I'm not sure about you race fans, but I enjoyed the action at Prairie Meadows this past weekend, especially Saturday night. As predicted, there were money magnets in the races, as both the Iowa Oaks and the Iowa Derby had a 1 to 2 horse taking heavy action and both horses, Daisy Devine and Astrology, finished out of the money. You hard core types know what that means, cha-chang!I am kicking myself a bit: If you would have bet my pick 4 as I laid out Saturday morning exactly as I had it, you would have spent $180 and returned $1556.50. I went cheap in Race 10, the $12,500 Maiden Claimer and covered only three horses instead of five. These races are hard to predict and I should have just covered what I handicapped, but The Turk is human and I do leave money on the table from time to time. No matter how experienced or good you think you are, you will make mistakes, if that's even the right term. I was comfortable with a $180 Pick Four bet but I hate to over-cover and I out-thought myself. I try not to dwell on the mistakes and I'll move along.
The Iowa Oaks
The Iowa Derby
The Cornhusker Handicap
I had a thought tonight: The sport is marketed constantly to a wide public audience with mixed results. A big problem is so few sports reporters give a hoot about racing. It's time the sport "targets" key reporters and columnists at major old media news organizations and sponsors trips to the track. The track is the drug, the track is what sells itself. The more columnists and radio talk show hosts that talk up their love of the sport, the more it will sink into the mainstream again.
Who loves football wildcard games on Saturday Nights? Prairie Meadows, with the big races going off between 9-10 PM Eastern time, could have been huge had it been marketed by a organization that had racing's best interests in mind, not just the interest of a big track. Just sayin'....
Turk Out!
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