Anyways it reminded me of my youth and some of the things I would do before a big basketball game in high school and/or college and the routine that I would always mimic. I guess you could say I've always been superstitious in a lot of different ways.
This got me to thinking...am I superstitious at the track? Do I have these same idiosyncrasies that I do in everyday life (park my car in same spot everyday, sidewalk crack avoidance, same seat in conference room, etc.)? Let's examine some of my quirks...
1. Going to the Windows. I will not return to a window that I have lost at. I will return to a window I have won at.
2. I always bet an exacta in the first race. It's kind of like warm-ups, if I plan on playing a whole card when on track. Not sure why I do this, but I'm pretty consistent with this scenario.
3. Last race group superfecta. Not sure this qualifies for superstition status, but whenever I'm with a group, we have to play the group $1 super. Typically we'll each pick a horse and throw in $6/each if there's four of us or $8/each if it's a three top. We've hit it a couple times, the most for $1K, so I'm highly superstitious not to walk away.
4. Always tip the bathroom attendant guy/gal. It's good karma and there's usually a nice selection of candies.
5. Never count your chickens before they're hatched. Lots of stuff can happen in that final furlong. Don't call out your winner til he's crossed the line. Better yet, keep it to yourself and do the Ickey Shuffle in your head. Made this rookie mistake early on in my horseplayer career and it wasn't pretty. Sure to get a "Don't Do That" from the Saratoga Resident.
Those are a couple of my superstitions when at the track.
Other Stuff
You may have noticed that it's been a tad dormant around here over the past couple weeks. The Space Gal had some surgery around New Year's and is still recuperating so I've had Space Kids duty and my real job busy season has started too. Glad to report that the Space Gal is ok and recovering nicely.
On New Year's Eve between hospital visits I was a call-in guest on Capitol OTB's Loose on the Lead TV show with Equidaily's Seth Merrow and At The Races' Steve Byk. It was a lot of fun discussing the year end review, the Buffalo-Toga trip and some handicapping tips I posted on my year end TBN blog.
For the third consecutive year I will be part of the Wireplayers Derby Dozen panel. I really enjoy participating with this fun group of handicappers, fans and bloggers. They all love the sport so much and we have a good time doing it. You can see some past year's dozens on my left hand sidebar.
I posted some post-Eclipse thoughts on my Friday blog over in the TBN Sports, Ink blog. My Eclipse predictions from earlier last week were pretty darn good if I must say so myself. Nailed a couple things: a) Jeannine Edwards would kill it as host; (b) Animal Kingdom would win the 3-year old male Eclipse by less than 10 votes (how about 3!); (c) Bill Mott would win his 3rd Trainer Eclipse and (d) Havre de Grace would take home Horse of the Year honors. Not too shabby, Kreskin.
It's a new year, have you joined ThoroFan or renewed your ThoroFan membership?
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So do you have any racing superstitions or idiosyncrasies to share?
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