Showing posts with label Where players win. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Where players win. Show all posts

  • The Jazzman: from babysitter to Pick 6 hitter

    POSTED Jan 24, 2013 By Unknown


    Six years ago when “a crazy girlfriend” he had met at church dragged The Jazzman to Palm Beach Kennel Club to babysit her kid so she could bet the races, the South Florida musician never imagined he’d be playing the races from home let alone winning $270,448 on a $10 wager in the process.

    But that’s exactly where the blues player from West Palm Beach found himself on Monday when he turned a $10 Pick 6 play on TwinSpires.com into $270,448, and he’s taking requests on what to do with the money.

    “I have some bills to pay off, and I’ll probably put the rest into a money market account,” The Jazzman said. “I need to do something exciting, though. Got any ideas? I’ll probably take some swings at Gulfstream’s [$500,000-plus Rainbow^6] carryover.”

    The Jazzman is no stranger to small bets with big rewards. In 2009 he hit a $53,000 Pick 6 at Fairplex on a $4 ticket. For his more-than-quarter-million-dollar score on Monday, he played three tickets: a $2 ticket using all favorites, a $4 ticket using no favorites, and a $4 ticket combining his most likely winners with the longshots he liked most such as Renee’s Titan in the Santa Ynez.

    It was that last $4 ticket that hit for $270,448 as one of two winners of the bet on the day.

    “I got up Monday planning to play the Pick 6,” The Jazzman said. “The first thing I do is download the Brisnet past performances on TwinSpires since I get those for free when I bet and look at pace, speed, and class. Then I look at the jockeys of contenders. The thing I follow most is Southern California jockeys; I follow those jockeys like a groupie follows rock stars.”

    The Jazzman credits knowing all the jockeys in the colony—not just the stars like Mike Smith and Rafael Bejarano—with leading to his Fairplex score, and his faith in Tyler Baze served him well when that journeyman piloted Renee’s Titan to win the Santa Ynez over heavily favored two-year-old filly champion Beholder in her three-year-old debut.

    The Jazzman’s strongest opinion was in the last race with $6.20 winner Judge Carr. Live to only that horse for a monumental score instead of hedging with others in the race, he simply bet Judge Carr to place to add another $3.40 to his $270,448 score.

    Despite the big score and zest for chasing other carryovers, The Jazzman doesn’t plan to change his approach.

    “I learned to handicap using the Brisnet PPs,” he said. “There’s so much information there I remember the first time I opened it up and said, ‘My God.’

    “But I stuck with it and stuck with my approach of always making a concerted effort to bet a small amount of money. I don’t like to overwhelm myself with a bunch of horses in every leg. These guys sit around at the track and they have ten horses in a leg and still lose.

    “You can do a lot with $200, but you can do a lot with $10 too. The most important thing is you have to study."



  • TwinSpires.com bettor plays name game to scoop Pick 6 at Del Mar

    POSTED Aug 27, 2012 By Unknown
    A name he liked coupled with a jockey he recognized led Mr. Hariri to scoop Thursday’s Pick 6 at Del Mar for gross winnings of $495,060.80 on a $146 play.

    Playing through TwinSpires.com, the West Coast resident took a stab at Thursday’s $89,785 Pick 6 carryover by crafting nine separate tickets, including a main $96 play that hit six of six plus six consolation (5/6) payouts. A separate $4 play in which he singled the seventh race (fifth leg) winner but missed the third race (first leg) also cashed a consolation payoff of $1,790.60.

    The seventh race (fifth leg) single in question was Zimmer, who shipped to Del Mar from Churchill Downs for trainer Pat Byrne and was dismissed at 14.9-to-1, the longest shot in the seven-horse field of optional claimers. Hariri was initially attracted to the horse because of his name and decided to gamble on the Empire Maker colt when he saw Racing Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith listed to ride.

    “The way I play horses is by name,” Hariri said the morning after his big score. “I don’t care about odds; I play names I like. The longshot who led to me getting the whole pot was Zimmer. When I saw his name I said, ‘That’s a pretty cool name.’ Normally I’ll just go with names, and if I like it I’ll play it, but when I saw Mike Smith was riding I knew I had to include this horse.”

