Down and Out in Saratoga Springs

As much as I'd like to blame Saratoga for my recent gambling losses, it's really on me.

It sucks to put in the overall preparation I do, win multiple bets and still walk out of the place with less money than when I started the day. But I'm special.

The night before, I go to the NYRA web site and check the next day's entries. I'd like to think I specialize in sprints on the dirt, so I'm happy to find that August 16th and 17th (last weekend) is full of them. Good start.

For whatever reason, I left home at 11:18 both days and pulled into my $7 parking spot at noon.

Even with the long-sleeved t-shirt giveaway on Sunday, I'm still in my chair reading a program, dipping in to my cooler for the first time at 12:15. Perfect execution so far.

I'm the Michael Phelps of Saratoga racetrack handicapping because I only go for the gold and I eat 10,000 calories a day. Pre-game jitters? No way.

On Saturday I shake up my usual routine and venture into daily double wagering, picking the winner of two consecutive races. With the handicapping help of a real pro like Dave Gonzalez, I hit the daily double; 5-5. I won 120 bucks on a 3 dollar bet. Nothing beats establishing early fiscal momentum. I'm ready to take it to the house.

And even though I doubled my money up to $160 after the third race, I walked out with zip.

I bet too many trifectas and even when I wheeled them, I still lost all of them. No joke, I bet trifectas in at least four different races where I nailed the exacta, but didn't actually bet the exacta.

And I still bet on and nailed exactas in two other races! That means if all I did was bet on exactas all day, I would've done very well.

But, I didn't.

On the brighter side, I hung in on Sunday and only lost about 20 bucks.

Except, that if you were to judge my Sunday on opportunity cost, I lost a little over ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

Here's what happened. As I explained, I like to purchase Dave Gonzalez's daily picks at www.surethingselections.com. Trust me, he deserves this plug.

So, I examine the horses for race 2 and I'm all giddy because it's a 7 furlong race on the dirt which is my favorite kind of race in the whole world. It's not easy, but I decide the 1 horse looks best and he's at 3-1 odds.

But the 9 is favored.

The 8 is a 3/4 sibling to some really good horse.

And the 6 looks like the best of the rest.

And we all know that the favorite only wins 25% of the time and even if you correctly bet the favorite to win anything, it usually doesn't pay much. So there's too much risk, not enough reward.

My instinct is that the favorite (#9) will get 2nd place and if anyone can beat him, it's the #1 horse. So there's my exacta. 1-9.

The 8 just looks like a solid show horse. 1-9-8.

The 6 better do his job and get 4th. 1-9-8-6 it is.

1986 is significant to me for the following reasons:

• It was in the 80s. And the reason the 80s were awesome is because you could get away with anything compared to today and everyone seemed to have more money back then.
  
• The Mets won the World Series.
• The Giants won the Super Bowl.

It's all coming together like Celestine Prophecy.

But when I saw the 9 horse running around before the race, he looked good. So, I jumped ship and put the 9 on top of everything.

Specifically, I bet the bank on 9-1-8 and 9-1-8-6. Even though, the 1 looked really good.

The race goes off and the 9 grabbed a commanding lead in the stretch, but the 1 nipped him just before the wire. Awesome.

After a photo finish for 3rd place, the results were 1-9-8-6. HA!

I guess the nail in the coffin is that Dave Gonzalez picked 1-9-8-6, exactly.

It's not that I had the exact picks in my hand that troubles me or that the superfecta paid $479, but I abandoned my instinct when I had every reason to believe in it.

You win Saratoga. No Travers for me this Saturday. No Curlin for me on August 30th either.

I'll see you next August.