Tuesday – Dark Day in Saratoga

Gambling highlights and lowlights:

• Have hit two of three jump races which is weird because I never hit jump races
• Bad news: not cashing in many races; lots of seconds (no, i don’t bet to place)
• Good news: have hit some very good long shots
• Net: I am well ahead for the seven days so far; five days to go
• Best hit:  liked both an 11-1 shot and a 13-1 shot; bet them both to win and boxed the exacta.  It came in, the winner paying $25.80 and the exacta paying $319.
• Longest shot: had a 21-1 shot come from last at the top of the stretch to win and pay $44.20.

But the weirdest win came on day three when I hit the big exacta.  Late in the day I thought I bet $25 on a horse in the 10th race.  That horse lost.  But when I came back the next day, my account (I bet using a NYRA account card) had $425 more than when I left the day before.  So I reviewed my bets from the previous day on the terminal.  See, when you bet on the self service machines, the first thing you do is select the track.  There are lots of tracks as NYRA takes simulcast bets on tracks all over the country and even in Australia.  Right below Saratoga, which is naturally on the top of the list, is Australia.  When I bet the last race at Saratoga, I must have accidentally hit the “Australia” button.  And weirdly enough the horse that I thought I bet at Saratoga won in Australia and returned $425 for my $25 bet.  Talk about blind luck!  I am good at those “down under” races!

Tuesday is a dark day at Saratoga – no racing.  Bob from Arlington was staying with me through Wednesday, so we considered our options for the day.  A movie at Saratoga’s new Criterion movie house?  Bob doesn’t go to the movies.  A trip to the harness track and casino to bet other tracks?  Only the worst race tracks run on Tuesday.  A 2.5 hour (one way) trip to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame?  I’ve been there, and Bob is not a big baseball fan.  A 2.0 hour trip to Hyde Park to visit the home and library of FDR?  Not a bad option, but four hours in the car was not appealing.

Instead we hung around, took a ride to Lake George (boring), skipped the numerous outlet stores there, drove up Prospect Mountain Veteran’s Parkway, took the slow route back to Saratoga, and visited the Saratoga National Historical Park that I stopped at on the way into town on day one.  We had an ice cream for lunch.  It killed the day.

On Monday Bob and I ate at Pennell’s, a Saratoga institution for 93 years.  It was as good as ever although Bob wasn’t overly happy with his steak.  On Tuesday we ate at the Wishing Well.  Everything was excellent as usual.  Bob loved his steak and I had the triple cut lamb chops.  The corn on the cob was superb.