Dr. Helfman sends his best.  Due to his declining health, he has been unable to follow racing as he has in the past.  However, his tried and true handicapping software will be used into the future to give insight to horse players everywhere.

The Power picks for the Travers were 1-8-2-9. The 9-2 exacta paid $78 and the 9-2-8 tri paid $1,312.00. The#9 horse(Stay Thirsty) was the favorite going off at 2.4 to 1. The #2 horse(Rattlesnake Bridge) went off at 14.1 to 1, and the #8 horse(J.W.Blue) went off at 32.75 to 1. That is why the tri paid so well even though the favorite won.

Interesting in the Predict system there were 6 horses above the danger line and the back horse(the come from behind horse) was the #8 horse who came in 3rd beaten by less than 3 lengths.

This was one of the only years that we were shut out in the triple crown but we more than made up for it in the Travers.

The Santa Anita Derby was the 10th race at Santa Anita. It was also for 3 year olds, at 9 furlongs on the dirt, no sex restrictions, Grade 1 Stakes HCP, purse $1,000,000. The Gold picked 10-3-5-6. The 6-5 exacta paid $227.20 and the 6-5-3 tri paid $1,229.60. The #6 horse(Midnight Interlude) was 20/1. The #5 horse(Comma To The Top) was 5/1 and the show horse #3(Mr. Commons) was 8/1.

Both of these crucial races are good examples of why we mainly concentrate on the exactas and tri's. At any rate this is a great start to the next month right up to the Derby.

Since they put a synthetic track at Keeneland years ago, it has put some damper on my enthusiasm but on opening day the Power numbers were absolutely terrific. I have noticed that the first few days on a synthetic track when the horses come from all over the country, the Power numbers do exceptionally well the first week.

Race 2: 6 furlogs on A/W, 4 years old and up, Mares and Fillies, Claiming. Power Numbers picked 4-2-1-5. The 5-1 exacta paid $21.

Race 3: 8.5 furlongs on A/W, 4 years old and up, No sex restrictions, Specia Maiden. Power Numbers picked 8-3-5-2. The 5-8 exacta paid $24.60 and the 8-5-2 tri paid $64.40.

Race 5: One mile on the Turf, 4 years old and up, Mares and Fillies, Allowance. Power Numbers picked 8-9-6-11. The 9-6 exacta paid $125.60. The 9-6-11 tri paid $3,019,20!! And just for kickers the 9-6-11-8 super paid $24,744.60!!!

Race 1 as uasual at Keeneland was all first time starters so it was no play. 9 races X $36 per race = $324.00 Total investment. Total winnings $1,627.40 with a net win of $1302.40. Not bad!

So hopefully this sets the stage for the rest of Keenland and the upcoming Churchill meets. Bring on the DERBY!!

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.

It was one of the first major tracks I ever went to some 50 years ago. The track was always kind to my speed system (Predict). In those days we had 8 races per day, the daily double and no other exotics. Things have changed greatly. So with much enthusiasm and excitement I mustered enough energy up to evaluate the first week.

Day #1- Dec 26----Investment-----Winnings------R.O.I

---------- -----------------$324------------$121.20------(- $202.80)

Day#2- Dec27

----------- ----------------$324-------------$78.40-------(-$245.60)

-----------

Day#3- Dec-28

---------- ----------------$252-------------$184.30------(-$67.70)

----------

Day #4-Dec 30

----------- ---------------$252-------------$170.80-----(-$81.20)

Day #5-Dec 31

----------- ---------------$288------------$44.00-------(-$244.00)

Day #6- Jan 1st

----------- ---------------$324-----------$7619.90-------+$7295.90

Weeks Total:

----------- --------------$1764----------$8218.60--------$6454.60

This represents betting by our standard method(Predict for sprint races up to 7 furlongs and the Gold for races 7 furlongs and over). The first obvious thing that hits you in the face is we had a great 6th day. As a matter of fact we had a great 9th race on the last day of the week.

Race#9: 6 furlongs on the dirt, 4 years old and up,no sex restrictions claiming. The Predict picked 14-3-11-12. The 3-11 exacta paid $730.00. The 3-11-12 tri paid $13233.80!!

Of course I was very glad to see this race. Well what can we learn from this first week? If we didn't have the last race, it would have been a disaster, absolutely. But we did have it and this is what separates our system from others. It is NOT the percentage of races you win but the R.O.I. is what really counts. We always eventually come up with the big one. Look down the news page for the years we have been reporting.There are big winners there from major tracks on big race days.

What else did we learn? Well Santa Anita has raised their takeout on exotics. It isn't that we didn't have our share of winners but some days the prices were very low. But when the longshots finally hit, it won't make much difference in the bigger payoffs.Some days the other systems did win. The Power won the first day and the Gold won on the second day but over the years the standard is still the best way to play. There are exceptions. the Gold does well at Calder over the long run.

This is not for the faint of heart. This is not for eveyone. There are no sure things. But it has been consistent over some now 58 years.

This will allow us to cover the opening of Santa Anita on 12/26/2010 which is very exciting because it will be returning to a new DIRT track. This may be the end of the synthetic surfaces in California hopefully. If the meet at Santa Anita is successful hopefully other tracks will follow.

Race 1- Gold picked 4-9-6-5, the 5-6 exacta paid $38.20(for $2)

Race 3- Gold picked 1-3-7-6, the 1-3 exacta paid $20.60.

Race 4- Gold picked 14-7-13-1, the 13-7 exacta paid $30.80 and the 13-7-1 tri paid $64.20.

Race 5- Gold picked 2-6-4-7, the 4-6 exacta paid $663.20 and the 4-6-7 tri paid $$4981.60!!

Race 8- Gold picked 1-12-3-7, the 1-12 exacta paid $118.80 and the1-12-7 tri paid 582.20.

Yes we do have losing days but a day like this makes up for a ton of them.