My Betting Today - STANK!

After the end of today's first Breeders' Cup race, I had the feeling that all of my choices would fail to win - only one won, and that was not the fantastic Zenyatta; it was the superb Goldikova. In the first race, the Juvenile Turf, one of my picks, Rough Sailing, had his hind end slip out from under him, landing heavily on his left shoulder and sliding. He sprang back up, but the motion of his forelegs did not look right to me. Luckily, his jockey Anna Napravnik was able to roll clear, as the field was due to run over that same section of track again. Anna was shaken, but not hurt. Rough Sailing was returned to his barn, where swelling was reported; X-rays showed that he had broken his left shoulder. He was euthanized. For me, that was the beginning of the end of the day. The Juvenile Turf, all two-year-old colts, was won by Pluck, a half-sister to More Than Real (both sired by More Than ready), who won yesterday's Juvenile Filly Turf. The second place finisher was Soldat, and in third was Willcox Inn. Typhoon Slew was scratched from the race in the early morning, and my other two picks finished fifth and sixth - I still grieve for Rough Sailing. In the 3/4 mile Sprint, Big Drama was the winner, with Hamazing Destiny and Smiling Tiger following. Another horse was taken by the horse ambulance off the track at the end of the Sprint - Atta Boy Roy, who finished in seventh, was pulled up quickly by jockey Calvin Borel, who said the colt had taken several bad steps on his right fore. It was decided by the vets that Atta Boy Roy had a sprain. My picks finished fifth, sixth, and ninth - so I knew I was doing a lousy job with yesterday's picks. I decided to choose one "new" horse to bet on in each race, and see how that went - the choosing being done by looking at the horses in the Post Parade. The third race of the day was the Turf Sprint, and my new pick was Central City, a Florida-bred. Chamberlain Bridge won the race, Central City was second, and Unzip Me was third. My choices from Saturday night ran in sixth, tenth, and thirteenth places. The Juvenile seemed to be wide open; I chose Uncle Mo in the paddock. I was shocked when Uncle Mo won the race. He was followed by Boys at Tosconova and Rogue Romance. There were ten runners in the race; my other picks finished seventh, ninth, and tenth. (Groan!) In the Turf Mile, I was rooting for Goldikova and Gio Ponti. Goldikova won the Turf Mile for the third straight year! She was followed home by Gio Ponti, The Usual Q T, and Paco Boy. My other picks finished fifth, seventh, and eighth. For the Dirt Mile, I chose Dakota Phone, because he seemed to be radiating - something - in the Post Parade. You could have knocked me over when he won - the biggest long-shot of the day. He was followed by Morning Line and Gayego. Cool Coal Man, a sentimental pick, finished fourth, and Mine That Bird was tenth. My other picks were in sixth, ninth, and twelfth places. (Oh, my...) The next-to-last race was on the Turf, and Workforce was scratched from the race early in the morning because the course was too hard (even though Churchill Downs had been watering the course every night to soften it up for the Europeans - especially Workforce). So only seven horses went to the post, and I picked Champ Pegasus as my new betting choice. The Turf was won by Dangerous Midge; followed by Champ Pegasus and Behkabad. My earlier choices finished fourth, sixth and seventh. Finally, there was the Classic - hopefully the crowning glory for Zenyatta... Mike Smith, Zenyatta's jockey, cried in his interview after the race, blaming himself for the mare's only loss in her career. It was one heck of a race - Zenyatta, as usual, dropped back to last, and Mike Smith began to urge her to run before she started her usual roll forward. (That's why he blames himself - he urged her before she was ready.) Blame had taken the lead, and Zenyatta zoomed up on the outside, as usual. What was not usual was that Blame's nose crossed the finish line first - he won by either a long nose, or a short head, which ever way you look at it. Fly Down finished in third. Etched finished sixth, and Espoir City (Sunday Silence's grandson) finished tenth.
After my picks for Friday had turned out so well, I thought I'd do well today.... Well, that's horse racing! Seth Hancock, who owns Blame, is already on the campaign trail to have Blame named Horse of the Year. If not Zenyatta, then I think the Horse of the Year award should go to Goldikova!
And, had anyone placed 8 $2 exacta bets, and chosen the first and second place winners of each race, their $16 in bets would have returned $1541.00...... It definitely was not me, today!