Here we are on the 365th day of the year, but since 2008's a leap year we've got one more to go, so tomorrow's the day that any carryovers have a mandatory payout. We couldn't get the 20-day Hawthorne pool to carry past Saturday, and Santa Anita's was hit yesterday on a special Monday program, but at least there's a $30k carry at Aqueduct tomorrow that has to be disbursed whether or not anyone picks all six.
The Aqueduct carry runs through the semi-traditional New Year's Eve feature, the 13-furlong Gallant Fox Handicap. There's a little more long-distance form than usual to go on this year, thanks to some new and repositioned races that were designed to create a path to the inaugural Breeders' Cup Marathon. Front-running Delosvientos, the 8-5 Gallant Fox favorite, won three 12-furlong races this summer including the newly-lengthened G2 Brooklyn and the Point Given at Monmouth. Jade's Revenge (8-1) won Keeneland's extended 13-furlong Fort Harrod and was second to Big Booster in Hollywood's 13-furlong Gallant Man. Lorccan, Lord Kipling and Critical Acclaim come into the race off the local prep, the 13-fuirlong Coyote Lakes Dec. 3.
Here's the Aqueduct pick-6 lineup:
Race 4: 2M NYB MdSpWt, 1m+70y -- Field of 10, 3 AE's
Race 5: 3+ StAlw Clm50k+Nw1x, 6f -- Field of 11
Race 6: 3+ Clm30k, 6f -- Field of 12 (1 entry)
Race 7: 3+ AlwN2x/OC50k, 6f -- Field of 11 (2 entries)
Race 8: 3+ Gallent Fox, 13f -- Field of 10 (1 entry)
Race 9: 3+F NY MdCl25k, 6f -- Field of 12 + 2 AE's
The sequence is scheduled to start at 1:52 p.m.
--Instead of playing the Santa Anita carryover yesterday, I won $35,000 by finishing third in a 216-player, $2,000 buy-in no-limit Hold'em poker tournament. Unfortunately, this happened not in the real world but on the Playstation 3 game "World Series of Poker: Battle for the Bracelets." At least I don't have to pay taxes on my "winnings."
After swearing off PC gaming after blowing up two video cards on the Dell laptop this month, I went with the PS3 over xBox and Nintendo primarily because the PS3 also functions as a Blu-Ray disc player, and once you've seen Blu-Ray DVD's on a 1080p HDTV, it's hard to go back.
Other than Gallop Racer, are there any decent horse-racing games for the Playstation?
