[RichieP]

Originally Posted by alydar_David

Patrick, I assure you...you are not alone.

Here's a post I wrote in 1999. A friend of mine from Palo Alto was lamenting an incredible backgammon loss to our online group of players. The post below was written in response to that. Most of the people in that group know nothing about horses. Ergo, the explanations.

Clint,

Enjoyed your post immensely.

I used to drive my BMW motorcycle past Bay Meadows every day (usually in the rain) on the way to my old school, San Francisco State University. At the time I wasn't involved with the ponies and never went in, just cruised on by.

Horse stories are like backgammon horror tales. Everybody has them. I have the dubious distinction of having one of the most mortifying ones. The bet was the "Pick 6" (pick the winner of six consecutive races: races three thru eight) at Saratoga. There was a huge carryover-no one had won the bet for two days, so most of the money was tacked on to the day's pool.

I was at Yonkers Raceway watching and betting via satellite transmission. I had a longshot right off the bat. It was a cheap Maiden Claiming race and the winner paid $96.00 for every $2.00 bet on her to win. That narrowed down the Pick 6 competition considerably.

I won the fourth race, then the fifth, sixth and seventh.

At this point I was so nervous, I thought it might be a good time to take up Heroin or something.

The last race was on the grass. The name of my horse was Known Ranger, an accomplished turf specialist. During the race he was nowhere to be seen. At the top of the stretch the front runners collapsed and two horses came charging from the back of the back. One of them was Known Ranger. They took turns exchanging leads by a nose. It was a ding dong battle all the way to the wire and I was afraid my heart would explode. At the wire it was too close too call. It was a photo finish. I had to leave the table and pace around the track awaiting the results. The results were in. Known Ranger was......second.

Someone else won the pick six. There was only one winner.

The winning ticket paid $780,000.

David
I swear to goodness I would have had to be scraped off the floor with a spatula!

Holy crap