Ventline

In retrospect, launching a blog at roughly the same time my daughter was born may not have been the best idea. The time available to handicap the races has been truncated dramatically, leaving little-to-no time to write about it.

Yesterday's events, however, require a certain amount of venting.

The Keeneland card featured a record Pick 6 carryover of just over $300,000, a sum that jumped to over $1 million by the time the gates opened on the first leg of the Pick 6. By the time it was over, my first or second choices had won 5 of the 6 races, with the sole outlier being a race won by my 3rd choice. So I was one of the 41 ticket cashers who took down the $18,000 payout, right?

No. Ridiculously, no. You see, I wasn't satisfied with my coverage in a couple races and wanted to go a little deeper. Being on a limited budget, however, and not willing to make another deposit mid-month, I needed to fatten the bankroll a little in order to do so. In my greed, I played and missed the first couple races at Keeneland, depleting my account just enough so that I could no longer play my 'AAAAAA' ticket, i.e. the ticket that covers every likely winner if each race is run the way I anticipate it. As I mentioned above, each race was very close to form, and every single winner was in my 'A' column. However, because I was a damn fool, I had to toss a couple A- horses, I'm left holding a couple worthless tickets and writing about the $18,000 payout that I didn't win.

^%$*#!!!