[barb craven]

Thanks for that Hoof and a very Merry Christmas to you and your family.

And I add my grateful thanks to Bill V. for doing a Trojan job and shouldering most of the work, Ray (Buffaloxp) for initiated the idea of a contest and putting up the prize money, and Ted who monitors everything and FTL for all his insight and teaching. He answered many questions or me, especially how to decipher what kind of race the current one you were playing was.

I too think after a break the contests should continue. It really doesn`t matter about the prizes, but the feedback you get from the races you post is invaluable. I don`t know if there would be enough people who would post their picks for the day to be discussed if there wasn`t some incentive, even just bragging rights.
I would like to see the betting structure widen a little to include at least exactas, daily doubles and pick threes. More would be good, but might put too much of a strain on Bill or whomever is the scorer.
The teaching part is the key to all of this. There may have only been a few who participated in the contest every month, but I would be willing to bet that there were a great deal more who followed everything that was posted and learned along the way. I think it would be a shame if this format didn`t continue after a much needed hiatus.