Kentucky Derby Day!

[Thirteen Below]

I never realized before that there's no forum here for just casual conversation, day to day stuff. That's odd; I just assumed there must be one...

But technically, horse racing is considered a sport, so I can talk about it here. My wife just hit the trifecta in the Kentucky Derby! She's really good at calculating things like that, probably because she's autistic. When her health was better, we used to go up to Churchill Downs a few times a year, and we always came out with more money than we took with us, but.... damn.... never a trifecta before.

So happy for her; her health sucks and her life is pretty ******. Glad she had this happen.

But for the next couple of months, I probably won't be able to get out the front door from all the damned Amazon boxes on the porch.

 

[longtimefan]

The $1 trifecta paid $1,113.84


Woah

 

[Poppa San]

I never realized before that there's no forum here for just casual conversation, day to day stuff. That's odd; I just assumed there must be one...

It used to be called the Atrium. When @Shaggy assumed control and did an 'upgrade', the link to it was severed but it still can be found by those that know where to look. It's sort of a secret clubhouse now.

https://www.packerforum.com/forums/the-atrium.13/

I've been unsuccessful in asking @Shaggy and @griffin to re-establish it since then. I have it saved as a bookmark.

 

[Thirteen Below]

The $1 trifecta paid $1,113.84


Woah

Yeah, that's why I was stoked!! I was so excited I couldn't help posting it on 3 or 4 social media sites!

Turned out to be anticlimactic, though. She made a lot more off of Sierra Leone to place; she played him to win with one of her bets, but hedged it by putting some on place. She never saw Mystik Dan coming; she only took him in the trifecta because the odds were too tempting and she did see a couple of reasons why he had a legitimate shot.

She bet $50 total, and spread it around in a number of ways because that's the juice for her. Only a couple of her plays paid, but it's all money we wouldn't have had if she hadn't gone for it. So, yeah, there'll be a food dehydrator or some weird new type of juicer on the porch any day now, and I'll find someplace to put the damned things, and she'll be happy. She's pretty badly disabled, and basically bedridden most of the time, and buying cool new stuff is almost her only enjoyment (especially if it's something that uses electricity). Most of our money is hers anyway, it's not for me to stand in her way.

She damned near did stop me dead in my tracks this time, though. While we were watching the post-race coverage, I couldn't help asking her, "so how much did you bet?" She's autistic, so she's not really smooth at explaining things, and since she knows I manage money 180 degrees differently than she does, she's worried I'm going to be critical. I'm not, because like I say, most of our money is hers anyway, and I just want her to be happy. But it makes her feel awkward when she's telling me how much she spent on something.

So when I asked her that, she paused, trying to figure out the best way to explain it, and said, "well.... I bet fifty dollars....", and stopped there. My eyeballs practically popped out of my face and rolled across the floor, and I started to have symptoms of a stroke, because I was thinking "holy ****, New Zealand here we come after all!!".

But then she paused to collect her thoughts and organize the narrative, and continued, "and I spread it across a lot of bets...", and I started breathing again and realized, "well, New Zealand's going to have to find a way to get by without us somehow after all".

But... for that one moment.... holy ****.

But it's all good. It's not like our electric bill is overdue. The most important thing to me is that she had a thrill, and now she can always say that she hit the Kentucky Derby trifecta in the closest finish in the history of the Derby.

 

[Thirteen Below]

It used to be called the Atrium. When @Shaggy assumed control and did an 'upgrade', the link to it was severed but it still can be found by those that know where to look. It's sort of a secret clubhouse now.

https://www.packerforum.com/forums/the-atrium.13/

I've been unsuccessful in asking @Shaggy and @griffin to re-establish it since then. I have it saved as a bookmark.

And I didn't mean to sound critical; we all get what we pay for here. Hope I didn't come across that way. I was just a little surprised, because this is such a friendly board - especially by the standard of professional sports boards. Lot of really nice people, interesting people, getting along well with one another, enjoying one another's company. Just seemed like that sort of sub-forum would get some action here.

 

[Poppa San]

And I didn't mean to sound critical; we all get what we pay for here. Hope I didn't come across that way. I was just a little surprised, because this is such a friendly board - especially by the standard of professional sports boards. Lot of really nice people, interesting people, getting along well with one another, enjoying one another's company. Just seemed like that sort of sub-forum would get some action here.

Not a problem. It was very popular in the dead season. Multi posters playing games at the same time. Sometimes hard to keep up with the refreshing. Like I said, bookmark it and resurrect or create some of the games. Maybe if it got more action ...

 

[longtimefan]

Yeah, that's why I was stoked!! I was so excited I couldn't help posting it on 3 or 4 social media sites!

