nhc

[vired]

Would appreciate comments from cove and others that played the tourney @ Red Rock. Thanks

[covelj70]

Hey there,

Sorry didnt\' post sooner but was travelling back from Vegas.

Bottom-line for me was that it was really as cool and fun to be a part of it as I thought it would be.  I will spare everyone my bad beat and bonehead move stories that I am sure all but the winner of the tourney have but it was incredibly fun, extremely well organized and (while I know that some people will disagree with this) I think its a pretty good test of one\'s handicapping ability with the way it is structured.

The one thing I took away that I would do differently if I am lucky enough to make it back in is that I would be slightly less agressive.  I was looking to play 15 to 20-1 shots right from the beginning of Day 1 and if there\'s a next time, I think my strategy would be to stick with the 5-10 to 1 shots in the beginning and then only shoot for the moon if need be later in the tourney.  I know several others I spoke with shared the same view.  

For the last few years, the winner has approximately doubled their bankroll so the 20-1 shots on day 1 aren\'t a necessity.  There was an interesting dynamic that developed shortly after the start because a number of the contestants hit a 20-1 shot (I think it was at Gulfstream) in one of the early races on the card on Friday.  There was a whole bunch of guys running around high fiving after that race so presumably a large number of players had that one.  I think after that, a number of us started to press a bit more than we would have otherwise.  Definitely a lesson I learned for future events (hopefully).

Overall an absolutely amazing experience and I would highly recommend anyone who\'s considering trying to qualify to go for it with both guns ablazing.  It\'s definitely worth the effort of trying to qualify.

[vired]

Jim thanks for your thoughts. I was lucky to qualify last year (when Troup blew the field away the first day) so the 2nd day stadegy was different. My problem which I\'m grappling with is I\'m basically a 5 to 8 -1 player and I don\'t think I can pick enough of these to be competive with these bomb players. Thoughts?

[covelj70]

Good question.  

If I am ever lucky enough to make it back, I am going to only take the big bombs when I feel like I have a legit angle as opposed to forcing it like I did last weekend but I will definitely mix in more of the 5-10 to 1 shots than I did last weekend.

Good example of how I would play differently next year.

Jules for AJ was the classic TG pick for the Sunshine Millions F&M Turf (that was the pick on the TG analysis and I know JB used that horse in the race).  However, I used the outside horse (maybe Category Seven or some similar name) who had similar figs but was 2x the price even though she was parked way outside.  Obviously, Jules for AJ won as JB predicted.

I think it will always be a balancing act but that\'s the approach I would take in the future.

[vired]

Thanks for the comments. Good Luck on you future bet! Ed