going in completely blind


[click image]

...

The very first horse that sang to me was Commanding Curve. For my backup I'm going with Wildcat Red. As I've discovered in recent years, this means of my conditionally infallible winner picking doesn't work like it does on the track... right there up close and personal. I have an unbroken record of picking winners there when first they come out from the paddock onto the track... unless I have the faintest idea someone is betting money on my pick. That ruins it.

If no one cares about my stupid picks, I pick the winner every time.

One stranger very wisely heeded me and made a lot of money off it at the Santa Rosa track a thousand years ago. He just made a great show of being strictly a Racing Form bettor... only the numbers. I told him he was a chump, that there was way more to a race than the sum of its numbers. He just acted amused by my silly notions, my airy-fairy approach to a serious business... but listened for my pick on each race and went down to place his bet only after that. I believed him. I believed he thought I was an amusing daffodil... only entertained by it and not putting any money on it.

He kissed me just after the last race.

But having to do my thing with images online doesn't render the same infallible result.

Why do I pick these two, despite their odds sucking? They have better heads than the others. More intelligence in the eye. But they're only pictures and we all know how pictures go. So....

...

Don't get me wrong. I'm rooting for California Chrome. Art Sherman used to train for us, and I admired him the most of any of our trainers... because... he never thought of himself... always put the sport and the horses and the owners ahead of his pocketbook. Ultimately wise. Never gives shaky advice. Nobody alive deserves it more than he does. That's flat.