This past Saturday was a big day for horse racing and for the greatest jockey in the history of mankind, the Italian-born Lanfranco "Frankie" Dettori.
The on-going global pandemic forced the rescheduling of horse racing meets worldwide. If you're checking your 2020 weekly planner, please note that the First Saturday in May will be observed on the First Saturday in September. The Belmont Stakes, invariably the final jewel in the Triple Crown, was rescheduled for Saturday June 20th and this year is the first jewel in the Triple Crown. Meanwhile, across the pond, the final day of the five-day meet at Royal Ascot was held the same day as the Belmont but without patronage of royalty or anybody else. For horse players, the Royal Ascot-Belmont doubleheader presented a daylong feast of wagering.
Best horse name of the Royal Ascot 2020 meet!
In recent years I've simplified my Royal Ascot wagering strategy. Rather than scour the interwebz for international editions of the TimeForm or Racing Post and past performances (which are not nearly as detailed as the Daily Racing Form #usa #usa #usa), I simply bet exacta boxes on the horses ridden by jockeys Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore. Dettori and Moore generally have rides on the best horses, at whichever meet they are riding, and are the two most successful jockeys based in the United Kingdom and in Europe. In the instances in which one of the two jocks doesn't have a mount in a given race, I will bet win/place on the entered jockey. In each of the past two years, this has proved to be a winning strategy for me.
On Day 1 of the Royal Ascot meet I cashed an exacta box and a win/place on Ryan Moore for an end-of-day profit of almost $7.00!
On Day 2 I hit the same two tickets as Day 1 and ended the day with almost $5.00 more than I began with!
On Day 3 I again cashed an exacta box and a win/place on Ryan Moore but ended the day down almost $3.00.
On Day 4 and Day 5 I was shut out and lost $12.00 each day.
Royal Ascot 2020 was my first-ever losing week of RA wagering.
Frankie Dettori had a great week and on the last day of the meet he won 3 races in succession which propelled him into the winner's circle as the meet's leading jockey. The 2020 Royal Ascot ride that Dettori will most be remembered for was his win on Stradivarius in the Gold Cup. In the 2020 Gold Cup Stradivarius was bidding to become just the third horse to win 3 successive Gold Cups, an event that has been run at Ascot since 1807. There was concern among the connections for Stradivarius that the heavy rains and soft ground this year would be too-great an obstacle for the firm ground-favoring horse. In a stunning Gold Cup victory, Stradivarius and Frankie Dettori rallied from 10 lengths behind to win by 10 lengths!
No sooner than did the Royal Ascot 2020 meet come to a close on Saturday than did the 2020 Belmont Stakes Day race card begin. The barrel of my wagering gun was warm from my Royal Ascot measured firing. It was about to turn white hot from my indiscriminate rapid firing at the Big Sandy racetrack in Elmont, NY.
My digital wallet having been lightened a bit from Royal Ascot, I was heartened by my fast start at Belmont.
In the end, a losing Pick 6, two failed Pick 4's (one was live until the final leg) and a myriad of missed trifectas had me and my internet-based wagering account smoking like a 1930's gangster's Thompson submachine gun.
Two full race cards, from two different continents, 40 individual wagers over a 10-hour span. I was down early (and early in the morning, 5 hours behind Ascot), then up, then down again with a late rally (in the evening) to get me back to respectability. Quasi-respectability.
The next day, Sunday, was Father's Day. After some light administrative work, I tuned in that day's horse racing for a few minutes of respite before heading to Mr B's for a steak dinner. The broadcast went immediately to Churchill Downs, with just a few minutes to post time for the 5th race. It was a rainy day in Louisville, KY. The track was sloppy. The 5th race was a sprint. I had no intention to wager, just enjoy a race or two before the celebratory dinner. The post parade was televised as the field entered the main track. The #1 horse was sired by Daredevil, another of my favorite sires of recent vintage. Generally horses breaking from the gate along the rail in a sprint want to get off to a fast start so as to not get buried on the rail behind a wall of horses. This strategy becomes imperative when the track is sloppy. It's often difficult on a sloppy track to get footing secure enough to mount a rally from behind, and there will be a lot of muddy kickback into the faces of increasingly annoyed trailing horses. Immediately I saw an opportunity. I logged into my wagering account and put a win/place wager on the Daredevil horse, odds of 4-1. The post parade continued and the #7 horse named Lizzie B was a longshot at double digit odds sired, I learned, by Violence. Yes, another win/place bet.
The Violence-sired horse won, with the Daredevil-sired horse finishing 2nd. I cashed both tickets. Why didn't I bet the exacta? It paid $130.20.
Naturally, and immediately, I called Mr B.
When Dad answers the phone, or when I answer his call, if no one is around to hear me I say "Hey ya Big Guy!" If somebody is within earshot who isn't family, I'll say "Yes sir!" when answering. But when there is racing on the television, he and I both cut to the chase. The question one will first ask when the other answers - in this case me asking Dad when he answered; "Did you see that last race?!" Of course, this is what we ask the other when we have a winning ticket. "Did you see the sire of that #7 horse?" I asked. Mr B replied "Yes! Violence!" The Old Master of the Turf knows.
Roll the credits!
