First of all, as far as me-- I hit the Dirt Mile tri hard, got into top 5 at about 24k ending day one. With a 200k first prize it\'s right to swing hard (a strategy that has had me winning 3 real money contests, with no seconds, thirds or fourths). Took very big swings on day two (three separate shots of 4k or more), tough beats in the turf sprint and sprint, but others took tough beats too. Went down swinging, with a $50 tri box in the Classic that ran 1-4-5 including a 40-1 shot. Flamed out, no complaints.
Anyway-- somewhere on day one Kevin McFarland crushed a race. He\'s the guy who won the last two DMR contest, 30 something kid who was a high school classmate of Christian Hellmers, who himself finished second in this contest the last two years. Both were part of the pick 6 kids that TVG followed years ago when they hit it on BC day, both are brash young guys that rub some people the wrong way-- don\'t know McFarland, but I got to know Christian when he became the American rep of Betfair. He\'s a friend, he can be a pain in the butt but he\'s okay.
So going into day two McFarland is at 100k plus, next guy (I think at that point Christian\'s mom, there with him on a separate ticket) is at maybe 40. A guy named Peter Behr, who evidently was sitting quietly all day at the table with our own Michael Beychok, bet 3k on the Juvy fillies. On the filly that, after a l-o-n-g inquiry got put up at boxcars. So he jumps ahead of McFarland by 15k or so.
McFarland immediately starts taking what some of us might consider crazy shots. Loses 20k on the next race, another 20 on the one after that-- going from 115k to 75k.
Then with 2 or 3 races to go he hits, goes to like 148, with Behr at 130. Nobody else is within 60k of second. Going into the last race it\'s McFarland ahead 146k to 128k.
According to people in the main contest room (I was not there), what then took place was a big argument betwen McFarland and his partner in the contest (don\'t know who that was). Partner wanted to stand pat, McFarland insisted on making a huge bet. Which he did.
Behr bet 4k and lost. McFarland lost 27k on the race. Final score-- Behr 124k, McFarland 119k. So that bet cost 27k plus the 100k difference between first and second. Have to wonder if the two partners are on speaking terms right now.
