Get A Hunch/Bet A Bunch
Every time I dwell on my long season, I see where it could be worse.
Check out Go Go Edric.
Go Go Edric started the year in the late-winter sunshine of Santa Anita with a racing partner, jockey Victor Espinoza, who would go on to win a Breeders’ Cup race.
That’s pretty heady company. There you are, you and Victor, chasing blistering fractions of 21-4/5 and 44-4/5 seconds at one of the world’s most beautiful racing settings.
And then, depression sets in.
You throw a couple of clunkers at Santa Anita and you’re on a trailer heading north to Bay Meadows.
And that’s only a pit stop.
Go Go Edric is still going north, which in this sport isn’t a happy development. It means you’re really going south, as in south in the standings.
One February morning, you’re grazing on clover in the sunshine and the next you wake up at the bullring in Spokane, in one of the coldest early Novembers in recent memory.
You gotta figure Go Go Edric is one hacked-off racehorse.
Can trainer David Doutrich get this 5-year-old gelding pointed right for tonight’s sixth race?
I think so, assuming jockey Rowdy Luark is over the bug that sidelined him Monday night. Rowdy and Mr. Edric should get a stalking trip from mid-pack, and a clean shot down the lane at the survivors in this field of hard-banging, bottom-dwelling claimers.
It’s your third outing here, Edric old boy. Lose this one, and you might find yourself on a trailer to Kamloops.
Tonight’s flings:
FIRST: $2 daily double MAJOR WAVE and SOUTHERN SON with GO DOWN MOSES, RIVERBOAT MAN, SCIENCE FICTION and SPECIAL WARRANT in the second. $10 across on SOUTHERN SON.
SECOND: $25 place, $25 to show on GO DOWN MOSES. $1 trifecta box RIVERBOAT MAN, GO DOWN MOSES and SCIENCE FICTION. $3 exacta box same three. $1 trifecta box RIVERBOAT MAN, and GO DOWN MOSES with ALL for second with top two and SCIENCE FICTION for third. $1 exacta box NANABONANAFEFIFIANA with top four public choices on the tote board.
FOURTH: $3 across on NASTIC’S WHIRL. $1 pick 3: NASTIC’s WHIRL with COMPETITIVE LADY, WINGS OF GOLD and NEWPORTER in the fifth with HE SCORZ, GO GO EDRIC and PIPE’N FIFE in the sixth.
FIFTH: $3 across on NEWPORTER. $1 trifecta wheel COMPETITIVE LADY and NEWPORTER for first and second with ALL for third.
SIXTH: $10 across on GO GO EDRIC.
SEVENTH: $2 trifecta wheel MAHERA’S ANGEL and AUNT JEWELL for first and second to ALL for third.
EIGHTH: $25 win, $25 to place on PRIMOLINIATOR. $1 superfecta wheel PRIMOLINIATOR and BERRY FUNNY with those two, ALY MACKEE and LINCOLN JAMES for second and third with ALL for fourth.
Last time out (Sunday): Won $58.60.
Bottom line: Down $1,081.30 for the meeting.