Told you I would win that one!
by George
Friday night at the Downs started off great for the chalk players and got progressively wackier, which was good news for the longshot players but bad news for the Pick-4 players. The latter will be back at it again tonight to take advantage of a longshot-generated Pick-4 carryover of $4,299 going into Saturday’s card.
The first three races were won by favourites that paid $3.30, $4.00 and $4.10 under jockeys Jennifer Reid, Paul Nolan and Tyrone Nelson. An inkling of the longshots to come came in the fourth race and first leg of the Pick-4 when Edge of the World won and paid $11.00 with Chavion Chow aboard and favourite Temple Bar finished third. Shore Breeze Icon came with a resolute rally to win the fifth and paid $8.50 with Rohan Singh aboard and there were still quite a few Pick-4 players alive heading into the sixth race. That’s when the wheels fell off.
The second longest shot on the board, Hurri Up, trained by John Kolochuk and ridden by Chris Husbands, took advantage of a slow pace in the sixth race and outdueled second choice Gazy Gus through the stretch to set up a Triactor that nobody had. She paid $35.50. The $2 Triactor paid $765.90 to anyone who held the combination of 9-4-ALL. Nobody had the Quinella either, which paid $2.70 to anyone who had the combination 4-All or 9-All.
Hurri Up basically knocked everyone out of the Pick-4 and any remaining live tickets got stomped by a girl in the seventh race when Dance the Dance, one of only two females in the 9-horse field, beat the boys under Tyrone Nelson. Dance the Dance paid a handsome $27.80, but she was at least bettable with trainer Shelley Brown at the helm. Nobody had the Pick-3, which paid $84.80 to anyone who had 2/3 winners.
The wackiness continued in the eighth and final race of the card, which featured a mostly undecipherable herd of runners competing at the rare distance of 1 ¼-miles. This predictably resulted in the largest Triactor payoff of the meeting when Farm Hand won for trainer Doug Mustard and paid $45.80 under Prayven Badrie.
Second choice Today’s Star ($2.50) finished where he was supposed to, in second, under Robert Reeves Jr. as the only logical horse to hit the board. He was followed home by Spoken in Tones ($37.30) with Tim Moccasin in the irons and Stick Em Up ($34.30) with Jerry Pruitt aboard. Favourite Vindgari finished second last, which helped set up a huge $2 Triactor that paid $8,947.40.
The 20-cent Superfecta in the eighth race paid $3,507.30 to one lucky ticket holder and once again, nobody had the Pick-3, which paid $295.30 to anyone who had 2/3 winners. In summary, it was bad craziness in the last three races.
So there’s an extra $4,299 for you in Saturday’s Pick-4 Pool.
Next Post Time for Live Racing: 7 p.m. Saturday, August 11, 2012