Florida Derby Day 2016

Derby Day

Two lasting impressions of Florida Derby Day 2016 - first and foremost, a great day at the track with friends and family.  I always enjoy being at the races, regardless of the outcome, but it is so special to share my passion with friends and family.  And today was one of those as there were thirty-plus friends and family attending as part of our "Derby group."  But the other impression, from a racing and handicapping perspective was disappointment.  And that came on multiple levels.  First, I was only able to correctly identify one winner on the card, Wildcat Wish..... 

In the stakes pool the closest I came were two seconds.  In the Grade 3 Appleton Divisidero was flying on the outside to be a fast-closing second; and in the Grade 2 Pan American Wake Forest was leading a jump from the wire when nailed on the final head bob. 

And most especially, I told several people beginning early in the day, that if Mohaymen won the Derby in the epic match-up with the undefeated invader from the west coast-Nyquist, as I was most confident he would, then regardless of the rest of the day I'd be happy.  As the two hit the top of the stretch they were head-to-head as I'd expected, and then Mohaymen simply got left in the dust, a well beaten and disappointing fourth.  Some of the other things that were of interest on the day.......my buddy and Kim's boss Jeff Nelson led the "Player's Pool" all day into the final race, but his upset pick ran third and he not only didn't win the pool, he finished fourth.  Instead our best pal Sue tied for the pool winner's share which meant she and her fellow winner split both the top and second prize, $120 each.  And very rewarding for me, Brad collected the third place money of $30.  We had fewer in the group than I'd anticipated coming, but the one that made me happiest in joining me was former student Kimmy Westmoreland-Mullen.  She was one of my all-time favorites and she had planned to come with her "partner in crime," one of my other all-time favorites, Christie Shade.  I met with them and their husbands a month ago and the four made plans to come.  But the two boys and Christie all ended up having to work so Kimmy and her Mom came.  Both got completely into the fashion and fun, and it's always great to introduce new friends to racing.  Interestingly, they knew Luis Duco who we've met at the races previously (son of a trainer) through our daughter Julie!  Here are some pics of our Derby Day 2016 adventure........

March 31

We're Back!

French River Cruise

The French River Cruise was, in a word, AMAZING!  Everything we had hoped it would be and more.  The only thing that was not perfect was the trip home where our flights were delayed and we didn't arrive back in Ft. Lauderdale until after midnight after a complete 24 hours of travel.  You can check out our adventures through photos, videos, and daily journals by following the link above.  With that said, let's now turn back to racing!  I had debated for a while prior to the trip if I would (a) try to handicap on the trip and/or (b) pick up handicapping upon our return.  And the last alternative was that I'd "end" the Gulfstream Handicapping Project with Tampa Bay Derby Day, then just focus on the Florida Derby Day event upon our return.  So my first decision was to NOT handicap or do any racing on the trip.  Which turned out to be a great choice because we were CONSTANTLY on the go and I was up until after midnight each day just keeping up with the travel photos and journals.  When we got home I decided it might be a good idea to handicap one day, to "shake the rust off" prior to handicapping the Derby Day card.  So on Tuesday I downloaded the card for Wednesday and went through the card, then posted the selections.  Later that day my racing buddy Jim Anderson texted me that he had checked out my picks and he thought I'd posted Thursday's selections on the Wednesday link.  Sure enough - how tired must I be! - I had handicapped for Thursday.  So I began working all day Wednesday on the Derby program.......

........and by Thursday I was in the final stages of my producing my 30 page program.  About 3 pm I decided to see how my selections had been doing.  I had won a couple of races and one of my alternate choices had won and paid $20, so I felt like I had effectively shaken off the rust so to speak.  Around 5 pm I was finishing the last segment of the program when I thought I'd check the rest of the races.  I was particularly interested in how the finale turned out because it had been my "BEST" of the day.....

...so I opened up my TwinSpires account and then went to the live video and it was only six minutes to post time.  So I decided, why not go ahead and invest, the pick was my "BEST" and she was sitting up there at a juicy 2/1 price.  Javier Castellano took her right to the front and when the field made their move on the turn, she was L-O-N-G gone!  WHOOOOO HOOOOOO!  Welcome back to racing Mr. Mark!  The $50 and change payout is a great way to kick off Derby weekend!