Month: March 2022

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The Parlay Bet

In the late 90s Ed and I were guests of the Reno Hilton during the Preakness Stakes and while there the Casino manager wanted to share an idea with Ed that he had about Parlay Bets and how he could apply the concept of baseball parlays to racing. Enthused about conveying this idea to Ed and making sure to have his full attention he made reservations for us at their finest Italian restaurant aware of this being Ed’s and my preferred cuisine after reading about all the times we dined at our favorite restaurant Pines of Rome when we enjoyed a big day at the track.

To the manager’s disappointment, Ed wasn’t able to attend because he got food poisonings from breakfast so he was left explaining this concept to me. And even though by this time I had acquired a great deal of knowledge towards betting exotics, the only understanding I had about Parlay bets is I recalled learning after the fact of Ed making his first and only parlay bet to this date that happened to be on 7 races at Santa Anita Park, of which he made it through the first 6 and mentioned that he made the bet when the final leg opened wagering and someone joked “look some idiot just put $30,000 to show on the 6 horse” and Ed confessed. 🙂

We happened to be standing and talking with a clocker friend we met during this Santa Anita trip and he and I both said, why did you make the parlay on 7 races? Why not stop at 3 or 4? And Ed’s reply was this was the first opportunity that he had to make an actual parlay wager on racing and they offered your choice of win, place or show finishing positions. So rather than bet each race, which was actually extremely difficult for Ed to do, even while on vacation he was disciplined as he Only Ever made the specific days bets no matter where he was placing them, so this was a way he could wager on the first race and if hit, he can sit through and enjoy every leg as the day moved on. Made sense and he did admit that he really did not expect that the initial $200 wager would evolve to $30K by the last race and when reality struck, he said next time I know to limit the number of races however next time never came because Santa Anita stopped the parlays. I believe they offer them again however only on track.

Another part to this that is a must share is often times people have a misconception about me and I understand why because I love horse racing with a passion, have knowledge on whose who, who’s related to who, who gives the best mounts to who and can basically recall every big hit and who the trainers were that this same passion flows over into other sports and that is not at all the case. I absolutely know Nothing about any other sport, except maybe for what a 3 point basket is or when someone has a touch down but other than the basics, I always relied on Ed to translate and since he was absent, I found it necessary to explain once Steve the casino manager began talking.

Well…… this concept did not fall on deaf ears and I was actually able to explain this to Ed and this is how it works:

Bet X amount on your selection at any track to either win, place or show and then parlay these winnings over to any other selection at any track to either win, place or show and stop there.

Then duplicate this ticket Only add another race parlay on a selection at any track to either win, place or show and stop there.

The concept is if you make it through the first two, you cash so if you miss the 3rd leg you still make money. The sky is the limit meaning the number of races you wish to add as long as you duplicate the originals.

The Casino offered to book the bets for Ed however we would have had to live in Reno and that wasn’t an option so Ed, the most self disciplined person I ever met, began making his own Parlay bets.

Putting this into numbers will relay how difficult making these wagers yourself can be. As an example, bet $200 to win on a horse that pays $10 means, you’d manually be rolling over the $1,000 you just won into your next bet and once you have the $1,000 in hand the option to not roll over is easier than putting the full amount into the next bet. I for one could not do it and even Ed couldn’t continue so essentially the parlay bet dissipated from our options until………..

We have been granted this option through our Zen account though only on the Santa Anita and Del Mar tracks. So I am in the process of adding this wager to our routine. Starting small in order to figure out the best way, however, I view this as one of the biggest opportunities we have to date because unlike baseball parlays where you have to pick the winner, we can choose to bet win, place, and/or show and since our potential bets run 60% in the money, this could be quite lucrative. Albeit contained to these two tracks, once down, it’s a matter of size though you can see from Ed’s initial investment of $200 was worth $30K by the time he reached the 7th race.

When we first discovered on track parlay bets at Santa Anita they offered parlays between the Southern and Northern California tracks. In other words you could bet a win parlay in the first leg at Santa Anita and then choose those winning to roll over to a race at Golden Gate and go back and forth through the day. By the time Ed made his first live parlay wager this was no longer the case but it gave him an idea that he actually discussed once with a person who worked for auto tote. If pari-mutual wagering offered parlays that cross to different tracks that this would be a boom to the industry since the tracks money is made from the amount wagered.

To explain, say you make a $200 win wager at Fair Grounds and it hits for $10, then the next bet is at Gulfstream where $1,000 would then wager on their track and it hits and pays $6, then the $3,000 would roll over to the next track say Santa Anita and so on. Great idea however at the time Ed was told it would be an almost impossible option cause you’d have to coordinate such through all the various tracks. Today may be different especially if coordinated with the corporations that own multiple tracks.

