Changes since 1975? Some. The tote board is not lit by bulbs, but probably LED lighting that renders the numbers bigger and in color. The tote board for some reason reminds me of bubble gum. More self-service betting via machines and vouchers, but money is still money and you can still find a teller.
The main feature was the Alabama on Saturday. I will forever remember the 2013 Alabama when I went to get $100 out of the ATM. The machine shuffled out six! 20s, rather than the correct five. Who says you can't win at the races! Now, the ATM will dispense a single $100 bill for a $100 withdrawal. I miss that old machine. Oh well.
Since our stay was compressed to three racing days we went straight to the track from home on Thursday at 9:30. We picked up Johnny M. in Flushing and headed for Exit 14 on the Northway. I think the car could drive itself there.
Since we knew it would be close to make the first race, selections were bet online before leaving. And sure enough, just as we were crossing Union Avenue into the track the first race was being announced. We didn't win, but it doesn't count if you bet and are not there yet, right? It's sort like a pre-season game.
The dichotomy of starting a day in downtown Flushing with Asian signage EVERYWHERE, to arriving upstate in 3½ hours is not to be believed. Even if you haven't really travelled back in time 100 years as Red Smith so famously put it, you have still travelled back to a time that does seem preserved in amber. It is Brigadoon.
The walk from the free parking accessed from Henning Road could be a walk made 100 years ago. More, actually. Your path between the Horse Haven track from 1863 and the Oklahoma training track takes you through some stables and backstretch dorms that without the electric golf carts, could be on postcards from the 19th-century.
We settled into our reserved spot in the Fourstardave sports bar, feeling like we never left the place from a year ago. Even the waitress was the same efficient, young woman as last year. We hit the 2nd and 3rd race exactas, missed the 4th race, but hit the 5th race. Winning at the track is always a good thing; winning the first two bets you make—and those bets being exacta bets—is even better. We we're rolling toward what turned out to be a profitable day. The die is cast, no?
No. Friday was a downer, scratching out the day with only one winner, and an erosion of the voucher value. The play is to start the outing with a voucher, and bet off it, rolling the winnings into fattening it.
We did however luck out by being there for one of the giveaway days on Friday, this year a smart looking long-sleeve red and white T-shirt. You have to go back by the Big Red Spring to redeem your coupon, passing through the throng of people who have come early, staked out a piece of ground as if it were the Oklahoma land rush, surrounding themselves with chairs, tables and giant coolers. If you didn't know different, you might think a mass of humanity came up from the Kentucky floods and brought whatever could grab out of the house. They are a tradition.
I always marvel at the crowd at Saratoga as they promenade past the Fourstardave. No one is carrying a Racing Form, program, tout sheet, or sports section from the Times Union, Post Star or The Saratogian. No one is handicapping. They are however eating and drinking. To me, never have so many people been seen at a race track who don't seem to be there to handicap, but to rather just pick a name and bet, if they can stop eating and drinking long enough to free up a hand.
For some reason, there were no large size T-shirts. They just plain didn't have any. None were produced. My wife, who this year made the trip, was fine with her medium size, and Johnny M and I went to the XL ones. They shrink anyway. And my proportions there days are better suited to the XL size anyway. Johnny M. not so much.
When my number analysis favors it, I will sometimes make a 50¢ Trifecta box. I've hit a few of these over the years. Nothing big, but a cashable ticket is better than a losing ticket.
The 5th race on Saturday on paper looked to be a very tight race, favoring no one really. It was a Maiden Special Weight Race, 11/6 on the turf.
My numbers pointed to a strong 1/5 exacta, with a 1/5/6 Trifecta possibility. Bets were made accordingly.
Anyone who has watched turf racing knows that there can be some mighty close finishes. They all seem to keep coming at the end, creating winners and losers with not a lot of separation between them.
Such was how the 5th race ended. four horses hit the wire, with it discernible that the 5 won, Rarified Air by the tiniest of margins. The rest? Your guess. Was it the 1/6/2 in there?
Before cameras, there were placing judges poised overlooking the finish line, trying to establish the order of finish from a tower. The Whitney Tower. Old photos show this. It's hard to imagine they
A few years ago, NYRA made a replica of this judging stand an plopped it overlooking the Oklahoma training track. When it was first built, they let you climb the steps and imagine that you were judging a finish. We always pass walking to the track after taking in the free parking if you come in off Henning Road. Lately the Whitney stand seems chained off, and I don't see anyone satisfying their curiosity. Really no big deal.
I think of the era of eyeballing the order of finish when there is an exceedingly close finish. And the finish for Saturday's 5th race could hardly be closer. The winner, Rarified Flair, the 5 horse, could be deduced to have won. After that, it's a jump ball.
Was I alive for my exacta? For my Triple? When it takes more time than usual to post the complete order of finish, you can almost always win a bet that there is a dead heat in there somewhere. And of course, after many minutes of waiting, there was a dead heat finish.
Official order of finish: 5/2. Dead Heat 1/6. Thus, the exacta was 1/6 for the payoff; there were two Trifectas: 5/2/1; 5/2/6. Did I have it? No. The 2 got in there and upset my applecart. John Velazquez, picking up Joel Rosario's mounts because of an illness, got in there with Conversing at nearly 9-1.
Four horses finished a head and a neck apart. I got oogatz. That would have been nice to hit the exacta and the trifecta in the same race. What game isn't a game of inches? Chess. Poker. Backgammon.
Once official, it is what it is, much as I hate that expression. After once again winning the first bet of the day, the day finished up in a very melodramatic fashion. Down $40 for the three days. Headed home on Sunday, and not via the track.
I once heard a CEO of the company I worked for brush off a $17 million loss on a monumentally failed software effort as having at least provided "great tuition."
I get my education for a lot less.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment