database you are living in a Utopian world. The real world can be much, much tougher when you consider there are 40+ tracks running on a Saturday in August. These are just a few things. I am sure I have forgotten a few others.
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"That rug really tied the room together. "