    The only single on Hariri’s winning ticket was Orientatious in the fourth race (second leg). The Orientate filly paid $20.20 to win and helped key separate wins for Hariri in the double, Pick 3, and Pick 5 that brought the day’s gross winnings to more than $500,000.

    “This is what it’s like to be hit by lightning,” Hariri said. “I didn’t believe it until I saw the money in my account. I couldn’t sleep last night.”

    Despite being live through two races with $12 and $20.20 horses (first-time starter Carving in the third race [first leg] and Orientatious, respectively), Hariri also played the late Pick 4. However, by the time the final race rolled around, he was too nervous to watch following Zimmer’s upset score.

    “I couldn’t watch it live, and I didn’t look at the will pays,” Hariri said. “I watched it on replay and even when I knew I won I thought since it was the favorite in the last leg [even money Bev N Bud] I thought it might pay $40,000 or $50,000.”

    In addition to his Pick 6 riches, Hariri also hit the Pick 5 on a $63 play that returned $4,020.85 and the Pick 4 three times on a $49 play that returned $1,618.05.

    “You never know what will happen,” Hariri said. “Sometimes horses just have their day, and yesterday was my day. I’m sharing my strategy so others can use it and win too.”

    Hariri said he opened a TwinSpires.com account shortly after his initial trip to the racetrack, and although he loves the convenience and excitement of playing online he said that his favorite part of racing is when the horses turn for home.

    “The stretch run is very exhilarating,” Hariri said. “I love horses, and I love watching them run.”

    Hariri is planning a trip to Chicago with some of his winnings, but the big windfall did not keep him away from this past weekend’s action featuring the Travers Stakes at Saratoga and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

    “It’s a big weekend with Saratoga and Del Mar,” Hariri said. “I’m not greedy, though. I’ll still play, but I won’t go crazy just because I won.”

  • Give and takeout

    POSTED Jun 7, 2012 By Unknown
    A very specific subset of TwinSpires.com users received good news on Tuesday.

    If you were one of 22,574 players who placed Pick 3, Pick 4, trifecta, or superfecta wagers on New York Racing Associations tracks from mid September 2010 through mid December 2011 and won any of those wagers, then you received a positive adjustment on your account to reflect the difference between payouts based on 26% and 25% takeout.

    If you didn't get an e-mail then that means you either A) didn't play the aforementioned wagers at the aforementioned tracks, or B) are not a TwinSpires.com member.

    If it's the former then I will remind you that NYRA has reduced its takeout on those wagers to 24%, which is a lot better deal than 26%. A wager in those pools that had paid $500 now pays $513. Not bad!

    If it's the latter, then what are you waiting for? TwinSpires.com boasts that it's Where Players Win, but more importantly it's where Players Get Treated Fairly as well.

    I've already spent my adjustment chasing the double carryover in the Pick 5 on Wednesday at Delaware Park. I was seven-deep in a 12-horse field for payouts ranging from $800-$15,000 and couldn't get the job done, but it was a nice thrill for a Wednesday afternoon 

    Of course many more thrills await this weekend. The TwinSpires.com Player's Pool is back in action, and hopefully the Belmont Pick 6 will carry again into Friday to give us a nice double carryover to chase with some of our $75,000. There are other promotions as well, including the chance to win a souvenir win ticket on I'll Have Another by wagering $50 on Belmont day, a chance for triple TSC Elite points for correctly identifying whether I'll Have Another will win, top handicapping information, and the best online tournament structure offering the most chances to qualify for top Vegas tournaments.

    TwinSpires.com offers great promotions, contests, and giveaways every day, and they're all on the web for people to see. TwinSpires.com offers great customer service every day, too, and while that's harder to illustrate on a daily basis, this week's positive adjustment for 22,574 shows it's just as important to us as fun contests and great handicapping info.

  • TwinSpires player scoops $71k Arlington Pick 9

    POSTED May 24, 2012 By Unknown

    Wayne Morgan never had an anxious moment on Wednesday at Arlington Park when cheering home his ninth winner of the Pick 9 sequence.

    One of his three picks, even money favorite Party Vision, opened a clear lead in the stretch, and the only two horses running late were the others on his ticket.