Turned out to be anticlimactic, though. She made a lot more off of Sierra Leone to place; she played him to win with one of her bets, but hedged it by putting some on place. She never saw Mystik Dan coming; she only took him in the trifecta because the odds were too tempting and she did see a couple of reasons why he had a legitimate shot.

She bet $50 total, and spread it around in a number of ways because that's the juice for her. Only a couple of her plays paid, but it's all money we wouldn't have had if she hadn't gone for it. So, yeah, there'll be a food dehydrator or some weird new type of juicer on the porch any day now, and I'll find someplace to put the damned things, and she'll be happy. She's pretty badly disabled, and basically bedridden most of the time, and buying cool new stuff is almost her only enjoyment (especially if it's something that uses electricity). Most of our money is hers anyway, it's not for me to stand in her way.

She damned near did stop me dead in my tracks this time, though. While we were watching the post-race coverage, I couldn't help asking her, "so how much did you bet?" She's autistic, so she's not really smooth at explaining things, and since she knows I manage money 180 degrees differently than she does, she's worried I'm going to be critical. I'm not, because like I say, most of our money is hers anyway, and I just want her to be happy. But it makes her feel awkward when she's telling me how much she spent on something.

So when I asked her that, she paused, trying to figure out the best way to explain it, and said, "well.... I bet fifty dollars....", and stopped there. My eyeballs practically popped out of my face and rolled across the floor, and I started to have symptoms of a stroke, because I was thinking "holy ****, New Zealand here we come after all!!".

But then she paused to collect her thoughts and organize the narrative, and continued, "and I spread it across a lot of bets...", and I started breathing again and realized, "well, New Zealand's going to have to find a way to get by without us somehow after all".

But... for that one moment.... holy ****.

But it's all good. It's not like our electric bill is overdue. The most important thing to me is that she had a thrill, and now she can always say that she hit the Kentucky Derby trifecta in the closest finish in the history of the Derby.

Thats awesome either way. You got some extra fun money

I hit a tri on dogs way back using a method from reading a few books ( yes reading an no internet help) didn't have internet lol

I bet maybe 20? And won 595? Just under what you needed to claim on taxes

Best feeling ever

 

[Thirteen Below]

Thats awesome either way. You got some extra fun money

I hit a tri on dogs way back using a method from reading a few books ( yes reading an no internet help) didn't have internet lol

I bet maybe 20? And won 595? Just under what you needed to claim on taxes

Best feeling ever

Yeah; I was really happy for her. Her health sucks, so not much seems good in her life, but she finds tons of joy in the simple things - like seeing lambs chase each other around in a field, finding a snake on a hiking trail, just little things. And she really, really loves horseracing; used to go to the Derby every year.

She has this fascination with big, powerful athletes and animals. Hockey, NFL football.... MMA, and especially heavyweight boxing. We go to the Muhammad Ali museum in Louisville, and I can't get her out of the film room. She'll sit there for hours watching Ali's brawls with Frazier, Norton... all the beatdowns he put on people over the years... she'll watch until they close the place down if I let her.

And I guess horseracing is an extension of that. She's crazy about them. When we go to Churchill Downs, we sit right on the rail at the finish line, directly across from the mirror that catches the photo finish - 40 or 50 feet from the horses, 30 feet if the field is spread out. Close enough to get mud splattered on us, even sweat from the horses. Close enough hear the jockeys swearing at each other; those little bastards sometimes have hot tempers.

And for most races, we always have that spot completely for ourselves. I guess every other race fan figures the best view is from up high, so they can take in the whole race. Our favorite part is the finish.

We usually place multiple small bets on every single race. So in any given race, there's a really good chance that at least one of our random bets pays off 2, 3, 5 bucks or whatever. Even though most of them lose. We don't care about the ones we lose, because it's only a buck or two. But if one of them wins 3 or 4 bucks, she's ecstatic.

So at the finish of the race, every single person at the Downs is looking right at us, on the finish line. And what they see is this 6'4", 235 lb 60+ year old man with grey hair down his shoulders an a beard (looking like an escaped Allman Brother), and this little bitty Chinese woman who's half my size and looks like half my age (kind of Polynesian- looking), with thick, black hair way past her knees, jumping up, hugging each other, and bouncing up and down like we just won the Powerball.

And I can't help realizing every single one of those 15-30 thousand people must think that this really odd-looking couple (especially for Kentucky) is somehow picking the winners on almost every single race - that we have some sort of inside juice that we're cashing in over and over all afternoon. I can't help wondering all day long who they think we are, and who we're so plugged-in with; they have no way of knowing we only "won" maybe 2 bucks.

 

[weeds]

This is a cool story. Congrats. I bet on a greyhound once, a long time ago, because it took a crap on the track and won $100. ( I "won" a night out at the Kaukauna dog track with my boss and his wife). You can tell I bet a lot.