Formulator Rocks

Tweet And I'm not just shilling for the TBA and the DRF here. I used Formulator yesterday for the first time and hit the all-stakes Pick-4 at the Fair Grounds on a $6 ticket and was live to four horses in the Louisiana Derby. Granted I would have been happier to see Flying Pegasus , Giant Oak or Patena come home with the victory, let's just say I was a happy man yesterday afternoon as Friesen Fire roared home with a 7 length victory in the slop. I probably wouldn't have even played it if it wasn't a $0.50 P4, but it was fun just sitting back and watching the races instead of my usual speed-capping (not a recommended course of action). Rachel Alexandra, headed for the Kentucky Oaks after her impressive win in the Fair Grounds Oaks, was the easy single to start the sequence. The big play was Macho Again (11-1) who closed like a "freight train by a hobo" per twitterer bloodstock in the New Orleans Handicap after running six wide around the turn! He beat me in the Dandy last summer at the Spa on an off track, wasn't going to happen again. The other angle I focused on was outside posts on the main sloppy track, an angle I learned on the Spa's opener last year. Macho from the 11 post and Friesen from the 9 post. It was extremely fun to be following the races on twitter with fellow race fans and bloggers yesterday, lots of insights from folks on and off track. Join the TBA feed here and at the homepage to follow your favorite bloggers.

Where Formulator came in handy for me was researching wet track statistics, trainer statistics, beyer graphs and the like. Formulator, I'm sold. It would have paid even larger had El Caballo (17-1 from post 9), who I had on a backup ticket (and would have been alive to Flying Pegasus and Friesen in the finale) not been beaten by a head bob with Proudinsky (3-1) in the Muniz. El C, had an improving beyer pattern (see Formulator) and had won 2 of 3 on off tracks (placed in the other) and had a nice wet Tomlinson rating. Man, it is a game of inches! It must be DRF day here in SpaceLand as I also have to give credit to Steve Crist's multirace betting techniques depicted in EquiSpace #1 ranked book Exotic Betting. I played about 7 tickets for a total of $25, with A and B horses, it is a nice way to play and cover a large number of horses with a lighter bankroll. Formulator, it rocks, and I have 9 cards remaining for another 29 days. It was a fun day with a rare multirace victory for the home team.

You'd think I'd learn my lesson. After the Geno fiasco noted last week's Go East Young Man post, when my namesake at 60-1 showed and paid $13.00. The Saratoga Resident, the Puma and I exchanged emails yesterday morning and had planned laying $10 across the board on Kinsella, a Pletcher $2.2M firster racing in the finale at GP in tough conditions against 3yos and older on the turf. Kinsella just happens to have the same name as someone in our handicapping circle. Somehow the Puma convinced us to play a four horse tri, which I modified down from a $2 to a $1ticket and I added a $2 WPS (in case he won and the tri blew up). Well, we should have stayed with our original $10 across the board strategy (pointed out in maybe 10-15 follow up post race emails from the Saratoga Resident) as he won going off at 6-1. Another lesson learned the hard way. At least my late play averted total disaster. Geno is entered on Thursday in a maiden claimer at the Fair Grounds....stay tuned.

I was hoping my P4 good luck would translate to a couple of conference championship wins for the University of Buffalo and the Orangemen last night, but both teams ran out of gas and had to settle for second best. Here's hoping the selection committee places the Orange in a Friday subregional to give them an extra day of much needed rest before the Big Dance. We'll be glued here to see where they end up, the last few days surely had to help their seeding. The Bulls on the other hand will hopefully, along with Niagara, grab a NIT bid and maybe a home game to attend!

Nice tip that the Turk gave out yesterday on Facebook to his cousin who was requesting a St. Patty's Day weekend pick, touting Win Willy ($115!) as a live longshot. Nice work Turk!

Enjoy Selection Sunday!