As Barney Fife would says "its big big big !"
I love using humor to get even a point across to myself, I love making fun of myself, lightening the mood can really be therapeutic and I try to not make myself too serious.
Barney on the Andy Griffith show for those of us old enough to recall it, was the skinny little deputy in Mayberry, with only a bullet in his shirt pocket.
He was wound up tight, like many horseplayers. Barney Fife was played by the wonderful, late Don Knotts.
This weekend we are not going to be Barney Fife, and not going into this weekend with a single bullet in our shirt pocket, there is, count 'em four Kentucky Derby preps, three of them top tier.
The Gotham Stakes features a full field with 4 Brad Cox runners, including Just A Touch, two Pletchers and two Clements and of course one Linda Rice.
The Fountain of Youth, at Gulfstream, is the 2nd prep at Gulfstream run on a short stretch.
Locked comes back for Pletcher as he may be his best prospect, he also has entered Speak Easy and the Mage group has entered Victory Avenue, whom ran 2nd to Speak Easy 1st out, as they try to duplicate Mage's pattern to get to the Derby.
Mage finished 4th in the FOY as a maiden winner, and 2nd in the Florida Derby before winning a slowly run Kentucky Derby in 2023.
Victory Avenue will have to break his maiden in Graded competition, but that isn't all in the FOY, you got the return of Mage's little brother, Dornoch, whom was flattered by Sierra Leone winning the Risen Star.
The Robert B Lewis will be drawn today and will be featuring Nysos, whom off a perfect trip has an already bandwagon full of supporters until this weekend, until something else catches their fancy.
Which way will we go?
We host our weekly Zoom on Friday night and you can join us for $49.95, you get all the tracks with the Simulcast edition. Get it right from the horses mouth
The way I approach any weekend or any racing day is by doing what we do best, and that is organize, and visualize, maybe I can best describe by this short video.
Before I forget, I like the Fair Grounds card on this Thursday
Act like you have been there before, I feel every time I play a race, I expect to win.
There is no 'try', just do!
You see it everyday " I am going to try [fill in the horse name]'.
Too many horseplayers go into a card, hoping and praying to win, I am shocked and disappointed if I don't, but also I have lost before so it doesn't destroy my confidence.
In the beginning, as a horseplayer, I was a Barney Fife, weak and frail, one loss would cause me to change my thinking my method, etc. That was 30 years ago.
A minute later I have already moved on, too many players go over and over, they think they missed something. That's a waste of time.
If you catch me walking out of the track or after the races you couldn't tell if I played the races, won or lost, even if I won, big, big, big.