    Party Vision was one of five favorites to win on the nine-race card, including a quartet at 3-to-2 or less, so even with the $54,510 carryover going into Wednesday’s dime Pick 9, Morgan was not expecting a big pay day. Indeed, a $2 parlay on the nine winners would have returned about $25,000, which is only $1,250 for a dime.

    “I figured it’d be something because of the carryover, but I was thinking maybe a few thousand,” said Morgan whose two singles were even money favorite Mai Tai Mama in the first race and 3-to-2 favorite Dreams Die First in the fourth race. “I figured if I hit it on my ticket with all those favorites then other people probably did too.”

    Well, other people didn’t hit it, and Morgan’s $144 play returned $71,334.46 for nine of nine plus another $431.28 for a dozen eight-of-nine consolation tickets worth $35.94 each. By comparison the $1 Pick 6 returned $535.60 despite a parlay value of $835.21.

    “My only other big score was also on a Pick 9,” Morgan said. “That was a Place Pick 9 at Balmoral and paid about $5,000, so I’ve never experienced anything like this.”

    Morgan is a TSC Elite Gold member who wagers through TwinSpires.com and used TwinSpires.com’s mobile interface when placing his winning wagers on Wednesday. Still, the 59-year-old Air Force veteran and father of four says he enjoys making it to live racing when he can.

    “We’ve gone to the Trackside OTBs a few times, but Arlington is a real nice track,” said Morgan, who lives in Naperville, Illinois, about 28 miles southwest of Arlington Park. “I left work early on Wednesday so I could get out there. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Allison Sharfman [in Arlington marketing] for all her help when I attend the races or bring my family.”

    Morgan said that he takes a holistic approach to handicapping and doesn’t really favor any particular angle over another, though when pressed said he always takes class into consideration.

    “I like to look at the horses in the race and see what types of horses they’ve been running against—whether they’ve been facing better or worse than this race,” Morgan said.
    Morgan was alone as his score unfolded, and even though he thought he was probably sitting on a decent score going into the last race, he resisted the urge to call anyone because he didn’t want to jinx it. Even when he did call people, though, the veteran horseplayer said most didn’t believe him at first.

    “No one believed me when I told them how much I won on a dime bet,” Morgan said. “To tell the truth, I know it’s a lot of money, but it hasn’t sunk in yet just how much. I know we’ll find something to do with it, but we have no plans yet. I’m sure my kids are thinking of ways.”

    Morgan’s big score follows a similar windfall for TwinSpires players who took down the Solo 6 on April 17 at Sunland Park. One of those players, Julia Kring of Frankfort, Kentucky, hit the bet twice for $31,517.04 each way.

  • Anatomy of a 70-to-1 winner

    POSTED Apr 23, 2012 By Unknown
    Publicly picking (or at least tweeting) a 70-to-1 winner of a graded stakes race is a lot like performing a magic trick--some are impressed and others want to know how you did it.

    Unlike a magic trick, however, picking such a winner is difficult to repeat. 70-to-1 shots do not win that often (1.4% if the odds are actually correct), and even when it happens again, it's not like I'll necessarily be on it. If I'm 70-to-1 to pick a 70-to-1 horse who wins then the odds are actually 5,040-to-1 of it happening, but that's still a better chance than I have of making the Statue of Liberty disappear.

    And besides, the important thing is I had this one: All Squared Away to win the Lexington Stakes. And the lesson here for those asking how I landed on this one is not dissimilar from what I took away from Dullahan beating me in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes: The most important element of handicapping a horse race is asking not "Who will win?" but "Who can win?"

    It's a topic I've addressed a few times on Hello Race Fans:
    One of the biggest mistakes people make when handicapping races is asking the question, “Who will win” rather than “Who can win,” and it is the rationalist that [Andy] Beyer speaks of who will look at the numbers and be able to determine who is too slow to contend.
    Three things jumped out at me when reviewing All Squared Away's Ultimate Past Performances on Saturday morning:

    1. His previous two BRIS Speed Ratings were in the low 90s and that was good enough to contend with this group with any kind of improvement for...

