Derby Upset

By Pauly
Hollyweird, CA

In case you missed it...


Mine That Bird was a 51-1 long shot and won the most prestigious race in all of horse racing. That was the second biggest upset... ever. The biggest upset? Back in 1913 when Joan Rivers was kicking off her career in silent movies, a little horse named Donerail was a 91-1 dog and won the Derby.

Lots of Twitter chatter in the 24 hours leading up to the Derby. Not one person uttered Mine That Bird. All of the so-called pundits didn't even have that horse on their radar. It almost seemed as the entire crowd as Churchill Downs was stunned when Mine That Bird charged down the rail and smoked the field during the homestretch.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I got word that the favorite, I Want Revenge, was scratched. I scrambled to find a horse. I sorta liked Dunkirk. It was one of those horses with an impeccable pedigree and sold for $3.7 million at an auction. The high-price tagged horse ended up finishing 19 lengths behind Mine That Bird. Oh, in case you were wondering... Mind That Bird was purchased for a mere $9,500 investment. Sweet Jesus, his owners are going to sell oodles and oodles of Mine That Bird's semen for millions.

I'm a sucker for underdogs. Nice victory, Mine That Bird.

Here's a quick story before I go. There was one horse that had a name that Change100's father was very fond about. Well, her mother insisted that they bet $20 on the horse, even though it was one of the longshots, except they are wholesome Catholics and had no clue how to bet on a horse race. I suggested they drive down to Hollywood Park, but they were not keen to driving from the posh West Side of L.A. to head down to the hood to just place a simple wager. I offered them to book the bet and that I'd do at one of the online sportsbooks. I ended up not even bothering putting in their wager. After all, their horse was a long shot and wasn't even going to come close to winning. I pocketed the $20 instead and decided to book their action by myself.

Man, I dodged a bullet. Their horse never came close, although I would have been shitting bricks if they had bet $20 to win on Mine That Bird. And I's have to pay them a nice chunk of change out of my pocket.

My first and only day as a horse bookie has come to a close. I'm retiring with a $20 profit.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.