2021 went without much fanfare for the ‘capper.

Between the 9-5, and some family health issues, I haven’t had much time or gumption to play. The play back book is largely bereft of fresh trips.

I ran my preliminary end of year numbers, and will book a small four-figure win for calendar 2021.

The beginning of the year was far better than the end, and the pick 5 score in June proved to be the key swing of the year.

NYRABets has some nice ROI tracking built in to its account reports. A few notes below on my most profitable bets and tracks.

Place – 49 pct

Pick 5 – 24.5 pct

Pick 3 – 24.8 pct

My most profitable tracks were:

Tampa – 258 pct

fairgrounds – 219

Belmont – 10.1

One business man I work with on a local board says “in god we trust – all others bring data.”

I don’t believe any of the above is the gospel, but good indicators. Belmont has long been my favorite track to play; Tampa saw a ton of my action last spring, and this says I should play the Fairgrounds more than I have. Saratoga was probably surprisingly bad (-50 pct overall) – apparently had no feel there this year. (Those were the track with significant action. Longchamps was wildly profitable but that was a random one-off action play).

The place ROI tells me my playback strategy continues to be viable. And the pick 5 and pick 3 numbers are largely the product of keying those playbacks. ✅

Looking back to last years resolutions , the 100 playback challenge was a fail, only in that I didn’t get 100 tracked. It was profitable through 65-70 when I just didn’t have the time to track them all.

I will be blanking the playbacks list to start fresh for 2022 as the well is pretty dry. It peaked out at about 220 horses this summer.

2022 has began with a bang, as one of the last viable playbacks, Surveillance, scored at the Fairgrounds and I caught him win and place, and the double into him.

Put me down for 2-2 for the year, and getting nearly 8-1 on Surveillance made for a tidy profit.

Should I quit while I’m ahead ?