One of the individuals is a colorful character in the literal sense. His usual approach to the black and white print in the Daily Racing Form is to attack it with a variety of colored Sharpies, leaving the pages brightly hued with graphic analysis that somewhat resembles the USA Today weather map, or Tom Carvell's Cookie Puss ice cream cake. If no winners are picked, then we at least usually know if it might rain in Ohio.
This is the same person who believes numbers predict events, and that horses that share his surname, Bonilla, will win with the frequency of a champion. On this last theory this person has been proved right on more than one occasion when a horse named Bonilla would win at Mountaineer Park with such regularity and high odds that it was easy to buy the college textbooks for his two sons.
Perhaps this person is granted their good fortune because they observe the religious rituals of Lent, and annually abstain from making wagers. Once Lent and the Resurrection are finished, it's back to the window.
They also will have nothing to do with any horse that has the word 'Devil' in their name, or the Spanish translation of the word. And not just in the competing horse's name, but in their ancestry as well. This means their sire and grand-sire, along with the dam and dam's sire. The Daily Racing Form provides the ancestry information for each horse running.
A full card of 10 races was presented at Aqueduct race track on Saturday. Unacknowledged by Einstein is the theory that there is no faster time spent on earth than that in a bar, or that at the racetrack. And since this quartet doesn't partake at a bar, time whooshes by at the trackside dining table.
After five and a half hours of trenchant analysis, color charts, and watching races, fatigue can set in. The modern racetrack offers simulcasting of races from all over the United States. On this particular Saturday the program literally lists horses from six United States tracks other than Aqueduct, and one from South America, the Hipodromo Chile, in Chile.
The quartet's tastes don't take to these perpetual action possibilities, but when there are two top-notch Kentucky Derby prep races from two different tracks, then attention will be paid. These happened to be the Blue Grass Stakes from Keeneland, and the Arkansas Derby from Oaklawn Park, both the 11th races on the respective cards.
But waiting even a few extra minutes for these to be held can light a fire of action agitation under some people. Thus, color chart Bonilla took to assessing the field for the 10th race at Oaklawn Park, giving the 1-7 the exacta green light, Nehro and Yawanna Twist. A wager was made.
The televisions at the dinning tables positively stink at Aqueduct. They are so old and outdated it's a wonder they are in color and aren't confined to 'I Love Lucy Reruns.' If NYRA wants to goose the on-track experience they should get some new LED flat panel sets, or give everyone an iPad.
The antiquity of the TV sets, coupled with the glare, make them barely watchable. Thus, when the 10th race from out-of-state was viewed, after Aqueduct's own 10th race, Jose didn't realize, nor did anyone else at the table that he was watching the 10th from Keeneland. Not only that, Jose bet the 10th from Keeneland with his 10th from Oaklawn selections, 1-7.
After five and a half hours, tracks can pretty much seem alike, and Oaklawn and Keeneland on a TV you can't see, are similar. Also, the number 10 is a common number and appears nearly everywhere. So, watching the 10th from Keeneland we're treated to a stirring two horse finish that sees the 1-7 prevail as the exacta, and pays $78.60.
And the 10th from Keeneland is what Jose played, and pleased as punch that his selections ran to the exacta; that Nehro is a great horse, winning the race. I know, because he told me again in the bathroom.
Of course Nehro didn't run in the 10th at Keeneland, he was running in the 10th at Oaklawn, and when it was finished, ran badly.
Racetrack tickets are very precise. They don't pay off on your intentions, they pay off on what the ticket says, and Jose's, despite what's in his mind, is worth $78.60.
This is very good news. Money won is twice as nice as money earned, and money won by accident is better still.
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