November 16 Del Mar Points Picks go here . . .

[JolyB]

Is anyone else playing Del Mar's online handicapping contest for this abbreviated season? It seems to have become a real stabfest after about 70 players hit a "cap" horse on opening day to immediately increase their bankrolls to $2,000. That's a very difficult deficit to overcome in a short contest season; as I see it, the only way to have a chance is to stab with some price plays and hope for a miracle. The sort of picks that Tom and Ruff routinely make and I seldom hit.

By the way, there is still time to get in - you only need to play a minimum of 10 contest races (out of what they say will be around 20) and only 3 have occurred.

[cal828]

Originally Posted by JolyB

Is anyone else playing Del Mar's online handicapping contest for this abbreviated season? It seems to have become a real stabfest after about 70 players hit a "cap" horse on opening day to immediately increase their bankrolls to $2,000. That's a very difficult deficit to overcome in a short contest season; as I see it, the only way to have a chance is to stab with some price plays and hope for a miracle. The sort of picks that Tom and Ruff routinely make and I seldom hit.

By the way, there is still time to get in - you only need to play a minimum of 10 contest races (out of what they say will be around 20) and only 3 have occurred.

I'm playing, but I usually give up after a few plays. Very difficult contest. Always amazes me how the players rack up such big totals in the first few plays. I usually can't even get a horse to hit the board such is the quality of the chosen races. I actually think a player would have a better chance of going to the big dance out there in Las Vegas by coughing up the $10000 for the BCBC. At least you would be playing way better races and the top 15 players in the BCBC get automatic berths in the NHC. Hard to plunk down 10K to play in the BCBC though.

[RUFFIAN]

DAZZLING OR DISASTROUS @ DEL MAR

R1
5 6 4 3 1

R2
4 2 5 1 3

R3
5 6 3 4 1

R4
3 6 1 7 5

R5
9 1 11 10 5

R6
5 7 1 4 6

R7
8 10 4 7 5

R8
3 6 5 2 1

R9
2 5 8 7 4

[cal828]

R1 4-5-1

R2 2-1-3

R3 1-5-6

R4 6-8-3

R5 9-5-3

R6 1-5-8

R7 5-7-8

R8 6-5-1

R9 2-8-7

[JolyB]

I've read in a couple of places that Thousand Woods (#3) is likely to be scratched from the Bob Hope. Just wanted to mention that since he would have figured prominently on most of our points tickets. If that in fact happens, we will lose Race 8 from our points card since Howbeit (#2) has already been scratched and Baffert's scratching TW would leave us with only a field of 4. We have already lost Race 2 from the points contest since the scratch of Jalen Journey leaves that race with only 4 runners. All of this at a track where the weather is beautiful.

[RUFFIAN]

ABSOLUTELY PURRRTHETIC!


Always upsetting to see such small fields at a beautiful track
where there are so many wonderful horses to run

I’ve never understood How or why that happens

Ironically when you look at some of the lesser known tracks
they always seem to have big fields and not a lot of scratches

I wonder why that is

[Roamin42]

R1...4=6=5

R2...3-1-2

R3...5-6-3

R4...7-3-8

R5...5-9-10

R6...4-9-5

R7...8-5-1

R8...3-5-1

R9...8-3-2