Sunshine Millions Day

Tweet I can't tell you how excited I was for Sunshine Millions Day. When the Space Gal gave me her desired dates to head down south my eyes widened when I saw that the Saturday of the weekend we would be in South Florida was Millions Day. As I stated in the previous blog entry, I've visited Gulfstream several times over the past five years, but never on a big race day. The joint was definitely buzzing on Saturday and for good reason. I was most excited to see the Sprint, looming as a duel between This One's for Phil and Pashito the Che.

My pal, Frank reserved a table for six up in the Ten Palms Restaurant on the second floor of Gulfstream and we had a nice view of the track around the eighth pole. What excited me most was the Space Kid on the last day of his first year of life completing a track trifecta of Keeneland, Churchill Downs and Gulfstream Park. He is my good luck charm. When we walked into Churchill, we hit the trifecta on the first race we played. On Saturday, ditto ($42.30). I need to bring him along more often. Ironically, the 32-1 we had in the third spot was named Family Holiday. Not a bad hunch play. I followed up the tri in the 5th with a $5WP on Hollywood Left ($10.60, $5.60) who held off a 40-1 longshot in a photo in the day's only turf sprint. The Kid was still giving me good vibes.

The day got better as we scored another trifecta in the 6th ($77.10), again with the favorite and third choice in the first two slots and Don Cavallo (a 5-1 Pletcher/Johnny V) underneath (thanks Frank). My newest play is a 2x3x5 one dollar tri (cost $12) that was successful several times over the two day visit in the sun.

We visited Ernie who was doing his thing and played a little stump the guitarist with the Space Gal. The Gulfstream folk are wise to have him play and initiate chatter among the faithful with his racing trivia knowledge. Good times.

The last play of the day we put together a joint effort $80 Late Pick Four, which we hit for $120. Not a huge score, but better than a sharp stick in the eye. My good friend the Saratoga Resident taught me early on, "first you cash the ticket, then you complain about how small it is." So from a gambling perspective it was a great day. The Space Gal topped it off by surprising me with a Edgar Prado Gulfstream bobblehead.

By far, the race of the day was the Sprint and a terrific duel as expected with This One's For Phil holding off Pashito for Rick Dutrow. The Distaff was won via a game effort by Sweet Repent. The Turf was won by Jet Propulsion (3-1), who gave me some distance questions, but with Julien Leparoux up, I was wise to keep him in our Pick 4 play. All in all it was a fun day with friends and family. Here are a few more amateurish shots of the day.....

A glimpse of the beautiful Gulfstream paddock from the second floor balcony.

Tricky Rick Dutrow was in the house.





Even money This One's For Phil looming large in the paddock.

Eclipse winning jockey Julien Leparoux who rode Accredit in the Sprint.

Gulfstream racecaller Larry Collmus in the perch.

Back to balmy Buffalo and subzero temperatures. Gulfstream, I'm gonna miss ya....