You Gotta Be on Your Game To Cash

The last at the Big A today was an interesting exercise.

The field was pretty horrible, and the chalk was not worth anywhere near 4-5; in my view more like 5-2, so I thought I'd take a stab.

The 1,4 and 6 were plodding types that could hit the ticket, and the 2 and 8 were FTS's. I liked both FTS because of the dearth of talent. The numbers on the 8's trainer weren't bad, and the two horse showed he was a racehorse in his debut last March, and the connections removed the shadow roll all  these months later. The 8 was 10-1 and the 2 was 17-1.

Because I'm not really thinking, and just playing around, I created the following superfecta ticket.

28-1246811-1246811-1246811.

The 8 won, the chalk came second, 5 third (at 80-1) and the 6 was fourth. It paid around $4,600 for a dollar.

Now, if I was on my game - a la playing regularly - I'd have probably done the following.

28-14611-14611-A
28-14611-A-14611
28-A-14611-14611

I'd have the FTS who I would choose to use as a win or out. I'd have my plodders to hit the ticket, and spray in all's looking for a price.

For say a ten cent ticket, I'd have spent around $30 and got back $460, which doesn't sound like much (just bet the 2 and 8 to win, right?), but I gave myself chance at a hell of a lot more; if 8-5-6-4 comes in for example, which it almost did.

Anyhow, when you're messing around, you're messing around at this game, and more often than not (with me) that means losses in situations like this instead of wins.

Have a great New Year everyone, and good luck at threading the needle to make some big ticket scores in 2020.