Last updated: 5:56 p.m.
2:27 pm: They're at the gate for Leg 1 at Aqueduct...With 1 MTP they've bet $705k on top of the $205k carryover. A little under $2k of that is mine. I put most of my eggs in the Aqueduct basket.
2:37 pm: She's My Sunshine ($5.30), 2-1 onscreen during the race and 8-5 at the wire, beats 5-1 Alyssa Givonna to keep everyone alive after one leg, including 13 of my 14 tickets. A few anxious moments as 60-1 Western Decision appeared to be opening up on the field around the turn, but she tired late and She's My Sunshine wore them down from the outside.
2:45 pm: Here we go again: Favored Colin's Princess at 5-2 and 20-1 Reachforthecastle are scratched at the gate in race 4 at Keeneland, first leg of the pick six.
2:50 pm: Saved by the fave? Holiday Cruise, favored at 2-1 following two gate scratches, wins the opening leg at Keeneland to bail out those who backed the two gate scratches. My $672 play is now alive twice since all my tickets began "2,7/." It may have worked out this time but this is yet another reminder of why we need an alternate-selection mechanism. [Update: I'm completely confused. Commenters and the TVG commentators are saying you get a refund rather than a switch to the PT fave in the first leg of a p6 at Keeneland, but official results are showing the scratched horses (2&3) as "winners" in the first leg.]
3:06 pm: Bebob ($4.80), coming off a last-out Beyer of 90 in a field where no one else had exceeded a 79, rolls home by seven lengths. Buy a Personality, hammered to 3-1 changing barns from Dominic Galluscio to Bruce Levine, looks like a winner on the stretch turn but takes a funny step and loses all his momentum, continues on for second.
3:18 pm: Terrifany (5/2), Wesley Ward firster in filly baby race, homebred co-owned by Joe Pesci and produced by the mare Pesci, wires the field at 5-2 in Leg 2 at Keeneland. I singled second-best Pletcher firster Iberian Gate on my main ticket to I'm down to one backup ticket that goes 3,5/1,7/1,5,8,9/1,6 the rest of the way.
3:33 pm: Down to a thread at Aqueduct as 7-2 Volos, a chronic stopper I didn't care for at all, wins by 5 3/4 as all my clever ideas like 12-1 distant runner-up Metulla tank. Down to a 2x1x3 backup ticket: 3,10/7/1,4,8.
3:52 pm: Nistle's Crunch (8/5) is tons the best winning Leg 3 at Keeneland. Two faves and a second choice so far at both tracks but I'm thin at both: 2x1x3 at Aqu, 2x4x2 at Kee.
4:05 pm: Dontcha just love it when your only two horses hook up through fast fractions right out of the gate in a turf race? Fortunately, Raw Silk($5.80) turns back Tessitura and is so much the best that she rebreaks and draws clear to keep my thin, chalky ticket alive in Leg 4 at Aqueduct.
4:17 pm: Scared to death when Victorianna takes the lead a quarter of a mile into a Polytrack race but she's good enough to win on the front end in Leg 4 at Keeneland as the chalk parade marches on in both carryovers.
4:32 pm: Cosmic gets the job done at even money despite running like a goofball through the stretch, lugging in but just getting past 10-1 Sebastian Cat. Four faves and a second choice so far. Let's see if I can get my money back by finishing this thing off with the 1,4 or 8 in the finale.
4:38 pm: Here comes the Aqueduct will-pays.....Ick. $907 to the 1, $1015 to the 4, $2951 to the 8.
4:48 pm: Phew. Alwajeeha (9/2) looks like she won the photo in the Appalachian, leaving me alive to the 1 and 6 in the Keeneland finale...
5:02 pm: One down, one to go. At least the $1,015 beat the $907 at Aqueduct. Between that, consos and refunds, I'm perilously close to even. Still no will-pays from Keeneland on TVG or the NYRA website with 8 MTP. is it because of the opening-leg refunds?
5:15 pm: 6 of 6 at Aqueduct, 5 of 6 at Keeneland, and a net loser for the day. Was alive to the 1 & 6 in the Kentucky finale, both paying around $8k, and looked a likely winner with either one of them approaching the wire, but both hung and along came Matz second-timer A. P. Fortune to blow past everyone for an $18,342 payoff. I think it gets worse and that I actually would have had them both twice, because I got four rather than two consos and Keeneland is reporting the entire pre-scratch pool as the handle on the bet, suggesting you DID scratch into the post-time fave in the first leg.
Oh well. Plenty of action and I'd do it again. And now I believe it's time for a cocktail.
