This was a tough decision, but Airnate, besides making a lifetime (and
hopefully life changing, in a good way, score)(congrats by the way), is this
year\'s Kentucky Derby sponsored by ---- (fill in the blank, I can\'t keep up)
winning TG Board Redboard. The prize as always is lifetime free admission to
Saratoga TG seminars.
(Of course you are now eligible for the TG Redboard Hall of Fame, the only
member of which is a very good natured fellow who will go unnamed, who once
redboarded a winner at one of the Ohio leaky roof tracks that paid what? over
$400 to win).
Nate, Old Buddy, you had a perfect opening to share your good news. T Severini,
AKA Chuckles the Clown (and I suspect AKA Q. Anon) started a thread that was
titled \"How Did You Do?\". You could have just stated \"I hit the Super twice\" or
\"I had the super for 40K on an approx $1100 investment\" (congrats again).
But Nooooo. You had to start your post with \"I hate redboarding, but...\". You
really put the bee in Richibee\'s bonnet by following that with the statement
that \"you posted your opinion before the race on another board.\" And you hit
the trifecta by \"thanking\" TG, a gesture which I have always likened to the
scene in Animal House where a teenager, lying in bed with what Lenny Bruce
called a \"stroke book\", thanks God after a half clad woman flies through his
window and ends up in his lap.
But you needed all three components of an obnoxious redboard (\"I hate to
redboard\"/\"I posted elsewhere\"/\"Thanks TG\") to take this year\'s honors. You had
stiff competition from \"The Big Five\", who topped off a week of unimaginative
and ill informed trolling with a redboard which would be much easier to stomach
if any of The Big Five\'s posts lead one to believe that TB5 has enough smarts
to construct a trifecta, no less a superfecta.
Message to DSnipes: If I am one of the \"pretentious dicks\" (a reference to my
first name?) you were referring to, let me say that I am glad you took my \"self
starter\" dig in the honest spirit (it was an insult) in which it was delivered.
Let me also in a pretentious way note that your Twitter page would be more
professional if you used the words \"personal injury\" (much greater scope than
\"automobile injuries\") and \"wrongful death\" (sounds much more polished than
\"deaths anywhere in Kentucky.\")
As to devoting the TG board almost exclusively to Thoro patterns and pattern
analysis, even our host would be bored to Ketel laced tears. From your post it
appears to me that you would prefer a runner with the prettiest pattern to a
runner with the fastest number? (admittedly you would get higher payoffs
utilizing this methodology). The weaknesses of Thoro Patterns have been
discussed extensively here and at Saratoga seminars.
At the zenith of this board, most of the issues horseplayers encounter on a
daily basis (i.e, illegal meds, insufficient information provided to
horseplayers, shoddy treatment of horseplayers by racetracks, OTBs, and ITWs)
were discussed here, and the discussions sometimes involved industry insiders.
Very good conversations were conducted elsewhere (not here as far as I recall)
about the correlation between the qualifying points system and the fact that
recent Derby results have been very chalky.
And while I am taking thinly veiled shots at the board, where were all of our
weather experts this year? Could it be that even professional meteorologists
were badly fooled?
Further notes: To the fellow who PTP\'d me curious as to my Derby Day lock: Twas
River Boyne at ML of 6/1 on firm ground; at 5/2 on a bog, I ended up spreading
madly in that race, not including in my wager Pletcher\'s Maraud. (Redboard
Alert) Having Buyer\'s remorse on leaving TAP out, I made a token win wager on
Maraud, my only winning wager on Derby Day.
Note to Fairmount regarding Belmont Day: There is a zero (0) percent chance I
will be at the Belmont if a Triple Crown is on the line; 10% chance I will be
at Belmont if Justify loses or does not compete in the Preakness.
Note on Justify: He has been called a \"generational horse\" or the \"horse of a
generation\" after all of four starts. My qualifications for a generational
horse remain the same, knowing all the while I may never see another one: a
winner of a significant Grade I against 3YOs, a win against his elders as a
3YO, a few good victories as an older (4YO and up) runner, followed by a decent
career in the breeding shed.
Final final word: The most important pattern in wagering on the Derby: The
Sinatra theory as applied to TAP-- he came in with the winners of the Fla
Derby, The Wood, the Louisiana Derby and the Arkansas Derby; Audible was a well
beaten third. So while I was wrong to toss Justify, I was rather correct in
tossing the TAPs based on the \"Riding high in April, shot down in May\" theorem.
Bring it on, haters....
