The Horse Nemesis - Do you have one? I sure do.
by Lucky Duck on Dec 30, 2010 2:41 PM EST
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Print(Matt - Bumped to the front.)
Back in the mid 80’s, when I was just a young buck, I often played the ponies at my home track at Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. This was back in the day before casinos and slots when horse racing was the only game in town.
Back then, the new wager was the Pick 4 and pools usually climbed upwards of $80,000 – which was a considerable amount for a 5/8 mile track and in an era before simulcasting.
In the 25 years since then, I’ve forgotten many a wager and many wins and losses – but never the horse that caused me more grief and heartbreak than any other horse before or since.
“Roses For Classy” was a good allowance/minor stakes horse that usually raced in the feature race during the summertime.
Now, keep in mind that I was only 18 or 19 at the time, so any win was huge – and the chance to cash some large Pick 4 wagers meant a lot. Nights out, maybe something for the car, rent?
Roses For Classy would have none of it.
It started when I left out Classy in the last leg of the Pick 4 and backed a couple of other decent contenders. When three decent priced horses won the first three legs – I was looking at a score of 2 or 3 grand. Huge. Classy won – I lost.
A few weeks later (Horses ran more often back then) – I was determined not to let Classy beat me again and promptly included her on my ticket. Alive again to last race, Classy lost and I lost too.
Next time, again alive to the last leg, I left Roses For Classy off the ticket and watched her fly home, keying a 2 grand Pick 4 and leaving me out once again.
Naturally – Classy wasn’t done. For the fourth time in one summer, I was alive in the Pick 4 and had her on the ticket. Again she lost. So did I.
Four Pick 4’s. Four Losses. All done in by one horse. To this day when I get beat in a race I still occasionally mutter to myself “Roses For Classy” . Twenty Five years later. Horse players never forget.
Do any of you guys have a horse nemesis?
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As usual, a great story
I’ve had a bunch of horses like that over the last decade but one that really sticks out to me was English Channel just a few years ago.
Like you, I like to play Pick 4s (or Pick 3s) and I tend to look for ones with turf races in the sequence. During 2005, 2006 and 2007, ended up playing several Pick 4s where English Channel was racing in one of the spots and I was always trying to beat him…unless I decided to play him, only to watch him lose.
The coup de grace of my whole English Channel experience was the 2007 Breeders’ Cup that he won for fun over the soft turf at Monmouth Park. I went 3-of-4 in that Pick 4 with the turf handing me my lunch…something that was hard to accept given the fact that I pride myself on that race.
The 07 BC Turf taught me two important lessons (actually, they were lessons that I already knew but wasn’t following):
- Be very, very leery of the Arc winner wheeling back to the BC.
- Think twice about playing a sequence where a nemesis horse is present!
As an epilogue: I am eagerly awaiting the chance to play the sons and daughters of English Channel on a yielding or soft turf course.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
Are You My West Coast Twin, Or Something?
Matty G beat me to the punch, because the first horse I thought of was English Channel. I can think of….probably five different times I tried to beat him and he was my undoing.
Another of mine would have to be Perfect Drift, although it probably worked out as an even proposition. It seemed whenever I included him, he fizzled, and whenever I left him out, he won. And you might remember, he ran for bleepin’ ever, so this went on for quite some time. I might also mention a horse from this year: Spring Style, who three times this year has cost me, twice in tournaments (one of which, had I not made the last-minute inexplicable switch to Spring Style, I would have won).
To be fair…I have a couple of hero horses, also, that always seemed to come through for me: The Tin Man, Go Between (rest his soul) come to mind.
Now is the time boys to make a big noise.
No matter what the people say,
For there is naught to fear, the gang's all here,
So hail West Virginia, hail.
And No Sooner Do I Mention Spring Style....
…and she goes out and wins the Frankel over Harmonious, her first graded stakes win at age 6.
I wasn’t aboard with a wager. C’mon, man!
Now is the time boys to make a big noise.
No matter what the people say,
For there is naught to fear, the gang's all here,
So hail West Virginia, hail.
The funny thing about English Channel....
when he first started racing I really liked him, but he got pounded at the windows so often (and I always seemed to be playing a sequence with him in it) I was always trying to beat him…except when I didn’t and he’d lose.
He was a nice colt but I was happy to see him retire because I never correctly played a race with him in it.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
by Matt Gardner on Jan 3, 2011 12:50 PM EST up reply actions
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