The bare bones of my day. Got to the track around 7:30 with Stever, did some work for an hour or so, then got picked up by Sonny for a tour of the backstretch, and if you know Sonny, you know that's liable to take days, but I didn't care, I wanted to see my homeboy.
After hundreds of convoluted stories and "there's so and so" calls, we arrived at T-Pletch's barn, or at least one of the 45 or so he must have on the grounds to stable that factory of his. Met a nice lassie by the name of Maggie and asked her to point me to my guy. Stall 17, Maggie says. Five stall walk, and there Any Given Saturday is, as adorable and enormous as the day is long. Took a few pictures, which will be up shortly, but didn't get to schmooze with him the way I would have liked, because a really hot exercise rider or hotwalker or manepuller or whatever was working on him. Can't quite recall what she was doing, as I was too busy ogling both her and the horse.
Thank you infinity Sonny for the tour, and back to work. Lots of near misses at the windows. Had the 3/5/6 to start the early pick four, and I run 2-3 with the 5 and 6 behind the 1A. Had the 3/4/5/6 every which way in the third trifecta except for with the 4 on top, which got me even more frustrated when the 4, whom I had included in the pick three with the 3/5/6 in the third, took the fourth at 17/1. Then after becoming sick when seeing the near $1,000 payoff in the pick three to the 7 I singled, I stupidly chased the 7 to win at an underlaid 9/5, and he didn't lift a hoof.
T.D. Vance was my horse of the day, and while I had the exacta in his race for a lousy $1 (more satisfaction of finally getting a winner than the money), I could've hammered TDV had I not been chasing money all day.
Durkin was a bit of a flop, as I was in and outta there in like five minutes and didn't get to see him call a race because my visit apparently wasn't as locked in as I had been led to believe. Still, the booth was interesting, much higher up and smaller than I thought it would be. The way TD's going, he won't be able to fit through the door in five years. He was an okay guy, not great, but not really an asshole either. Made sure I got in a Derby Trail plug before I left, so hopefully the next time you see "Tom Durkin's Flask" posting, it's not Matt.
Have a date with the Captain and hopefully plenty of beer tonight, still trying to shake this cold so doubt I'm getting too smizzied. Will be back tomorrow with a first-half recap, complete with awards.
I'm off to toast myself for making this entire post on my Blackberry. Hopefully my thumbs can grip the glass.
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