Easter Monday Notes

When I was in school (not sure about you) we got Good Friday and Easter Monday off. In the real world I seem to get neither. I think that's why all my friends growing up wanted to go to Teachers college. Remember when old people told us when we were in school "you'll never have it this good"? I think they were right.

Anyhow, there is something special today for players - The Calder Pick 5 at 12%. On Twinspires the deal is even better (they are offering 0% takeout). How the world has changed. Only two years ago opening days for tracks would feature a bobblehead giveaway. Now tracks are finally offering price breaks to get bettors through the door, virtual or otherwise. Thank goodness.

The sequence today seems chalky on the surface, but I do not have scratches yet, nor have I gone through it completely. If it does come up chalky, the payoff (when compared to the usual 25%+ take) will be pretty good, and some players will be satisfied.

Big spread in the Jersey paper on Gural.

Finley interviews a teller who says his crew have a hard time "trusting him". I grew up in a union town and worked from ages 16 to 20, during school, in a union job in a gold mine. Trust is always the issue with union folks. If you read the press it tends to be all about Republican and Democrat, but I think it is all about culture. Gural is a liberal dem, so if you don't trust him, who you gonna trust?

TVG commissioned a study on exchange wagering. The 150 pages does not tell most of you much that you don't know already, but they did a good job. Since the comments on Paulick's piece are the usual, it's time to link a refresher link I guess. "You've been duped", was a real world, empirical response to the chicken little's in Australia who regurgitate the same specious arguments.

"The point V'landys and wealthy breeders such as Gerry Harvey have made for the best part of two years is that corporates and exchanges would take money, business and patronage from Tabcorp and therefore drain racing of critical revenue."

I'll give you one guess about if the breeders and insiders were right or wrong.

Have you ever seen an industry that's so scared of itself?

Bob Baffert (I think we all agree) did the right thing taking Jaycito off the Derby trail. Will Pletcher with Mo? A lot of us feel it would be the smart thing to do.

Horse's have bad days, and St. Elmo had one last weekend where he tasted defeat for the first time. Proving it was an aberration, he swept back into the winners circle to start a new streak. He was dominant as ever.

What a waste of money. Pocono and Chester are fighting for Open pacers and offering to double the purse of the Open. Open's have crappy betting handle and players don't care. Card a 12 claimer for $9000 and offer the other $51,000 in a low rake superfecta pool, and watch your handle explode instead.

Dry Gulch, recently claimed for $8000 by Tracy Brainard, beat One More Laugh Saturday at Vernon. Oye Vay.

I cleaned out my storage unit yesterday and I found a 1987 Greenwood gym bag. I think I lost about $100 that giveaway evening, so that was an expensive gym bag.

I also found University text books. What a crock that is. $50 for a text that you can't sell and might as well use as firewood. I looked at Advanced Microeconomics, Futures Options and Swaps (a real page turner), International Investments, and Futures Markets and said to myself "when the hell am I ever going to use these again". I pitched them. Luckily all was not lost. While going through them I found four or five old programs and some VHS tapes from the 1980's and 1990's, including the full coverage of Breeders Cup I and Breeders Crown I. Cool!

Enjoy your Monday everyone and good luck with the Calder Pick 5.