Burning questions answered
Oct 13, 2014 20:39:21 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Oct 13, 2014 20:39:21 GMT -5
Burning questions answered
By Jay Cronley | Special to ESPN
Here are some questions worth answering.
Question: I'm going to the Breeder's Cup in LA. What's that going to cost?
Answer: Sleep in the car and you should be all right. Prices are not run up Breeders' Cup weekend. That's because they've already been run up as far as uncommon sense will allow. Tastefully decadent boutique hotels make as much sense as anything. That's a small room in a shabby place with bougainvillea growing over the cracks outside.
Lots of people are throwing together blogs of showy horse racing events and are calling themselves writers to the IRS, claiming legit lodging, food and entertainment deductions. Real writers are usually obligated to make some money while doing their jobs.
Q: I've had a dozen straight losing days with the horses. I loved Texas A&M over Mississippi in the colleges this weekend, and had the Giants to beat the Eagles Sunday. The Giants did everything but score. How can I bust this losing streak before the Breeders' Cup?
A: Lots of people try to break slumps by playing the opposite of what has been losing. What most often loses is the obvious, California Chrome in Pennsylvania, the Seahawks at home versus Dallas. To break a team sports wagering slump, you have to put yourself in the position of an automatic winner, a bookmaker, or the house. In team sports wagering, you have to think this way: There's no such thing as a bad number, or point spread.
It's hard to play yourself out of a horse racing losing streak. The best way to stop a horse race handicapping slump is to take a week or two off. Read a book. You remember books. They're those things you give as Christmas and holiday gifts.
What betting slumps have in common is the feeling that you're going to lose the next bet you make.
Q: Since you're from Oklahoma, what's up with the Thunder this year?
A: Whereas most NBA teams attempt to get better through trades, the Thunder seems to have chosen to try to let its great talent improve naturally, to play a little Moneyball at hoops, so to speak, to draft brilliantly, to pay the stars handsomely, and hope for the best with the rest.
Here's the way letting nature take its course works. When you stay the same, you can improve slightly, you can regress slightly, you can remain as you were, or you can suffer injuries. The great risk of injury would seem to mandate that even teams with two stars on the roster trade for a third serious player.
With the foot fracture to Durant, the Thunder is suddenly looking farther ahead than anybody.
Q: I need to make five grand at the Breeders' Cup. What do you have for me?
A: Look at a turf race. They're next to impossible to pick through conventional handicapping means.
There's that crazy figure eight-like turf course down the hill at Santa Anita. Somebody familiar with those nooks and curves might be worth a look.
Lucky numbers work well on Breeders' Cup grass.
The hittable big numbers on the dirt Cup weekend are usually first-time something, first time at a particular distance, first time after a layoff, first time on a new surface, a progression of improving Beyer numbers. The European horses tend to dominate the turf races. You could always put five grand to win on what you consider to be the best of that lot.
Q: Who do you like to make the first college football big four playoff?
A: Whatever Candy Rice says.
Q: We're going to the Breeders' Cup. But my spouse is afraid of earthquakes. Do we have anything to worry about?
A: I was in an earthquake while staying in a medium-rise hotel in Santa Monica. When the shaking started at night, everybody exited their rooms and went into the hotel hallways and looked at what their neighbors were wearing and hoped for the best. Ever since that night I have stayed at one or two-story tastefully decadent resident hotels with vines growing over what could probably stand a paint job. Driving to Santa Anita is probably a bigger worry than an LA earthquake.
Q: How can you tell if California Chrome simply needed its last race or is off its form and is fixing to get blown away in the Classic?
A: The connections of horses needing a race seldom squabble.
By Jay Cronley | Special to ESPN
Here are some questions worth answering.
Question: I'm going to the Breeder's Cup in LA. What's that going to cost?
Answer: Sleep in the car and you should be all right. Prices are not run up Breeders' Cup weekend. That's because they've already been run up as far as uncommon sense will allow. Tastefully decadent boutique hotels make as much sense as anything. That's a small room in a shabby place with bougainvillea growing over the cracks outside.
Lots of people are throwing together blogs of showy horse racing events and are calling themselves writers to the IRS, claiming legit lodging, food and entertainment deductions. Real writers are usually obligated to make some money while doing their jobs.
Q: I've had a dozen straight losing days with the horses. I loved Texas A&M over Mississippi in the colleges this weekend, and had the Giants to beat the Eagles Sunday. The Giants did everything but score. How can I bust this losing streak before the Breeders' Cup?
A: Lots of people try to break slumps by playing the opposite of what has been losing. What most often loses is the obvious, California Chrome in Pennsylvania, the Seahawks at home versus Dallas. To break a team sports wagering slump, you have to put yourself in the position of an automatic winner, a bookmaker, or the house. In team sports wagering, you have to think this way: There's no such thing as a bad number, or point spread.
It's hard to play yourself out of a horse racing losing streak. The best way to stop a horse race handicapping slump is to take a week or two off. Read a book. You remember books. They're those things you give as Christmas and holiday gifts.
What betting slumps have in common is the feeling that you're going to lose the next bet you make.
Q: Since you're from Oklahoma, what's up with the Thunder this year?
A: Whereas most NBA teams attempt to get better through trades, the Thunder seems to have chosen to try to let its great talent improve naturally, to play a little Moneyball at hoops, so to speak, to draft brilliantly, to pay the stars handsomely, and hope for the best with the rest.
Here's the way letting nature take its course works. When you stay the same, you can improve slightly, you can regress slightly, you can remain as you were, or you can suffer injuries. The great risk of injury would seem to mandate that even teams with two stars on the roster trade for a third serious player.
With the foot fracture to Durant, the Thunder is suddenly looking farther ahead than anybody.
Q: I need to make five grand at the Breeders' Cup. What do you have for me?
A: Look at a turf race. They're next to impossible to pick through conventional handicapping means.
There's that crazy figure eight-like turf course down the hill at Santa Anita. Somebody familiar with those nooks and curves might be worth a look.
Lucky numbers work well on Breeders' Cup grass.
The hittable big numbers on the dirt Cup weekend are usually first-time something, first time at a particular distance, first time after a layoff, first time on a new surface, a progression of improving Beyer numbers. The European horses tend to dominate the turf races. You could always put five grand to win on what you consider to be the best of that lot.
Q: Who do you like to make the first college football big four playoff?
A: Whatever Candy Rice says.
Q: We're going to the Breeders' Cup. But my spouse is afraid of earthquakes. Do we have anything to worry about?
A: I was in an earthquake while staying in a medium-rise hotel in Santa Monica. When the shaking started at night, everybody exited their rooms and went into the hotel hallways and looked at what their neighbors were wearing and hoped for the best. Ever since that night I have stayed at one or two-story tastefully decadent resident hotels with vines growing over what could probably stand a paint job. Driving to Santa Anita is probably a bigger worry than an LA earthquake.
Q: How can you tell if California Chrome simply needed its last race or is off its form and is fixing to get blown away in the Classic?
A: The connections of horses needing a race seldom squabble.