An Excellent Closing Day At Emerald Downs

A beautiful finale to the 2012 Emerald Downs racing season on Sunday saw a great duel in the Gottstein Futurity between Music of My Soul and heavy favorite Finallygotabently, with Music of My Soul scoring a half-length upset at the wire. Finallygotabently ran just behind Music of My Soul in the early stages but grabbed the lead coming off the top of the turn and looked ready to take control of the race. But a game Music of My Soul fought back on the inside and powered home under Leslie Mawing to capture the top juvenile race of the Emerald Downs meet.

Following the race, Finallygotabently's jockey Juan Gutierrez stated that his horse waited on the other horses once he took the lead, suggesting that this talented colt still has some learning to do.

The top two Gottstein finishers both sported excellent pedigrees - winner Music of My Soul is a full-brother to 2010 Longacres Mile winner Noosa Beach, while Finallygotabently is a son of Bernardini out of former Gottstein champion and 2007 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies starter Smarty Deb.

As for my performance in the closing day live money handicapping tournament - started well, my handicapping was pretty much on point, and then I had a two race stretch where I made horrible betting choices and I was taking shots to over come that mistake the rest of the way. Arlington was good to me. Fairplex was good to me early, bad late. And Emerald was good except for the first time starter in the middle of the card that finished last after I got overly aggressive on my wager.

I will say this about the tournament format: I went in thinking I wouldn't like the live money/no specific mandatory format and I ended up almost preferring it to the $2 WP format. Not sure why but I felt like I had a bit more control of how to dole out the bankroll during the contest. My failures in the tournament were due to poor choices on my part and not from the format.

At the end of the day, I hit a good amount of winners but my wagering allocation killed me in the middle of the contest (as well as the $3 beers that I used to numb myself following one particularly bad bet). But, hey, the only way to learn is through the experience.