Stress Management.

[Mall]

One attraction of the Spa is the bizarre & interesting cast of characters, not all of whom are involved or even interested in the game. Friday night my cohort, himself an interesting combination of tax lawyer & owner of a company which manufactures industrial sledge hammers, offered a bag of Saratoga \"kettle corn\" which I didn\'t want to a random couple on Broadway. It turned out the husband owned the co. which made the Jerry Bailey bobble head dolls which were passed out on Sun., & offered us a large box of the dolls which he had in his truck. Since I didn\'t do particularly well at the track the 1st 3 days, I correctly figured I could make a nice little score if I charged punters leaving the track $5 to smash a doll with one of my friend\'s sledge hammers as a way to reduce stress. I still think the venture was a success even though I learned today that the dolls, which were of surprisingly good quality, are being sold on ebay for $15. Come to think of it, if I had settled for the easier $5 profit at the track instead of always going for the bigger score, I wouldn\'t have had to spend any time picking up JD\'s broken body parts, so to speak. Or was it the other way around?

[Linda]

I think that perhaps maybe there just might be something you are possibly trying to communicate in this story. For goodness sake Mall, out with it already. What is your point?

[Mall]

Actually Doc, there are 2 pts. One is how easy it is at certain meets to get away from a solid approach & strategy of mostly going for singles & doubles & limiting one\'s efforts at the home run ball to just those situations where it actually makes sense. IMHO, horseracing is like golf in that it teaches the same lessons over & over. My 2nd pt is the dilemma a jock like JD poses for a value handicapper. His horses are almost always underlays, yet when he gets as hot as he is now & you end up ripping up a lot of tix it\'s not always easy to remember that, depending on the horses of course, over the long run betting against him is much more likely to produce a positive roi.

[tonyk]

I have given JD all kinds of credit on this board,please know I do so grudgingly ,i\'ve shredded lots and lots of tickets because of him,especially in super exotics .The guy has beaten me into submission ,it\'s kin to the kind of abuse ,I as a New York Knicks fan was subject to at the hands of Michael Jordan and his Bulls ,years and years of abuse .It was much the same when Cordero rode ,Either you loved him or you hated him or you became a reformed hater.My father told me it was much the same when Arcaro rode ,it seems there is always that type of jock in the New York colony.I absolutely agonize over the weight I should give to JD\'s mounts ,if you get involved in pick 4\'s or pick 6\'s I feel you have no chioce but to, especially with Bill Mott involved and more recently with Frankel.JD always seems to be on the right horse at the wrong time for me ,he has stood in the way of several good scores I could have taken .T.K.