BuffaLuck, Ranallo & Turf Accountants

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No, this isn't a post about the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, but another racing blog that will discuss the new HBO series Luck. I wasn't planning on discussing it other than maybe a random bullet point in a random blog....however...


I received an circuitous email sent by USA Today sportswriter and Buffalo native Erik Brady via one of my partners with the same last name (no relation) discussing the Buffalo connections of the series. Here's what I gleaned from the email:


- David Milch, the show's producer, is Buffalo-born and raised, which explains the obscure name dropping of the one-time Buffalo newspaper Courier-Express during the show. "What are you," asks the horseplayer  in the wheelchair played by Kevin Dunn, “the morning Courier-Express?” 


- Milch's childhood idol was the late Courier-Express columnist Phil Ranallo, who wrote a daily column called "What's New Harry." The column featured horseplayer Honest Harry who would dive into his many forays at the racetrack, along with his wife, Ruby.  Ranallo also happened to win the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Newspaper Writing in 1972.


- The Buffalo News' Art Director Jeff Simon wrote this review on his former classmate Milch's newest HBO series.


Who knew the various connections to Buffalo. What did I think? Well, I'm intrigued by it so far and it's way too early to make any snap judgments about its potential success. I enjoyed the racing scenes and the Pick Six players the most. I liked how they explained to the casual viewer what a "single" in the bet represented and that the scene keyed on the singled horse. The scene was breathtaking as the "bug boy" was boxed in and forced to shoot up the rail to win the key race in the sequence. 


They had to lay out a whole array of characters over the hour long show, so it did take some time to develop. While the racetrack lingo could be considered to be confusing to the non-racing fan viewer, I think in time folks will pick up on what's going on and all in all this could be very good for racing and generating new fans.


While hitting a $2.7M Pick Six doesn't happen everyday, it's similar to the way most of us were hooked on the game. A nice score and adrenaline pumping through the veins when your horse crosses the line first. We've all experienced it. That dance that the guy was doing in the hallway, yep, I know that dance.


I for one, am looking forward to giving it a chance and seeing the main characters played by Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte and Dennis Farina and how they develop.


On a side note, I was having lunch with my friend Moe (not my Uncle) and he mentioned that his son, a graduate of the Naval Academy, had given him a Winston Churchill book filled with quotes from the famous Englishman. He said he stumbled on the term, turf accountants, in the book and asked if I had ever heard of it. He explained that is the term used in the UK for bookmakers. We'll file that tidbit in the
"you learn something new every day" folder.

Labor of Love

Tweet This game can be a labor of love and on this cold and windy Labor Day weekend in the B-Lo, my focus was on Del Mar for a couple days. Friday night my stepfather-in-law and I were taking in the Friday night card and watching bomb after bomb come in. The TVG telecast team seemed like they had just taken a bunch of ecstasty pills before the broadcast as they were as wacky as I've ever seen them. The Space Gal even mentioned that they had lost their minds when she asked what in the world we were watching.

I stayed up and handicapped the Saturday card and the mammoth Pick 6 and actually hit 5 of 6 (missing the finale - I don't think I could ever wager on a horse with that jockey riding and expect to win) on a $192 play. I was live to the #1 (third choice) and the #8 (second choice Snovember - seemed appropriate for a Bflo boy) and it was fun following the last few races. I always find I do better when I handicap the night before for some reason.

The Toga Party Contest is heading down the stretch and looks to be a two-horse race between Floppydog (who just missed the Woodward $2 exacta by two bucks) and Tony Bada Bing, with Bada Bing looking like he may take it with a Johnny V jockey victory and the turf race points. We'll have everything tabulated by Tuesday morning and announce the winner then.

It's hard to believe the Saratoga and Del Mar meetings are coming to a close (we hardly knew ya), but there's been some exciting racing all summer and as the seasons start to change here the Fall meets at Belmont, Oak Tree, Keeneland will lead to the penultimate at Churchill in early November and the Breeders' Cup World Championships. I'm especially looking forward to the Keeneland fall meeting and their $0.50 trifecta and Pick 4 wagers, not to mention the quality fields....ok polytrack it's time we meet again.

At this time next week I'll be sitting in the Ralph, hoping the hometown Bills "squish the fish" in our opener against our arch rivals. We'll know pretty quick whether this team has anything or if they will take us to another 4-12 campaign. As usual the QB situation is tenuous at best, it's pretty bad when you get excited that Matt Leinart is on the market. At least, the Cuse came out and won their first opener in several years, beating Akron handily behind QB Ryan Nassib (dude's got a cannon).

Have a great Labor Day.

Easy Money

Tweet I'm still not sure if I'm cool with joining the TwinSpires Players Pool yesterday, but hey if you can get 5x or 6x (depending how you're looking at it) on your dough, that's not too shabby (as one, Adam Sandler, would say). As I stated yesterday, I threw a few bucks ($30) into the $60K pool, the equivalent of .0005 and hoped for the best. I'd say it worked out okay, when the 10 horse Slick Wheelie ($16.80) roared home for the win and a $377K hit for the Players Pool. My cut was $204 (pretax) and $157 (net) as they also cashed 31 consos at $983 each. I was a little surprised (didn't read the fine print about the taxes being taken out) as I thought the "rules" stated that I was responsible for my own taxes, totally forgetting about the required withholding on a ticket that large.

My own picks (which I decided not to play since the 8th was a real mindbender) hit only 3 of 6, my single Peat Bay ($4.80) in the 5th, Power Dreams ($10.60)in the 7th and Crowned General ($21.40) in the 9th, so it was a good idea to sit out and just watch the TS PP ticket roll. I was proud of the Crowned General selection at 10-1, but my single in the nightcap, The Roundhouse didn't come through. I ended up playing the Pick 3's in and around each of the races and nailed the 5-7 sequence and lost the 8-10 sequence (missing only the aforementioned 8th in both bets). So all in all I feel my handicapping is still sharp and my bet construction and wagering decisions have made great strides in the past six months.

Will I participate in the Players Pool again? Maybe. It was fun being live to 6 horses in the finale, with 4 of them paying greater than 3x investment. Plus it kept me interested in the card playing my usual exacta and/or Pick 3 wagers, so maybe they're on to something with this?

Dipping My Toe in the Pool

Tweet I'm not a regular Pick 6 player, but since the pool should approach $2M today at the Spa, I figured I'd take a half-hearted shot. I also became intrigued by the TwinSpires Players' Pool which is taking a swing at the big money today. Even though it feels a little weird, I contributed a few bucks to the Players' Pool just so I could see how my selections fare against some of the better handicappers in the biz. The Players' Pool utilizes the talents of three different handicappers and the Pool is capped with $60K worth of TwinSpires member contributions...wowsa, that's some nice play money to go after a P6 with, eh?

I remember seeing that they took down a big pool on Belmont Day....so why not try and double or triple (or egads, quadruple) your money with a really deep ticket that you can follow along and root for? I guess there's nothing wrong with it....although I still feel a little funny like I'm one of those zombies pulling the lever at the slot machine. I guess I'll justify it by putting in a small play of my own and see what happens. When you don't have bankroll you have to find the singles. My singles will be #5-Peat Bay in the 5th race and #9-The Roundhouse in the 10th race and I'll play a variety of two horse combos in between.

We'll report back tomorrow with comparisons and what it was like to be in the Players Pool and how my paltry ticket matched up with the big boys.

Good luck Space Cadets....