Originally Posted by
HorsePlay
You did indeed answer all my questions and I thank you once again for your thoroughness. I was especially glad to read your comments and story that I quoted above. I hope your highly commendable attitudes and policies are more the rule than the exception in the industry. I was going to ask if jockeys and trainers typically form emotional bonds with their horses, or does that only happen in the movies?... but I think you answered that question for me.
I totally get what you said about putting in adequate time to find winners. I'm sure there are a lot of people who will argue that the ROI for the time and effort... especially the time element... invested in studying a field just doesn't yield a payout (by their experience or estimation) to make it worthwhile usually... especially if you maintain the view that low-priced favorites are the safest bet. I have friends who find my endeavors in the area of handicapping to be an exercise in futility. They tell me that I should just keep horse betting a fun pastime as they do, and not get too serious about it. Even the guys that I meet at my local OTB... which is actually a sports bar... tell me "hey, it's some time away from the humdrum and a chance to share a few beers, if you're lucky you win enough to make your afternoons or weekends a free day out."
In my case, it is certainly not an unwillingness to put in the time, but more in actually having the time... as they say, "there are only so many hours". In a way, my inability to spend as much time on this as I would like has been driving my approach and methodology. And, I'm realizing more and more that it has simply been the wrong way to go about it. So, I'm trying a different approach that seems to be promising.
I do have some further questions for you. I'm especially interested in getting some advice on what to watch for in video replays. I have a couple of races in mind that I have bet on the last couple of weeks... I'll need to refer to my notes to see if I can locate these exact races and post them for your review. Before I ask some additional questions, I thought I might share a little bit of how horse racing has been a part of my life... especially since you use the term "back in the day" every once in a while... you might find it a bit interesting... it's definitely a back in the day story.
I am originally from Pennsylvania and grew up in the Pittsburgh area. Back in the late 50's and early 60's, my uncle (my dad's oldest sister's husband) owned 6 race horses. I was 8, 9... no older than 10 at the time... and maybe even as young as 7. There's a whole lot I don't remember, and yet I have some memories of those days that are crystal-clear... which is sort of amazing given that I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, let alone happenings that occured 50 years ago.
My Uncle Al ran his horses at tracks in West Virginia. Uncle Al was quite a character and I was his favorite nephew. Nothing was too good for me. Every Saturday, for what seemed like a year or two, we would drive down to West Virginia. Sometimes my aunt would come with us, but most of the time it was just the two of us. On Sundays, it was family day and not only did my aunt always come with us, my parents did as well. As best I can remember, we could be going to any one of 3 tracks. I know one of them was Waterford Park. I think another one may have been Wheeling Downs. When I left Pennsylvania 25+ years ago, Wheeling Downs was a dog track. But, I think it was a horse track at some point in its history... you probably know for sure.
These were grand times for me. My uncle was "King" wherever we went. He had "his" table in whatever club house we sat in... the wait staff fell all over him because he generously threw money around. Even as a little kid, I could see he took care of people so that he would be taken care of... he was "the man". Most people knew him as "AJ", he was a heavy bettor and liked cards almost as much as he liked horses. Now, I don't know how we got away with it... but I was his "runner". He'd tell me what to bet, give me the money, and I would bring back his tickets. The waitresses and waiters thought I was a cute deal, a little boy doing such a manly thing. I don't know if there were laws at the time about my not being legal, I just remember that it was never an issue or was never questioned. I knew the "Daily Double" and some of the betting lingo, but not much else about what I was doing. There were always other owners and horse people stopping by the table... sometimes I'd run bets for them too. I seldom understood any part of the conversations that took place, but it all fit into a very special, unique experience for me that I completely enjoyed.
There was one guy who was one of my favorites to see at any track... and we saw him very often. They called him "Johnny B" and he worked for my uncle... although I don't know in what capacity. A little guy with sandy brown hair, he was at one time a jockey. I don't know if he ever rode any of my uncle's horses. I only know he wasn't an active jockey when I knew him back then. He took a shine to me and we became good track buddies. The highlight of my times at the track were always when Johnny B took me for a visit to the barn. He'd introduce me to everyone... every jockey we came across, trainers, grooms, walkers... it seemed important to him that everyone knew I was AJ's nephew. Johnny always wore one of those old-time jockey-type caps with the bill pushed back and always called me "Sunny Boy". A horse was always a "pony". I can remember him telling me to put my hand on a horse's leg or hind quarter and saying "feel this pony's power, Sunny Boy, you can make money with this power... always remember... you be good to these ponies and they'll be good to you. They been good to me." It was something he said with almost every barn visit.
I was a shy kid. I never had much to say or knew what to say or had questions to ask. But, those barn visits were very exciting. I was fascinated... mesmerized... by everything I saw. First and foremost the horses, but there was the tack, the jockey's silks, the sticks... and just the activity of the barn was awesome. I wished I could remember more about those times. There are episodes that I only partly recall that seem surreal to me... getting my picture taken with a horse or a jockey... maybe even being in the winner's circle. I swear that Perry Como (he was a native of the area) sat with us one time during some sort of a special derby or race day. The really unfortunate thing is that there's nobody left from those days that I can ask questions to have my reminiscences either confirmed or explained. My uncle and aunt are long gone. My parents both have dementia and have no recollections at all. But, those were the days for sure.
Not long after that... however long it lasted... I learned later when I was coming into my early teens that my uncle lost everything. I don't know exactly when or how, but things got very tough for him, and I saw very little of him for about 10 years afterward. I imagine it was quite a fall for him. It was a "hush-hush" issue for the family and another hazy part of the transition from childhood to my teen years. But, with his financial demise, my association with horse racing in those early years came to an end.
Then, in the early 70's, The Meadows opened just a few minutes south of Pittsburgh. For a while, it was something like old times... but then again, nothing like old times. My uncle and aunt, my parents and I would do the club house at The Meadows. But of course, that track is a harness track. My uncle, although he made a comeback to some degree, never owned another horse. And, all those colorful, wonderful old characters met in West Virginia were not around to enjoy. I got older, and got married, and even The Meadows as I knew it in its early years faded away. I was totally away from any type of horse racing after that... except for occasionally watching the Derby or The Preakness on TV.
Almost a year ago, my web-based business crashed and I had to find something else to do. I had flirted for a long time with marketing online gambling... mostly slanted to casino and poker games. I started to investigate the ins-and-outs of this business. And, through this process got back in touch with horse racing. I didn't immediately think about horse betting being a part of online gambling. But, the more I looked at online horse betting, the more the memories and feelings started rushing back. It may sound kind of corny, but I felt like I was seeing a good, old friend again. So, I decided that I wanted to make what was once a source of passion and great enjoyment a big part of my life again... but on a more serious level.
This brings me to where I am at now, and I have a few quick questions for you...
1. Is there any behavior a horse might exhibit during the race warm-up or preview... like bobbing their heads up and down... sort of putting a little prance in their walk... or nipping at their walker or other horses... that might indicate the horse is especially up for attacking the job at hand?
2. Although on a small video screen it can be hard to see, it sometimes appears that during warm-up a horse might be drooling... does this mean anything good or bad?
3. If a horse is appearing "hyper" or just ornery right before a race... could this mean he's feeling high energy (probably a good thing)... or could it mean he's going to be hard to control?
4. What exactly does a jockey do to get his horse to move out of the starting gate, or is it mostly the horse reacting to the gate opening?
I'll relate why I'm asking these questions in a future post, but your continued input and sharing your knowledge and experience to the degree that you do IMO is the best thing going on at any SBR forum. Hope I didn't take up too much of your time with this long-winded post.