BONUS TOP SEVEN LIST OF THE DAY:
Top Seven Most Underappreciated People/Groups/Etc From the 1980s

1. Jack Morris, P, Detroit Tigers. Saw an interesting stat on Morris. He pitched (excuse the fuzzy memory) 169 complete games from 1979-1992. That's 62 more complete games than anyone else over that same span. Probably pitched one of the greatest World Series games of all time (10 innings of shutout, five hit[?]) ball versus Atlanta in the Twins 1991 World Series game 7 clincher. Had an absolutely nasty split fingered fastball. Was the anchor of a bunch of pretty good to great Detroit Tiger teams.

2. Tracey Gold, actress, "Growing Pains" - While no Meryl Streep, for a young actress on a sitcom, acquitted herself nicely. Plus, turned into quite a good looking girl as she grew older. That whole anorexia thing pretty much ruined her career, but was an early crush of mine, on a show too many would consider "lightweight" to be remembered fondly. The legacy of that show deserves better.

3. Bill Laimbeer, C, Detroit Pistons
- and -
4. The long term consequences of Detroit Pistons basketball on the NBA through the 90s - Probably as much as "Sportscenter" had an effect on young players (dunks instead of jumpers, preening for the cameras), the Pistons proved the old adage that "defense wins championships." Leading the way was the vastly underrated Bill Laimbeer. Laimbeer wasn't overly athletic, and wasn't dominant in the post like a Chamberlain or Shaq, but what he did, he did better than anyone else. And that was getting under the skin of your opponent. Through tenacious rebounding, well-placed elbows, great outside shooting, and making hard fouls count, Laimbeer was a guy everyone hated personally, and probably hated to play even more. After defeating the Trailblazers in the finals in 1991, the coach put together a tape of Laimbeer, sat his team down, and said "this is how you play center in this league." Daly's willingness to let his team play a more rough-and-tumble brand of basketball than the NBA was used to at that point spawned a legion of imitators in the league, most notably the 90s versions of the Heat and Knicks. Only difference is that the Pistons were the only team with that style that could realize championships with that focus.

5. Duran Duran - Why are these guys not recognized for not only making hits, but making pretty darn good music in an era of over-synthesized one hit wonders?

6. Eddie Murphy's Comedy Movies - When you think of "Trading Places," "48 Hrs," or "Beverly Hills Cop," you do think of classic comedies, but consider that without Eddie pushing the envelope with his self-assured verbal taunts, barbs, and smart aleck remarks, there'd be no major celebrity for Chris Rock or Chris Tucker, among others. Hell, without these movies, you wouldn't see "Bernie Mac" on Fox. Along with the rise of rap music (happening simultaneously), Murphy brought a non-whitewashed version of urban attitude and a number of non-stereotypical, just strong and real, characters to the big screen, and to the movie screens and TVs of middle America.

7. Nintendo Entertainment System - Seriously, more than anything else we dropped into the hands of every 8-18 year old boy in America in the 80s, this system brought us to the point where computing is a part of our everyday life. As a 28 year old guy, I've seen the befuddlement and frustration on the faces of coworkers of older generations when new software gets rolled out. I can say with confidence that because I played games on the NES, I can work my way through a menu system to get a piece of software running, and I can use any piece of software that's reasonably intuitive. I think getting our generation started on something like an NES really was a tremendous value, and can't be understated for importance.

TOP SEVEN LIST OF THE DAY:
Top Seven Albums I Have in my Collection
In no particular order
1. Miles Davis - "Kind of Blue"
2. Miles Davis - "Filles de Kilimanjaro"
3. Wu-Tang Clan - "Enter the 36 Chambers"
4. Beatles - "Revolver"
5. Moby Grape - "Moby Grape"
6. John Coltrane - "My Favorite Things"
7. Jimi Hendrix - "Electric Ladyland"

Thoroughbred Selection of the Day
Great Lakes Downs Race 9, the Michigan Oaks $45,000 Stakes Race for Three Year Old Fillies.

