First Post: Sunday, April 13, 2014

That time of year again, especially with today being Palm Sunday — an annual, in-order spin through the nine-song song-cycle of Ocean Rain, still the greatest album ever made.

It’s all about springtime, from the opening track ‘Silver’ and its Palm Sunday mania, a plotting Judas v. an evangelistic Jesus of Nazareth, through the Gethsemanian insomnia of ‘Nocturnal Me’ and, of course, ‘The Killing Moon’ to the Good Friday brutality and violence of ‘Thorn of Crowns’ and ‘My Kingom’ and finally the dying despair of the title number, fittingly at the end, ‘screaming from beneath the waves…’. Too good. Purify our misfit ways/And magnify our Crystal Days.

Get in touch with the religious feel of the spring/Paschal/Easter season and listen to Ocean Rain again, all the way through, in proper order. It is springtime. Probably should just have it on in the background on a continuous loop.

As well, the Bunnymen did not write to compete with Boy George and Duran Duran and all their other contemporaries. Rather, the Bunnymen wrote to compete with Shakespeare and Bosch. To this end, Ocean Rain imparts one of our best guiding principles: Where’s the sense in stealing/Without the Grace to be it?

Free ones: Rundown…

Gulf 6, 7
Santa Anita 1, 4, 5, 6, 8

Pay-side: Today…

Golden Gate 3, 9
Hawthorne 4
Keeneland 2, 6, 7, 9
Pimlico 2, 3, 5, 7
Sunland 8
Tampa 2, 4, 6, 7, 10
Turf Paradise 6
Woodbine 10

Today’s Stakes Pageantry: Both SA stakes on the free page today. Huzzah!

Yesterday’s Activity: Ned Reldem, Esq., had his first outing at the parimutuels armed with V6 output based on the 2014 Cynthia Publishing Company par times. So how’d it turn out?

Ned Reldem, Esq., is our personal talisman. He is the rainmaker, like some puppetmaster from a John Grisham novel. He could easily be working the deals for any white-shoe firm in the country, but his noncorporate style is much more reminiscent of Winston Wolfe from the Pulp Fiction cinema or The Great Brown Buffalo from the various Raoul Duke gonzo-journalism misadventures. A man of such efficaciousness is not to be trifled with. By now, we all know of his legendary pull with the Va. Poly Athletic Dept. — it was he alone who moved for the successful hiring of Buzzie Bavasie as Men’s Basketball Coach — and now that Atty. Reldem is getting involved in handicapping and wagering, we probably will be seeing him doing some epic things soon, getting on TV to scream at the haircuts, winning tournaments, etc.

As for yesterday, the free page remained on the ropes, but Counselor Ned ate it up on the pay-side tracks.

Keeneland 5 was a good race for himself. Over here, we touted too many horseys in this race, four in all. That’s excessive, but we do it; we know no other way. When the race appears wildly contentious, we get into an aggressive stance. We play hard into the uncertainty.

This time, for us for Uncle Ned, it was all right. First-timer Sultry Cat was top of the V6 Betting Line, 10-1 on the morning line and with a connection line (that’s a lot of lines!) of 15pc/15pc/10pc — just made it!

Another underappreciated firster, Nobadeer, also was among the touted, 12-1 on the morning line.

Sultry Cat went off at 40¢ shy of 10-1; Nobadeer’s final odds were 19-1. They hooked up in the winning perfecta, which paid $344.40. The third-place horse was the top of the LifeLiner Speed Column analysis, and the trizacta paid $1,730, for $2. Sultry Cat paid $21.20 up top.

Then in Race 10 there, it was the great Hard Not to Like, not really liked in Lexington, though, but liked well enough to be top-touted here, and also liked by Ned Reldem, Esq.

Hard Not to Like was top of the V6 Betting Line at Fair Odds of 3½-1; her morning line was 15-1, and she was second-best on the LifeLiner Speed Column Speed analysis.

Hard Not to Like got away at 13½-1 on the toteboard, won and paid $29-even.

A close call came in the finale at Lone Star. Top-touted Zyzzy Balubah, 15-1 on the morning line and 23-1 when the gates opened, ran second of 12, not close to the even-money winner, but in cahoots with him (the winner was the top LifeLiner Speed Column analysis horsey in the field) to contrive a $51.40 saver perfecta.

In Tampa 9, Skiffs Brewmeister was listed as the First Bonkersmate in the race, a contentious event in which numerous horseys lined up OK on the LifeLiner Speed Column analysis. ’Skiff did it, and paid $26-even, straight.

On Opening Day at Woodbine, Race 7 was a good one for the wild-players. Cristina’s Halo was top-touted, the only qualifier in the field on the good measure of the LifeLiner Speed Column analysis. Cristina’s Halo, 15-1 on the morning line and bet-down to 10-1 in real life, crushed the field to win by 7, paying $23.30.

The other touted horsey in the field was the first-timer Penny Stamp, 8-1 on the morning line but hammered to 2-1 favoritism on the toteboard. The cold-punch recommendations combined for a $79.90 perfector.

Reldem said, ‘All hail LifeLiner. Drinking a lovely Schaefer and almost drunk.’

WMF Report:

Early
Gulf 6f
Hawthorne 6½f
Los Alamitos 4½f
Mountain 6f
Santa Anita 6f (WMF 255)
Tampa 6f

Nocturnal Submission: Sifting through the wreckage…

Thank you. Best wishes. Goodbye. Bye-bye.