Charlie Baker

[mjellish]

I was alive in the Pick 5 at Saratoga to the 1,3,4,6,7,9 & 10, to some juicy payouts, after beating a 1/2 Pletcher favorite who I didn\'t like in the first.  I was also alive to the those same horses on a $6 Pick 4 ticket.  Just as I was getting ready to count my money I got beat by the 5, a first time starter by Charlie Baker who prepped over at Finger Lakes and took them gate to wire to win by a long nose.  His horses have been running really, really well all meet, which I noticed, but he almost never wins with firsters.  Time to start paying extra attention to anything he puts out there IMO.

Thank god for day drinking...

[gagoots007]

Tough beat mj. Sorry, that\'s why they make grey goose.

[FrankD.]

MJ,

This meet has many of us tipping the bottle!!! On the wrong end of 5 straight  being nipped at the wire in the past 3 days out of exacta\'s and a pick 4. Any one of the wins changes a minus to a plus.Yesterday\'s first leg of the pick 4 was especially grueling as it was my Spa racino buddy Mr Blue who beat me!

For those too young or not in tune to east coast racing Leon Blusiewicz was a gambling trainer from Maryland who was a legend from the 60\'s-90\'s. The Blue crew, especially at the Spa. He used to love to come up here with a firster or a layoff horse and bet. His grooms went to the windows with horse poop on their shoes and made $500 bets. Yesterday\'s 6 yr old winner Spartiatis is his only horse and one of only 4 he has started since 2009, his last Spa winner was with Admiral Alex in 2010. Blue lives in Saratoga most of the year and is a regular at the racino holding court and telling racetrack stories. Steve Byk has him on his show occasionally and he is quite the character!

[mjellish]

Yeah, that one beat me too.  But today\'s beat really shook me.  I didnt like the Pletcher at all for a few reasons, although i knew he could beat me in the first. I wasnt going to play the pick 5 or 4 but when the 13 drew in for the second and was a solid single i had to play.  I thought the pick 4 payoffs were generous too given how the rest of the sequence went, and i figured i had the last race covered really, really well.  Lot of 4 letter words flew out of my mouth as the 5 held on.  Lot of em.  Especially because i knew Charlie Baker was on as good a run as anyone and he usually does well at the meet.  But firsters aren\'t his thing. Kicking myself all day for missing that as adding the 5 wouldn\'t have cost me much anyway.  Got me in a mood as i hate it when i feel like i made a mistake.  I don\'t mind getting beat, but that was a clear mistake.  

Haven\'t even started on the Pick 6 yet to see if i think it can be hit for a reasonable sum.  Getting loaded at the lake now.  Will be better tomorrow.

[moosepalm]

When I was at Gulfstream this winter, I ran into a guy walking into the track who owns a restaurant in my home town.  I knew him to be a gambler, though didn\'t know if he played the horses.  I introduced myself, and one of the first things he said was that he had a tip on a Charlie Baker firster at Aqueduct who had been running his eyeballs out in the morning.  I couldn\'t completely ignore this, but I wasn\'t emptying out the 401K either.  The horse would have finished no better than third in the following race, and that was the next day.  So, I saw this guy two days ago on the golf course, as I now do every Wednesday, and he had nothing for me about a Baker first-timer.  The one thing I have heard about Baker from folks who seem to know what has taken place on the Finger Lakes backside over the years is that no one there outworked him.

[Dick Powell]

How do the stewards not post the Inquiry sign in race five yesterday? The five came out once then veered out at the wire. The 9 was having trouble getting by him but at least give us a look. By not posting the inquiry, we don\'t get to see the head-on and back-on replays. When the race was official, the head-on replay showed the incident certainly warranted a look. When I have complained about it in the past, i was always told that they are looking at it but without posting the inquiry, the betting public isn\'t told that they are. Not saying the 5 should have come down, that is not the issue. But let us see for ourselves.
Dick

[mjellish]

I\'m over it now. But I saw that too.  There was no contact though.  The 9 shied a way from the 5 when the 5 drifted out, twice.