Talking plays — LONGS:
A crazy day of great long-shots that were definite almosts at both Aqueduct and Del Mar – marked the racing on Friday the 13th! Almost’s in horse racing is sometimes very good or sometimes very frustrating or both… Let’s start with Valerie’s Spirit who went off about 30/1 in the 6th at Aqueduct and ran a very nice place – paying a whopping $24.50! That was pretty good for me, but just missed being great. I started off with a simple win/place wager, because she had such a powerful position on as the TOP Rated horse by a mile on the JJPP, I made the wager 50% win and 50% place. Normally with big longs, I make it more 33% win and 67% place. AS you can see, that cost me a little bit… My exacta boxes did not include the B Brown piece that won at 13/1 to set of an exacta that paid $180/1, that because I used the “other B Brown runner”. So that was better than a sharp stick in the eye, but it wasn’t an extra base hit either…
Later on I played a few other longs, the best being in Del Mar’s 7th race when I bet my STAR horse with the Early Speed note, Big Break who went off at 24/1. I was licking my chops as the price went higher and higher, just looking for Big Break to break on top – be loose speed – and romp home at 24/1. Unfortunately, we got out-broke by the horse to the inside, we chased and finished 4th while battling for the lead in deep stretch… I really think, this horse out-ran the public’s opinion and we had the best of it, but for the #1 horse… If we can have a steady diet of this type of effort, we will be in the GREEN…