    2. first-time trainer Wesley Ward (a 29% win/58% in the money angle according to the aforementioned PPs.

    3. Those two low 90s BRIS Speed Ratings were both earned closing into a slow pace, which I did not think would be in play in the Lexington.

    There were some negatives, too, of course: The outside post was a concern given posts 8 and beyond had won just 4% of the races going 1 1/16 miles at Keeneland, and finishing sixth and seventh beaten a combined 19 1/2 lengths in two graded stakes tries didn't inspire, but again, how much inspiration do you need at 50-to-1? The three positives above told me the horse could win, and at that price I had to take a shot.

    In the end, 10% of the money I bet on the Lexington Stakes was on All Squared Away, so it's not as if he were my top pick in the race, but successful betting requires the handicapper not to get enamored with who will win.

    It's a great lesson to bring with you to the track--especially on Kentucky Derby day when so much importance is placed on WHO WILL WIN THE KENTUCKY DERBY. It's a satisfying question to get right, and I'd love to see I'll Have Another win for that reason but not at the expense of a horse I've bet at 40-to-1 because he can win.

  • Beychok buys horse who won him $1-million

    POSTED Apr 20, 2012 By Unknown
    On January 28, 2012, Glorious Dancer's nose helped Michael Beychok win $1-million, and six weeks later Beychok spent $6,250 of that money to claim the Roman Dancer filly.


    Glorious Dancer will run for the first time in Beychok's colors when she goes postward in a conditioned claiming event on Sunday at Golden Gate Fields. Beychok was in Lexington on Friday, April 20, for TwinSpires day at Keeneland and said that he hopes to bring Glorious Dancer to Louisiana--where he lives and runs a direct mail business--to race and breed.

    Beychok has raced horses with partners before, but this is his first time as sole owner. He will not be in Northern California for the race but will certainly be monitoring the action from Baton Rouge via TwinSpires and TwinSpiresTV.

    Beychok qualified for the NHC after finishing third in the TwinSpires Online Handicapping Championship. He went into the final race of the two-day contest needing $11 to catch the leader, and he achieved that goal when Glorious Dancer's glorious schnoz landed him $82.0 to win and $3.80 to win the NHC and the $1-million first prize by $1.

  • TwinSpires player wins $63k on dime bet

    POSTED Apr 19, 2012 By Unknown
    Normally hitting a Pick 6 would be enough big news for one day, but the hits kept coming for Julia Kring after Tricky Causeway completed the must-win Solo 6 sequence Tuesday at Sunland Park.

    Betting through TwinSpires.com, the 72-year-old retiree put in a 3x2x3x2x2x4 ticket for $28.80 that was live going into the last race. Kring, a veteran bettor who says she plays $100/day a few times each week, knew the likely payouts would be robust with three winners already having paid $15 plus a $39,000 carryover into the day with a mandatory payout to fuel the pool, but she was floored when she saw her winning combination return $31,517.04 for a dime.

    So you can really imagine her surprise, then, when her account indicated that she had actually won $63,034.08 ($47,276.08 after taxes) because the scratch of one of her three horses in the first leg coupled with the favorite winning that leg actually gave her the winning combination twice.

    “I was happy when I knew I won the Pick 6, but I almost fainted when I saw what it paid and then again when I saw what I got back,” Kring said from her Frankfort, Kentucky, home on Wednesday between betting races at Keeneland.

    Kring used Brisnet.com Ultimate Past Performances to handicap the sequence. One element of those PPs she likes is the detailed jockey statistics, which she finds especially useful for circuits she is not as familiar with like New Mexico.

    Indeed, Kring said she most often plays Kentucky and New York racing but decided to take a look at Sunland on Tuesday because of an ad she saw on the TwinSpires.com homepage touting the carryover and mandatory payout.

    “I like to play every day, but if I’m on a losing streak I’ll get mad at it and take a few days off,” Kring said. “Of course, I can’t get mad at it for awhile now.”

    Kring said she will wait for the funds to appear in her bank account before deciding how to spend the money.

    In addition to Kring’s pair of winning tickets, TwinSpires.com also sold a third dime ticket that hit on a $188.40 play, but that bettor did not wish to be identified.