I'm not a big gambler and even when I did all those years on the backside I didn't bet all that much.It might be lame to some others but here's mine.We trained mostly our own and one of ours was in a late race one weekend.A owner started talking to me 15 minutes before post and I had a twenty that was burning a hole in my pocket.I look up at the tote board and my horse is 20-1 and I figure I got lots of time to make a bet.Wrong he won and all I got out of it was a nice chat.We could have really used that money on silly things like feed etc.

1973 Triple Crown.

I was at the Wood Memorial and saw Secreteriat get beat by Angle Light his entrymate. Ron Turcote was convinced Secreteriat and Sham were head and shoulders over the rest of the 3 year ods. I bet a straight 200 exacta on Secreteriat with Sham. I hit it and rolled it all on the Preakness. I hit the exacta and had a pie of money. The Belmont came next and and I was as confident as Dutrow that Secreteriat and Sham would finish one two so I let it ride. You all know the rest of the stoty. I had my eyes on a Cobaltt Blue Pontiack Firebird with a 350 engine. I was going to go pick it up the following Monday. You can imagine how I felt when Sham gave it up at the top of the stretch.

So much for sure things and tough losses.

2002 Breeders Cup in Chicago. Group of us put $1000 in the BC Pick 6 ticket, Friday night in my hotel room I have a ticket all mapped out that eventually would pay five of six, $39,000 a copy of which we would have three consolation tickets. Buddy of mine who had 1/3 of the ticket calls and does not me to include Volponi in the Classic. I loved Volponi and fought as hard as I could to leave him on, but decided my buddy's friendship and his 1/3 investment were important. So, I rejiggered the ticket, which ultimately did not cash. Of course, Volponi wins for fun at 40-1! This was the year of the fix in the Pick 6 pool, all five of six tickets would be determined as winners later. Our three consos were worth $120,000. The bright side was another buddy and I split a Pick 4 ticket with Volponi on it that was worth $16,445! My pick 6 buddy is STILL on double secret probation and not allowed to have a say in Pick 6 tickets!

In a word, Massoud. Labour day Sunday 2005, 1st race, run to the wicket with a minute to post. Left my trusty pocket program with all my picks  with the missus. Forgot all my exotics combos but put $100 on Massoud to win. Makes a valiant effort, looking like Pegasus flying down the stretch only to lose by a nose.

Opening day at the Spa 2007, also the 1st race, have all my combos keyed with Massoud as well as another $100 on his nose. Turns into the stretch pulling away from the field when he breaks down. Of course the rest of my exotics finish 1 and 3.

Come home after the weekend, my neighbours ask me how I did. Since they're of Syrian descent, I ask them what Massoud means. They say Massoud means "lucky one". Oh well.

The worst ever was the 2005 Derby.  We tossed Bellamy Road and Keyed Afleet Alex 2 and 3rd with 9 horses. We were going to key 10 but "we" decided to save some money and drop 1 horse....we decided to drop a horse we knew wouldn't hit the board.  We tossed some horse called Giacamo.

Had we left him in we had the SUPER ... I will not repeat the money we lost dropping that horse...

I'm from Seattle and made my way to the 2004 Belmont to watch Smarty become the next Triple Crown winner.  I had a $2.00 pick 6.  I won the first four on the card. Lost the 5th but knew Smarty was a lock.  That Darn Birdstone started running and my heart sank as did 120,000 other fans.    

Left the Belmont feeling sick sick sick.  

My biggest beat was harness related.The first time superfectas come into play at SPORTSMANS PARK in Chicago is a Friday night and I am at an OTB in Crestwood,IL,The last race of the night and I am down to $6.I use the yr I was born keying the favorite on top with 3 horses.They come in reverse order longest price on top and pays over 50K.To this day it is another reason I will always box something if  have the chips.

A few years back I played a pick 6 @ santa anita on a wednesday. I made the bet @ Manor Downs Austin Texas. The bet cost me $54. Anyways I made the bet about an hour before the pick 6 started. I was going to go home but I decided to drink a couple of beers with the regulars @ the bar. My bet was structured as follow. 3/1/3/1/1/3.

