August 11, 1990.. Alabama Day at the Spa..
G/F Karen Papp (photo below) and I get to the track and I hit the opening exacta 5x (@$25.00) to immediately get up $100. I had bet a DD, which I rarely do, and a $10 double at that, and it hits for $20+, so I'm up $200.
Now Karen LOVES the Shoe Depot up here, and I figure up $200, I'll run her downtown and get her a couple pairs of shoes and go back to see Go for Wand romp in the Alabama later. But as we're walking to go out, she runs into a girlfriend from Cortland State. We were right by the Carousel, and I tell her to take her time as I's bet the third...
So I look at the third, and find a 15-1 shot named Balinar, the #9, that looks interesting and I wheel him in $2 exactas back and forth with the 1, 3, 5 and 7 for $16 total. They get to the top of the stretch and are running 1-9-5-7 and the 9 is moving best and I'm thinking I've got this puppy cold stone locked, when all of a sudden I can see a blur in the corner of the TV...
I don't know who it is coming fast, and I'm asking the old brother watching it with me who it is and he says 'it's da 3... you gots the 3?'... and now Balinar is ding-donging with the 3 down the stretch and they hit the wire together and the old guy is screamin at me "You gots it! You gots it!"... And the 3 -- Keynote Speaker, a Rockingham shipper from Michael Aro with Chop Chop -- is the longest shot on the board at 25-1 and I've got him over my Balinar -- the 2nd longest shot on the board at 14-1...
"You gots it! The boy gots it... You my hero!"
$721.00 exacta.. my first IRS ticket.
At the track 1 hour and 10 minutes and up 'on paper' $1,000.
Karen and I from that same summer..
