Dr. Helfman's Insights

For years a good day at the track is the day prior to the Super Bowl. It is always on a Saturday of course. I have been to 5 Super Bowls personally, and everytime I have gone to the track the day before. Two were in Miami, so that meant a day at Gulfstream. One was at Los Angeles, so I went to Santa Anita. Traditionally Saturday is a good day to go to any track because the card has the best horses because of the Allowance and Stake Races.

Tracks are in the buisness to make money and I figure on Super Bowl weekend bettors juices are flowing and they are looking for action. On Sunday of the Super Bowl, I have found not a good time to go to the races. Usually all tracks have an early post time; they know the bettors want to be home for the game. So that day I always feel rushed, so I stay away frm the races.

This year I am following Santa Anita closely. I think it is a pivotal meet. The future of California racing may depend on this meet. We have been excited about the return to the dirt track. No true handicapper likes the artificial surfaces.

So Febuary 5th Santa Anita was the track of choice. As I said in previous posts, the exactas and tri's prices because of increased take out are down some. This means lower prices when the favorites come in but it doesn't affect the prices when the longshots come in(see previous post).

Saturday Feb 5th was a great day for our system. Playing the way we suggest the following results were:

Race 1- one mile and 1/8th on the dirt, Claiming, 4 years old and up, no sex restrictions.

The Gold picked 5-6-4-2. The 6-5 exacta paid $228.60. The 6-5-2 tri paid $1,602.20. This makes you winner for the day, no matter what happens. The winner was 20/1 on the morning line, the place horse was 1.6/1 on the morning line and the show horse was 8/1 morning line. Nice payoff, no more stress for the day.

Without going into details of each race we had the exacta in the second race, exacta and tri in the third race, exacta in the 7th and 9th race but the prices were low and we actually gave some of the profits back.

For the entire day betting $1 box's on the exacta and tri($36.00 per race) X 10= $360 investment. The return was $1031.60 and the net winnings was $671.60.

Thus again we had 5/10 exactas and 2/10 tris but came out a big winner. Again it was one big race that made our day but we had it. I wonder when the track executives are going to realize that taking more out of the pot doen't entice the bettors to empty their wallets. Oh well at least we now have a dirt track and as usual we hit the big one enough to make it worth while.