Anyways, in the fourth leg of the pick 6 I had singled Horse #1 @ 5 to one morning line. One of the guys @ the bar convinced me that the one horse in the fourth leg was not going to make it. I went back to the window and changed my ticket. I went home to watch the races and my horses came in the first 3 legs. In the fourth leg the #1 horse won the race. The horse I had singled prior to changing my ticket. I hit the last 2 legs and got paid 5 out of 6 consolation. The bad thing about it was there was a carryover. I could have had the only winning ticket If I had gone home and not changed my mine. Those two beers cost me over 100K.

happened this weekend on Colonial Cup triple...lucky in life not so betting on ponies...Bob Seger sang it...you just can't have it all...Long Live The King!!!

Seven years ago, on a quiet Sunday afternoon Hollywood Park had a big Pick 6 rollover. I had just opened an online gambling account a few days earlier. I had $2 in my account. Just for fun, I picked a horse for all six races and spent my $2 on a Pick 6 ticket.

Things became interesting after my first four horses won. The fifth race was a turf race and my horse was a complete standout. Coming around the final turn, as luck would have it, my horse was full of run but was stuck behind a wall of 5 other horses. With 50 yards to the line a hole opened and...a ten minute photo finish with six horses hitting the line together. The result, my horse finished in a dead heat...for second. And yes, I won the final leg. 5 of 6 paid $235. I missed out on a $25,000 payday.

I've taken many bad beats for huge money in pick 6s and pick 4s by getting disqualified and other stuff, too many to really remember which was the most painful.

But, the worst  beat i ever saw was a few years ago at Santa Anita. There was a double carryover in the pick 6 and the pool was into the millions. In fact, it might have been a triple carryover of over a million. A bevy of longshots won the early races and going into the last race, there were some massive payouts up on the board.

There were a few horses that would pay out 4.4 million to one ticket.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, a 60-1 shot that was alive to one ticket, circled the field and was drawing away with 70 yards to go and then 'went wrong' and was pulled up in the shadow of the wire.

I can't imagine a worse beat than this. 4.4 million (plus consolations) and you have the money in your hand if your horse could just finish the race and you can't pull it off.

Everytime i feel i have a bad beat, i think of the person who was alive with that ticket and realize that maybe my own bad beat wasn't so bad after all.

Toughest beat ever, this is one of my favorites to tell:

My early race handicapping was based on class analysis and I spent my time focusing on the the local stakes and allowance races.  Years later, while on my way to my first visit to Charlestown in WV (1982), I planned a different handicapping strategy for cheap tracks - assuming that most horses at this track are cheap and sore, my strategy was to throw out the PP's, and simply look in the post parade for a "fit, healty lookin", longshot to key, in the cheapest races.  

Jump forward to the next summer at the Atlantic City Ractrack (my only visit).  I'm visiting with old friends, none of whom are horse fans.  The second daily double has a horse in the post parade that's "lookin fit and healty", going off at 17-1, and irrestible.  So, I wheeled the horse in the daily double, costs $24.  My friend buys a $2 show ticket on the favorite. My horse breaks clean from the gate, goes to the lead on the backside, increases his lead through the turn, and comes to the head of the strecth leading the field by 8 or 9 lengths, running strong.

Well, at the Atlantic City Racetrack, there is a wire stretched across the track about mid-strecth, 200 yds or so away from the finish wire. And what does my jockey do, he pulls a Willie Shoemaker - gets excited, sees that wire, stands up in the saddle waving his whip in the air, celebrating with 200 yds left to go. Along comes the favorite, my jockey sees him running, sees where he is, realizes his mistake, and tries to get his horse to start running, again.  

Now my friend, with his $2 show ticket is excited and cheering on his horse.  Its no race, the favortie was running, my horse was celebrating - the favorite won by less than a length.  I could only look at my smiling friend, holding his winning ticket, and said, "you have no idea what just happened, do you?"

So, what happened in the second half of the double? The winner paid $42 to win.  I've always been found of the term "owning the pool", and this would have been the one to own.  This was one "tough beat."

