Roller Coaster Day

Tweet It was one of those up and down days all the way around. I woke up to a happy Space Kid and made the family some breakfast before sitting down with my morning cup of joe and the paper. When I opened up the sports page first (a habit since 2nd grade) I was met with a front page (sports section) article saying that the Happy Handicapper had passed at age 66. Talk about a tough way to start the day. Bob Summers covered turf racing for the Buffalo News since 1984. I knew The Turk would be affected by these events and it wasn't long before he had a nice tribute up over on his blog. The News rarely provides the sport of horse racing the light of day outside of the agate section, but would on occasion provide the Happy Handicapper space to discuss the Triple Crown races or the Prince of Wales Stakes. He rarely picked favorites and always had an angle that he shared with his readers. I'll miss him along with many other Western New York racing fans and handicappers. The buzz around the Wehrle Drive OTB today was all about his sudden death and that he will be sorely missed in these parts...

Speaking of the Wehrle OTB, the Saratoga Resident and I met for a little lunch and handicapping of the first few races to celebrate the final Saratoga card of the season. In traditional fashion we played a four horse superfecta box (the bet that hooked me in 2004 on closing day) on the fourth race after an engaging debate over the last horse. Yours truly and both of us won out and cashed a nice ticket to keep our tradition alive. For the early part of the card, that was the lone highlight as I was getting murdered in the early Pick 3's. But a shooter in a slump keeps on shooting....

The environs changed back to the Space Station after bidding the Saratoga Resident farewell and I put together a final Pick 4 play (followed by a late Pick 3) which we cashed on and all was merry in the Space Pad. As Keertana cruised by everyone on the rail in the Glens Falls, the Space Kid was mimicking my "Oh Yeah!" shouts from the kitchen. The Kid is sooo ready for this game. Live in the finale to the top 3 choices, Voodoo Queen brought it home to close the meet and a very topsy turvy day.

While the exhiliration of hitting on the final bets of the meet was awesome, the realization that the meet has come to an end started to set in and we were on the downward side of the roller coaster again.....what a day.

One other note before we wrap up the holiday weekend, I downloaded a very cool app called Equibase Yearbook on my iPad on Friday. You can search any graded stakes race (and some non-graded ones), see the results and chart and watch the video. Very cool stuff and by late Saturday evening they already had the Woodward and Forego up within the application. A must have for racing fans and a nice way to search and watch replays.

Final results of the Toga Party III contest will be announced tomorrow after final numbers are released by NYRA.