Dec. 30 - Day 16

Winter Holiday Continues

On Monday we drove from Columbus to Erie, Pa. to spend time with the Pennsylvania family.  The weather forecast was for icy conditions on the roads and we delayed our departure for a couple of hours to try and miss the storm, which luckily we did.  The next morning I enjoyed my cup of coffee on the deck of my in-laws beautiful home overlooking Lake Erie - one of the "must dos" of the trip!  I handicapped the Wednesday card and was able to watch the replays that afternoon from my sister-in-law's home.  On the afternoon's card I only found four races that seemed worthy of an investment.  The fourth race was an entry level one-turn mile for 2yo fillies.  Veija Luna was my top pick.  She'd won her maiden race over this track going seven furlongs and her connections had thought enough of her to send her to Santa Anita to try the Grade 1 Chandelier where she ran into the juvenile champion Songbird.  Still she was a strong fourth despite a being steadied on the turn.  She left the gate at 6/1 and trailed into the far turn.  Made up ground late, but was never a threat while finishing third.  In the fifth I had my "BET of the Day" with Todd Pletcher's Pinstripe.  He was a $130K OBS purchase for the Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and was working well for his debut.  Didn't care much for the rail draw for a newbie, but there didn't seem to be any world beaters in the line-up.  He broke a bit slowly but cruised up to engage the 4/1 front runner after the opening quarter of a mile.  The two of them opened up daylight on the field through the far turn and when they turned for home top jockey Javier Castellano asked him to run.  He exploded clear and drew off like most Pletcher maidens do at Gulfstream as tons the best.  I had tripled the bet so the even-money odds resulted in a return of $30 for my first win of the week.  The seventh was a maiden claimer going a mile on the turf for 2-year-olds.  I liked Dividend for Bill Mott, and so did the crowd sending her off at 6/5.  She shot up the rail into the lane and had every chance to win, but was outfinished - second.  The final play of the day came in the 9th, a turf sprint for optional claimers.  I went with Partly Mocha for Michael Maker with Javier Castellano up.  Seemed too far back early and when he tried to rally up the rail through the turn he had a lot of traffic.  Went to slide outside, but the opening closed, then dove back inside to the rail where he made up ground, but it was too late and he was a belated third as the 3/2 favorite.  Back at it again tomorrow on New Year's Eve Day as I'm looking forward to watching College Football's National Semi-Final Bowl games!