There’s no better illustration of the joy and agony of the horseplayer than this week, as both were on display.

First, the agony.  Sunday, with a $400,000 carryover and a mandatory payout in the Empire 6 (remember when we used to call them the pick 6 ?) at Belmont Park, and a pair of strong trip notes on horses in the fifth and ninth races seemed like the perfect time to take a small swing.  A measly $30 ticket got me in the game, armed with the two singles, and spread wide in two of the more puzzling legs.

Long story short, we were singled to Bankers Daughter in the ninth, with Dylan Davis up for Michael Miceli.  I thought she’d have a good forward position on the wet track, and $2357 was the potential payout.   She broke first, then settled just off the lead, made the lead at the top of the stretch, and Davis looked back under each arm like Turcotte on Secretariat or Franco on Tiz The Law.   However, Bankers Daughter wasn’t quite the quality of those two, and got run down late.   A saver win-place bet paid $6.80 in the middle, but an afternoon squandered when she couldn’t get it done.   Either 5.5 on the turf, or perhaps a well-timed ride a la Rosario may be what she needs.

The joy is my look ahead to the Breeders Cup Classic next Saturday.  This is a fun, strong field assembled, and a number of horses I have been For, or Against, since the blog began.

Maximum Security, I was against, before I was for.  Turns out he isn’t cheap speed, and has the resume to back it up.  I grabbed a huge place bet on him the only day he got beat, just for fun and thrills.  It still cashed.  He stamped himself as the leader of the division again in the Saudi Cup this spring.

Improbable was both the Derby Favorite and my pick a year ago, and sticking with him led to several good scores this year.   Tom’s D’Etat is the last horse to beat Improbable, and Tom himself has been a watch horse several times, and is again off the bead break at Saratoga.

By My Standards – impressed out of the derby last year, won several times in the spring, and the win at Churchill as an odds play lined my wallet as well.

Tiz The Law has been the buzz horse of the spring, and summer, well, all of 2020.  I was against him strictly on odds in the Travers, (thanks for nothing, Uncle Chuck) but at this point TTL is approaching generational horse status.  A win in the BC could clinch horse of the year honors.  

Plus we get Authentic (who anchored a winning derby future exacta bet) and Tacitus, a score in the Tampa Bay derby a year ago, and a source of consistent frustration since.

So this year’s Breeders Cup Classic will likely decide the horse of the year in the U.S.   I’m not sure which way I will go at the window.  I’ll probably be hooked to any number of these in the Pick 4-5-6; but in race, I think this may be one that is better to watch than wager.  

So there you have it – the agony and the joy of the game.

It’s all about the horse – this time I just want to see which one is the BEST.