First Post: Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Captain

The ‘C’ also stands for Claude.

Free ones: Rundown…

Gulfstream Park Proper 8
Santa Anita 6, 8, 9

Pay-side (Weekday/Weekend): Today…

Fair Grounds 6, 8, 9
Golden Gate 3, 4, 5, 8
Laurel 8, 9
Tampa 7, 8, 9
Turfway 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Turf Paradise 3, 4, 7

Today’s Stakes Pageantry: #11 Ageless seems best in Santa Anita 7, but any of the first four morning-line horseys appears capable.

Yesterday’s Activity:

Track (Win Mutuels $20+/Gettable)

Aqueduct (3/2) — Race 2 OK on LifeLiner but fourth-deep on the noncontentious-race Betting Line. Race 5 no chance. Race 7 top Betting Line and fine on Spread Column; however, the 5-1 morning-line precluded a straight-up tout. Oh, well.

Delta (3/0) — Total perdition, a familiar condition.

Fair Grounds (4/1) — First three no soap, no sale. Nightcap winner (18-1) unluckily dead-heated by 11-10 fave and forced to split the win-pool; nevertheless, the 18-1 was touted, OK on LifeLiner.

Golden Gate (3/1) — The last two no good, but the one in the fifth was a blowup: the fifth-touted horsey won at 12-1, $26-even up top, with the third-touted runner, 51-1 on the toteboard, just a neck back as the runner-up, with the perfector returning $815-plus for $2. Unfortunately, the show-horse was elusive.

Gulfstream (3/1) — This time, the middle of the three longshots would have made it, in Race 2 at 9:35 a.m. PDT, had the pick-page crew posted in time. Boo, hiss! Anyway, this Cali Cat was 15-1 on the morning line and 21-1 in real life, semi-blessed with competitive LifeLiner Speed and Spread Column numbers in the 70s, no better or worse than anyone else in this sluggish field. Regrets!

Hawthorne (2/0) — More desperation here.

Los Alamitos (1/0) — Hard to find the 40-1 upsetter in the opener. Sorry.

Laurel (1/1) — KING OF THE NETCAPPER NIGHTCAPPER BULLIES in this one, touted. Fine connection-line first-timer (16 pc/17 pc/50 pc) in junky maiden-claiming field. This one paid $40.20-straight.

Mahoning (1/0) — Not quite there with the lone upsetter on the day.

Santa Anita (3/2) — The big $90-plus horse in the stakes race proved elusive; pity. But a mild (read: none too strong) case could be made for the Race 4 shocker, given the excellent first-timer connection-line of 21 pc/13 pc/38 pc. In the finale, though, it was another touted KING OF THE NETCAPPER NIGHTCAPPER BULLIES special, the third in our last four tries at Santa Anita. This time, the third-touted runner was the winner, at 17-1 ($37.40), a fine 88 in the LifeLiner Spread column off a pair of 99s in the Early and Pace Columns; the overall shape of the Betting Line was nebulous, thanks to the top two horses receiving Fair Odds of only 6-1: a vivid attempt to nail Jell-O to a tree, with the gelatin somehow finding a way to stay affixed to the bark now.

Sunland (1/1) — No public or pay-side touting of Sunland today, but Race 6 was makeable via the $28.80 winner’s being dually qualified on the LifeLiner Speed and Spread Column analyses in a random-type race.

Tampa (2/0) — Zip.

Turfway (1/0) — The $85-plus last-race shocker was beyond us.

Turf Paradise (3/1) — The last of this track’s longshots was touted on the pay-side, up top, no less, as best on both LifeLiner Speed and LifeLiner Spread. This one came back $38 to win.

As always, hope you had ’em! At least some of ’em.

WMF Report:

Early
Gulf 6f

Nocturnal Submission: Sifting through the wreckage…

Thank you. Best wishes. Goodbye. Skate safely.