Derby fever

Got back from the Kentucky Derby on Monday. A lot to write about since then.

Was in Cincy for work from Tuesday through Thursday last week, so I went straight from Cincy to Louisville. Doug drove down from Detroit and met me in Cincy and we drove the 2 hours to Louisville together in my rental car. Got in around 830pm and caught the end of Survivor, then Doug and I headed to Mickey D's for dinner and then the bar. We ended up at the same titty bar as last year. We figured we had time to kill until Paul arrived from North Carolina and Sonny arrived from Vegas, both around midnight. This titty bar had two seperate halves. One side was topless, but more like a sportsbar, and the other side was all nude and no alcohol. As much as we both love skank snatch, we spent a majority of our time at the sports bar side, although I ditched Doug whenever the fat chick came by looking for dollars. Doug got stuck giving her $8 or so throughout the night. This chick was disgustingly fat and had no business wearing a tight t-shirt, let alone being topless and in a thong. Absolutely disgusting. Anyways, Paul got in around 12am, and Sonny at 1am. We stayed there the rest of the night and got back around 4am.

Friday was Oaks day, I had some nice success on the Oaks a few years back, cashing the superfecta for $2 with a 20/1 shot in 1st. That got me 1600 that day. This Oaks day started out bad, I was really close to hitting some races, but just barely missing. This was encouraging considering I hadn't bet horses in nearly a year, and my handicapping felt like it was on. I was stuck about 750 going into the 9th race of the day, when I hit for about 700 on a superfecta. Unfortunately this required IRS forms to sign. The next race was the Oaks, and Sis City was a 3-5 favorite (a horse that Joe Torre is part owner of). Doug put a $300 win bet on her, even though I felt like she was extremely beatable. Turns out she ran 4th, and I cashed the trifecta with the longest shot on the board hitting 3rd!!! This again forced me to sign IRS forms, for a cash of about 850. Only one race was after that, and I ended up about 350 ahead for the afternoon.

That night my buddy Eric got into town for his first derby. We decided to drive to Indiana to go to the Caesars riverboat. After waiting for about 2 hours, a spot on the 20/40 table opened up, and Sonny got the next spot. We proceeded to spar for about 2 hours, and played several big pots. There was a lot of good poker going on, more than I can recall live in a while. It was the first time I felt like I could bluff in limit in a long time. I ended up ahead about 800 in poker. Sonny lost a bit more than that, as well as some at blackjack, Eric won at poker but got smoked at blackjack, and Doug lost at poker and at blackjack (notice a theme for Doug...this comes into play on Saturday night).

Saturday was derby day, and it was a rough morning on about 2 hours of sleep, but we were able to get up around 9am and get ready for the track. Doug decided not to go. He was stuck about 1800, and was throwing up in the morning. I thought he would suck it up and go, but he just laid back down. So apparently he came to Kentucky for the titties and the Oaks. I wasn't feeling much like betting, but when I hit the Superfecta in the 3rd race for another IRS ticket (about $800 more), it got me a little more interested. I lost for the next 7 races, including the derby, of which I had no chance to win. I placed bets for Mert and Dave, and their horses were nowhere close (Dave's finished 19th). I actually had the winner on some of my tickets, but the 70-1 2nd place horse was nowhere to be found. The race was such a fluke, with such a blistering early pace that it set up perfectly for the winner. I see very little chance of Giacomo winning the Preakness, but I think many others feel the same way. Going into the last race I was about even for the day, and had a 5-1 shot I really liked. I ended up putting 140 on him to win, and he won in a photo. Following that, the 2nd placer objected to the finish, saying that my horse interfered with him in the stretch. It turns out their was interference, but it was caused by a 3rd horse, so the objection was not allowed. Sonny and Paul caught the trifecta that raise, so it turned out to be a good finish. I ended up +500 on the day.

Saturday night we were exhausted, but found the energy to see some more titties. Went to a dirty place by our hotel, that only had 5 dancers, and left after one beer. Then we went to a new place, that Eric had been to before. I ended up talking to the waitress and paid for Doug to get on stage. They announced him as "The biggest f*cking loser at the Derby." They stripped him down to his boxers, and then whipped his bare ass with his belt. The lashes sounded like they hurt, but as far as I'm concerned, he deserved it for ditching the Derby.

Good time was had by all, I ended up around 1500 or so for the trip, call it 1000 after the money I blew on hotel, beer, strippers, etc....