1 Born to Dance (MI)
Roberto A. Perez
2/1
2 Hilda Browne (MI)
Octavio Bernal
10/1
3 Bad Thing (MI)
Federico Mata
5/2
4 Sweetwater Promise (MI)
Joseph C. Judice
2/1
5 Part Magic (MI)
Luis Jeronimo Martinez
4/1
6 A Chance for More (MI)
Mary Elizabeth Doser
8/1
7 Salinas Regal Luck (MI)
Wade P. Rini
10/1
8 Rock a Lot (MI)
Joe A. Crispin
6/1

I've seen two of these horses run previously. Born to Dance (1), and Salinas Regal Luck (7). I really liked both when they ran, and they paid off. However, Salinas Regal Luck is posted on the morning line with the worst odds on the board. I'm also not too confident in the abilities of Wade Rini on board. I guess it's not a lack of confidence, it's just that I don't know what to think of a relative unknown quantity. Born to Dance is definitely going to be one of the horses I'm rolling with in the trifecta pick. I also like the horse out of the five slot, Part Magic, both on name, and because Luis Martinez is aboard. With an opening line of 4/1, he's the fourth choice of the morning line, so hopefully that'll float a little north of that. Make Part Magic the WPS bet for the night as well. To round out my trifecta box, I'm going to have to avoid Mary Doser on an 8/1 horse, but look at Freddie Mata on Bad Thing out of the 3 hole at 5/2.

TRIFECTA PICK - 1,3,5 box
WPS PICK - 5

Made my NFL picks for the week. And this time, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. $10 on a five team parlay. I've got:

Jacksonville +4 @ Kansas City (Not sold on the KC Defense yet, and I don't know that their offense is consistent enough to control the game)
Patriots +2 @ New York Jets (Why again do the champs get no love from the oddsmakers?)
Bucs -3.5 @ Baltimore (If they don't win by two or more scores, I'm writing them out of playoff contention right now)
Tennessee -3 @ Dallas (Dallas should be pumped, but they don't have the firepower to stay with Tennessee)
Miami +2 @ Indy (I think Miami is for real, and I think they'll win this game)

If I win this bet, I get $223.55. Wish me luck.

Alright, horse results. Here were the races I picked:

GLD race 1 - 1,4,6 Trifecta box - didn't hit it, that's a $6 bet / WPS on 6 and 2 (Lulu's Little Sis) - $12 between the two returned $11.40

GLD race 9 - 4,10/4,10/1or5 Trifecta box - didn't hit it, $4 bet. / WPS on 4 ($6 bet) hits for $3.20. / I didn't pick, but suggested "Empress Livia," who ended up winning, returning $25.80 on a $6 bet.

So far: down $13.40 on my picks

So I've been spending my evening with two DVDs, one of which I just recently got. I just got (present from my brother) the Tribe Called Quest video anthology, and a documentary on the recording and historical value of Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland." Enjoying all this with a few glasses of Medoc, a French wine I've recently found I liked. Nice...

Now, Electric Ladyland is easily the greatest album Jimi ever put out. The first thing on this DVD is about my favorite song on the album "Burning of the Midnight Lamp." Seems to fit me more than it did ages ago:
"All my loneliness/I have felt today/It's a little... more than enough/to make a man/throw himself away"
Good song of hope though. It's got this dirty, dirty rhythm line, and these beautiful harpsichord and faux mandolin parts underneath. Great piece.

Jimi's dedication to Dylan was also something I really admire. "All Along the Watchtower" was even better than Dylan's version, and when you hear it on this DVD, you get to hear individual tracks being played back by the engineer. I find it terribly cool that Dave Mason played a dueling rhythm guitar with Jimi on this track. For a guy who couldn't read music, he could really understand everything's place in his head, and could put tracks together in such a masterful way.

On a side track, I'm going to type on Jimi for a bit, as I'm in the mood, but I just watched probably ten Tribe Called Quest videos in a row. Some of their stuff, were it to be released today, I think would be a hit. "Scenario," for instance. The main thing that I get from this DVD is a striking similarity in early career path between Sean "Puffy" Combs and Ali Shaheed Muhammed. They vaguely resemble each other, were both largely responsible for the production and sonic atmosphere of the artists they produced, and most strikingly, showed up doing little of much of anything in the videos of the groups they support. It's as if Puffy got the good breaks, and Ali Shaheed Muhammed is probably running a Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles somewhere right now. Actually, I think he produced Jurassic 5, but you get the idea.