This year's Derby went down in the books as my toughest beat ever. And let me preface this by saying that I feel guilty even talking about it given the Eight Belles tragedy. But believe me when I say that I, a 38-year-old man, was crying over Eight Belles long before I realized what happened with my wager. At any rate, I usually do fairly well on big race days, and had cashed a couple nice trifecta and superfecta bets at Monmouth for the BC last year, so I felt pretty confident going into this year's Derby. Big Brown looked unbeatable, so I thought I would key him on top of 4 others in a $2 superfecta. Eight Belles and Denis of Cork were no brainers to me, and I threw in Smooth Air for sentimental reasons. So that left one horse to add to the ticket. I couldn't decide between Tale of Ekati and Recapturetheglory, in fact I agonized over the decision all afternoon, up until the moment that I placed my wager online. I ended up going with Recapturetheglory, and missed out on the biggest payday of my life by less than a length. When I wager I have a budget and I stick to it, which I know is the best strategy to maintain if you're in this game for the long haul, but this is the one time I wish I would have just dug a little deeper in my wallet.

Toughest beat ever?  This happens every time I play the horses.  I've got a million stories.  I'll give you the most recent.  I had  $20 straight on Saturday's late pick four at Belmont.  In the first leg, I took Johnny V. on Veritable, a Bobby Frankel trainee.  Veritable just nosed out Money Manager for the win.  In the next race, Jorge Chavez was riding the favorite, Macho Mucho, who had broken his maiden impressively and was entering allowance ranks for the first time.  Jorge Chavez on a favorite?  That is a play against.  I successfully chose Goldsville, ridden by KD and trained by Mott.  He brushed away Macho Mucho and paid over $9.  In the feature, I bet against Kent Desormeaux riding the odds on Mauralakana.  KD has disappointed several times on odds-on favorites.  Most recently . . . well, we won't get into that.  I went with Dynaforce ridden by Johnny V.  Unfortunately, Dynaforce was pulling against Johnny V. in the first part of the race, and I think his inability to relax in the early stages of the race got him beat by a neck to Mauralakana.  I had Bontempi in the last, who won for fun.  Anyway, the pick four paid $109.50 and I would have hit it 10X if I had taken Kent Desormeaux on Mauralakana.  KD is the new Pat Day or Jose Santos for me.  He wins when I don't play him and loses when I include him on the ticket.  

Speaking of tough breaks, how about that Blood Horse photo of BB and that right hind flapping shoe?

Guess this wouldn't be the first time a horse managed to reset his own shoe, albeit a tad-misaligned from what the farrior intended. Just happy it wasn't one of those $550 a pair front glue-ons :-).

Actually, feeling preversely good about this one, seeing how I blogged here to caution Dutrow a thrown shoe might render his "can't miss, Babe" assessment moot. Either I was a couple of starts early, or Big Brown a start or two late, vis-a-vis the rendering of this now seemingly cogent "analysis"?

On closing day of the Keeneland meet this spring, I went to the Churchill Downs simulcast operation here in Louisville to bet the Pick 6 with a $300k-plus carryover. I put together a small ticket, like $16, and got knocked out of the first race with a slim nose loss to the last horse I threw off of the ticket. I felt I still had a great chance for the consolation, so I held on and hit the second race, but lost the third when my 12-1 longshot was beaten by a 10-1 shot in a 5-minute photo. I played the last three races as a pick three, which I hit for $1000, but the heartbreak came when nobody hit the pick six and the consolation paid over $20k... I was almost sick when I realized that the whole $1.2 million pool could have been mine if but for two noses.

I bet one race each year,  the Kentucky Derby. Probably the most dificult race to handicap. That's a tough one. I only picked the winner once, in 1990, the year Unbridled won. All those years in between I became an expert at picking the 4th and 5th place finishers.  This year I picked Denis of Cork to win, although he finished 3rd,  maybe in 2 or 3 years I'll be able to pick the first place finisher again. I guess I'll pick the winner every 20 years or so.  That's why I only bet once a year to keep things under control.