We had an overall break even week last week. We bet several parlays at Santa Anita and though we bet small, it was the parlays that bought us to about even. All our wagers can be viewed at the following link: https://anyhorseplayersoutthere.com/zen-wagers-2022/

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Climbing to 10,500 Feet

I found this “Pre Ed” photo of my jump masters and me from my skydiving days while transferring our VHS tapes to digital and thought it would be fun to share a part of my life that was truly amazing and how this experience has stayed with me throughout.

A lot of people perceive that when someone is involved in a sport such as this, mountain climbing, hand gliding or base jumping, that the person must have a death wish and I can say that the opposite is true.

There is nothing like being under canopy taking in all the surroundings, seeing the horizon, the square cut pastures of land and birds in flight as you sail past. An adventure I shall always cherish, not unlike the ride we’ve been on together even though we haven’t yet reached safe altitude of 10,500 feet to take the full plunge, at 20% on average return on our investments, we’re climbing fast.

While in the process of sharing about our venture in order to fill Zen’s remaining open shares to properly fund our betting bank, I’ve decided to take this time to not only explore, but also to build into making larger bets.

As previously mentioned Ed was the “Win” bettor in our family, and this income stability afforded me the opportunity to figure out how to successfully wager exotics. Though since Zen’s stability rides on a similar foundation of 70 to 75% of our wagers should be placed on win, place, show and daily doubles, I have to work on switching mindset to not only make more of these types of wagers, I have to bet big, and honestly betting big on win, place, show wagers doesn’t come easy for me.

I believe the reason is that when I’m taking the plunge on an exotic bet it’s because I see something with excellent odds and I’m landing in a race that I perceive the favorite to be vulnerable. Though my perception isn’t always correct which has become an acceptable part of making these wagers, when I do plunge into a race, I’m covering the odds horse in every way. As an example say I have a 20/1 shot that I believe will come in the money, then I not only have the horse on top and bottom in exactas with all, I’m also going after tris placing the runner in 3rd and 4th in supers and this usually takes a lot of money however when hit, the payouts can be massive as all of us have already seen when we hit the $12K super last year at Woodbine. Betting a lot of money this way doesn’t worry me because I feel that I have this 20/1 shot covered so if this horse does come in then we cash.

On the other hand a good portion of our win, place, show, and daily double bets are Not going to be 20/1. More like 3/1 ($8 return) or 5/2 ($7.20 return) and to make money betting this way it’s imperative for us to bet Large and just as important to bet the runner where we believe where they will come in, win place Or Show and I’m going to use an example from our most recent week to share what I mean.

I bet $500 to show on the 6 horse at Aqueduct in Race 5 on 3/5/22 which was a large bet for us and part of increasing our bet size per race, HOWEVER the 57% show was the reason why. Even though this horse Won and went off at true odds of 2.25 or 2/1 that paid $2.70 to show, our venture is about cashing where we perceive things will unfold. Again nothing ever means that our betting decision is precise, because it’s about winning AND cashing and to make sure we stay according to path, it’s imperative to abide by statistics and what they relay.

In closing I wish to share a story. Way back when Ed and me lived in Maryland, we went to live racing as much as possible. Because of Ed’s growing notoriety in the 90s we often had racing enthusiasts introduce themselves and one guy in particular that we met complained heavily about a horse named Ten Keys. Though before my time in racing, Ten Keys was a claimed horse by trainer Michael Pino who went on to win multiple stakes wins. I can’t say exactly what Pino claimed the horse for because this was so long ago however my recollection was he claimed him for $10K.

Any how, this handicapper complained constantly about Pino and Ten Keys saying that this horse would have won much more because of yada yada yada. And at the time I wasn’t in the place that I am now with betting so I didn’t fully comprehend his complaining and just knew that this was a complaint because Ed had said so. The complaining consisted of this handicapper saying that “If Pino did this” OR “If Pino did that” that the horse would have been better. Yet I do recall that after the claim Michael Pino won over a million dollars with this horse.

What has stuck with me all these years, after this and also after witnessing Ed becoming the successful handicapper that he was is “None of Us know precisely what is going to unfold in Any race” and if you decide to enter And You Cash, that This IS successful. So why complain about what “could of or would of” been. You cashed. You made $. And this is truly what all this is about.

One final note. I’ve had what other players view as professionals say that they would Never Ever tell what they were betting, before or after and have even been told that I was being brave letting it be known what I actually bet. And my response to this is, If You understand statistics and apply these accordingly, win or lose which Will Happen, the end result is what matters. And if you can show a profit, consistently and overall, that this is a truly amazing accomplishment.

Yes, you can ALWAYS arm chair quarterback and see things clearly “After the Race” HOWEVER it’s before the race and the decision that you make that Really Matters. AND if you can show in the long run that your decisions ARE profitable, then this is All That Matters.

And this is where we Are today 🙂

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