Thank you, Remembering Rita, for reminding that you never leave out the local horse.
In horse racing, there is a saying "horses for courses", which means that sometimes horses favor a particular track. When big races are held at a track that doesn't normally have big racing, I always make sure my bets include a horse that loves the racetrack in question, no matter how low in quality he might seem, compared to the better horses that are shipping in for the big money. That paid off nicely when, on a whim last night, I saw that the little Prairie Meadows track in Iowa was having a series of stakes races for its Friday night racing. So, while my betting account had gotten rather low, I trusted the impulse and downloaded a racing form.
I come by a belief in "horses for courses" honestly. When I owned in a racing partnership in the mid 90s, one of our early purchases was a sour, scrawny, narrow-chested grey filly named Swiss Watch. She was a "project horse", in that she hadn't done very well, but she only cost us $5,000. She was from the barn of a major Arizona breeder, but she'd been well defeated in her first few races. In fact, when she made her first start for us, we considered it a victory that she finished as close as fifth.
Then the Phoenix meet ended and the circuit moved to the little 5/8-mile Prescott track in the Arizona mountains for the summer. Swiss Watch had an awakening. We ran her in the cheapest races the track offered -- $1500 claimer -- and she won all three starts she made that summer, which was amazing. I once asked our trainer why she did so well at that track, and he replied, "Those tight turns give her squirrel brain something to think about. They keep her interested."
Back to last night. A horse named Remembering Rita had come to the Iowa meet with an 0-for-8 record. He took the track like a fish to water and won both starts. For the $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap, I just automatically included him in my selections, even though his class level was highly suspect, based on being 2-for-2 at the track. Luckily, after my account had gotten down to $28 a few races prior, I'd hit a $65 exacta payoff to get me through the rest of the night and then some. Otherwise, if I hadn't been able to bet as much as I wanted on the Cornhusker Handicap, I might have left Remembering Rita out.
Remembering Rita sat just off the pacesetter most of the race, and then took the lead in mid stretch to win going away. Whoo hoo! The win-place-show money amounted to $62, so my betting account is back to being over three figures for the next time I want to play.
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