Toughest beat has to be

$200 Straight Tri

Chief's Crown -Proud Truth-Stephen's Odyssey (I believe was the third horse)in the Flamingo Stakes in around 1985

(It was only going to pay about $25-30 it looked so cold-but Proud Truth was favored and it paid $22 or close to)

Disqualified at track but reversed on appeal-that is a tough beat

I was stunned because after no mishap at the start he led by more than 3 almost the whole trip although he swung a little wide in the stretch he was well in front not making any body take up because he was well clear (maybe 5 in front then).

Note the in very next race I was taken down again with a $20 exactor, that day. I lost about 2k that day but still have the free souvenir Flamingo Pitcher and Cups given away that day. Most I ever paid for plastic cups.

I also lost a pick 7 at Ft. Erie. 6 of 7 and a second-the horse that beat me refused in her next 2 starts and was barred from racing for a year after. She left the gate and beat Water Spider that day though. 84K and no winners although I had 2 partners on the ticket.

The same Chief's Crown lost to Proud Truth in the Breeders Cup costing me the Pick 6 as I had him singled and had the other 5

Before the advent of turf records in the form. I bet a horse I knew was top turf horse at one time coming in from a track with no grass course and horrible form named Chientain and bet $100-100 and then two $70 exactors off him-he paid  $80  I lost a tough photo for 2nd with a 7-1 shot. I actually called it wrong-I thought my horse had gotten up-I was rarely wrong in calling photos in my youth. The favorite finished second and it paid $320 in a 11 horse field.-Yes -I won a lot- but didn't feel like I did.

My days of  big exactor bets are long gone but you remember the ones that got away. That was a nice new car plus in those days.

Yo Jason what's up cuz? Your homeboy Johnny Mas here. Hey how about that big tri that you and I almost hit at the Oaks Turf Club during the Breeders Cup a few years ago? Those damn Stewards robbed us cuz....lol!

One of my worst "Bad Beats" was about 10 years ago at old Philly Park around 9pm on a friday night. I put $40 bucks on a 50-1 longshot at Penn National who was shipping from Charlestown who has a smaller oval so the horse had slower times. It was the 8 horse in a 12 horses field and I just knew that "son of a gun" was gonna "close like a bat out of hell" in this 6f race. Anyway, the race goes off and at the top of the stretch I see my "8 horse" flying from dead last. You know me cuz...I'm yelling "come on 8 whhhhhooooose....8whhhhhhoooooose....8whhhhhhhoooose. And he wins by a neck and I'm running down the the middle of the 3rd floor screaming with everybody laughing. Well, I'm watching the TV's and what happens? OBJECTION!!!!!!!!!! Sure enough after waiting 10 mintues my horse gets knocked down. Well, I flip out....threw my soda & racing form at the TV's...cursing all the way to the elevator, through the front door, through the parking lot and in my car all the way back home! Stopped beating for 3 months after that....lol!

Had Brownie on top of a Derby trifecta with Col John, Eight Belles, Bob Black Jack, Gayego and one other but DIDN"T have Dennis Of Cork and tri paid $1800--and bet only cost $20 so that was tough beat....more such luck in Belmont...keyed Brownie over Taggs horse and both of Zitos (including winner D'Tara---with "ALL" for third so if Big Brown wins like he should have (by ten) I get the tri with the longest shot on the board in 2nd...but every player has a story...and a story.....

thats right, Clown Show, the horse was in front by two near the 16th pole and broke down badly, and it was the biggest $1 bet loss ever, I'm sure!

I was in Vegas for the traditional Derby trip with the guys for the 15th year this  May, the usual no sleep all party antics did my mind in by Post Time for the Race. I bet $1 super box with Tale,8 Belles,Denis,Pyro, and Col.John, the cost $120, i did not believe Big Brown would come in the $$ from post #20 nor would he run the distance of 1 1/4 miles. In addition i did not want to include him in the wager and spend $360 for the 6th horse! Look at the payoff $1 super=$29k+,what was i thinkin? oh well Vegas trips will kill brain cells as my Mother used to tell me!