He’s back! UP WITH THE BIRDS had his first workout of 2014 at Fair Grounds as he readies for his 4yo season for Sam-Son Farms. TERENCE DULAY/HORSE-RACES.NET
UP WITH THE BIRDS HAS FIRST BREEZE
Sam-Son Farms’ top 3-year-old colt of 2013, UP WITH THE BIRDS, had his first workout of 2014 when he posted a :38.00 time for 3 furlongs on Tuesday at Fair Grounds.
Trained by Malcolm Pierce, Up With the Birds won the Grade 1 Jamaica on the grass at Belmont last year and is a leading conteder for champion 3-year-old male at the Sovereign Awards (April 11).
WISE DAN STARTS UP TOO
“It’s like he never missed a day,” – trainer of Wise Dan, Charles Lopresti
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/83533/hoy-wise-dan-returns-to-keeneland-tab
SPENDTHRIFT FARMS shared this amazing image of their filly by Tizway – Malibu Pier, foaled in Kentucky. What does the future hold for her? SPENDTHRIFT FARM PHOTO
CHIMING IN on...THE RAINBOW PICK 6 DISCUSSION
The last race on Saturday, the race immediately following the Fountain of Youth Stakes, was a wide open grass event which, if you were watching and wagering on Saturday, was very tough to decipher. The winner, Collinito, led all the way while the one chasing him, Straegic Keeper, was trying to get by while the winner drifted out. The runner-up was green and was seemingly drifitng in to follow the winner.
It was almost one of those ‘could go either way’ calls by the stewards who did take down Collinito and put up the 39 to 1 longshot, Strategic Keeper.
The call was borderline but referees and judges in sports all over the world are in the same boat everyday.
So, the one Rainbow Pick 6 ticket that was alive, was now shredded and the pot has since carried over (to today). Some $1.5 million.
The Rainbow Pick 6 is something like a Pick 6 bet, pick the last 6 winners of the card. If you get all six, you get a payoff, HOWEVER, only a small piece of the jackpot UNLESS you are the only winner.
Woodbine has a similar bet in the High 5 on its last race.
As a bettor and handicapper, I have been playing the Rainbow Pick 6 for fun (20 cent base bet so why not?) ever since the jackpot grew. I played even though I knew that I could pick 6 consecutive winners and actually win ‘on;y’ $1,000 when the carryover was over $1 million.
It’s not a great bet. You actually get punished for winning.
Having said that, the bet does lure tons of betting dollars to the track – Gulfstream raked in $20 million on Saturday. That is a staggering amount for a basic February afternoon with a few nice stakes race.
So, the Rainbow produces a pot of gold for the track and brings a lot of attention to the races.
The incident, event? on Saturday was one of those that will leave a bad taste in the mouths of fans and bettors for a while – there have been so many of them (remember Life at Ten?).
The continued bottom line of these events is what the track does with it after it happens.
the kerfuffle brewed when a racing network channel reportedly showed Gulfstream manager Tim Ritvo on the phone, in the winner’s circle, while the inquiry was going on.
Reports are that one of the talking heads on the TV network even suggedted Ritvo looked ‘dejected’, suggesting he was sad the Rainbow Pick 6 was about to be won.
That lit a fire on social media and websites such as Paulick Report as everyone chimes in about whether the horse should have been disqualified and the track’s handling of the aftermath.
Certainly, the main point is that the track should have issued a press release quoting the stewards, discussing the bet and setting up the next day’s Pick 6.
But nothing was said.
When dealing with that much money in a jackpot (and it doesn’t even have to be that much), we are all betting our dollars into it, we are all studying hard and playing the game.
The seller of the product needs to be there to communicate with us.
Ritvo probably should not have been standing in the winner’s circle for the last race of the day when three tickets were live on to the Pick 6 (with 3 longshots including Collinito): to some, it looks bad.
The conspiracy theorists are out in full force which makes one shake the head but the frontside folks need to be a bit smarter with its customers.
FROM SPORTING NEWS:
One bettor nearly walked out of Gulfstream Park a few million dollars richer on Saturday.
By: Mike Wilkening | More Experts
In horse racing, a win isn’t a win, that go-get-your-money win, until the race is declared official. And track stewards — racing’s rules officials — have the power to disqualify a winner if the horse was deemed to have won unfairly.
Such was the case in the 12th race Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, when a 15-to-1 shot named Collinito crossed the line first in a 1 1/16-mile turf race — then was disqualified and placed second for impeding the progress of the second-place finisher in the stretch.
Were this just the tale of a run-of-the-mill long shot booted out of first place, it would be just another bad beat story, and you have heard enough of those tales for several lifetimes.
Well, this one’s different. This defeat cost a bettor a jackpot of about $1.66 million, according to multiple published estimates.
http://linemakers.sportingnews.com/sport/2014-02-25/gulfstream-park-pick-6-jackpot-disqualification-dq-rainbow-payout-collinito
CANADIAN-BRED WINNER AT CALDER:
(COURTESY Thoroughbred Daily News)
RAPSANDTAPS, c, 4, Tapit–Redness (SP), by Tale of the Cat. CRC, 2-23, 7f, 1:24 3/5. B-Robert G Harvey (ON). *$220,000 RNA yrl ’11 KEESEP; $150,000 2yo 12 KEEAPR.