Back to Jimi... For those that aren't as big of fans as I happen to be, he released three studio albums with the "Experience."

Wait a second. Just a quickie on what's on now. "Rainy Day, Dream Away" is part of that whole "1983" suite, which I think runs from "Lamp" to "Still Raining, Still Dreaming." Used to get so stoned and just listen to this incredible 20 minutes of music over and over again. Back me up Steve and Mario. Anyway, "Rainy Day, dream away/ let the sun take a holiday" is one of my most favorite pieces of music ever recorded. This whole song sounds so beautifully improvised. It's amazing. They revisit it on the other side of "1983" with "Still Raining, Still Dreaming," which is a more aggressive, dirty version of the intro tune. Jazzy, loungy shuffle that just is the type of stuff if I was in a bar somewhere, I'd like to hear the musicians riff on something like this for hours on end. "Lay back and groove on a / rainy day / lay back and dream on a / rainy day."

Anyway, as I was saying (I'm half crocked and rambling at this point, but only half crocked), Jimi and the Experience recorded three albums together. "Are You Experienced?," "Axis: Bold as Love," and "Electric Ladyland." Dumbest thing Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding ever did was get bitter with Jimi. Totally ruined a great band. Now, I love "Band of Gypsies," but it's almost Jimi trying too hard. I think some people might get the same sort of impression from the "Ladyland" album, but he didn't seem to reach as far forward with Buddy Miles and the other guy, whose name escapes me tonight. In some ways, Jimi died at about the perfect time to preserve his legend. If he was some old fat bluesman like BB King, I don't know that we'd take his old music so seriously, with as much reverence as we do now.

Jimi really brought this amazing dichotomy to the studio, to the microphone, to his songs. He was a fairly shy, self-concious guy, and that was really surreal for a guy who could play the guitar better than anyone on the planet. He was especially self-concious of his voice. He didn't think he sounded good on record at all. Between that and the strange, profound loneliness he began to feel as his fame increased, his songwriting and singing seemed to take on a wistful, hopeful tone. But beyond that, he really seemed to have a lot of fun in the studio behind the mic. His rhythm as a singer is just astounding, and frankly, much of that is accomplished with non-lyrical expressions at the end of his phrasings, in a pretty unique way. Kinda like how Michael Jackson had his "hee hee" type stuff going on, Jimi sometimes would chuckle or grunt or make some sort of expression at the end of a phrase which really punctuated it, and added indelibly to the rhythm.

OK, I'm boring you. I'll check my horse selections and get back to you with results.

T.

Track Report!

Took off from work an hour early (Friday aimless noodling on the computer leads to wanting to get out of there quicker than usual) today in order to spend an hour at the track playing some of the races on simulcast. Put $20 in the machine, planning to spend only that.

BAY MEADOWS - RACE 1
I don't know what it is, but the last few times I've just walked into the building, saw a line, and played an exacta or trifecta, I've hit it. In a six horse claiming race, I use a strategy of grabbing the top two horses on the board, boxing them in the win and show columns, and boxing the field in between. Paid off for me on this race, as I turned an $8 trifecta wheel into a $29 win.

ARLINGTON - RACE 2
In a fairly wide field (9 or 10 horses), there were three horses sitting really skinny (7/2 or skinnier) on the board, with the next best horse at 6/1. By the time they hit the gate, he was at 8/1. Bet him on a WPS for $2 ($6 bet), and won $4.60 (or lost $1.40, whatever).

CALDER - RACE 9
Like a dumbass, in a 14 horse field, I found six that I liked, and tried to use the strategy I mentioned above on the trifecta for a winner. Also played a $2 WPS on the 2 horse, as he had a good jockey, and seemed to be undervalued, going off at 14/1. Well, he came in dead last, and another horse blew my trifecta out of the water. Ended up losing $14 on that race.

ARLINGTON - RACE 3
In an eight horse field, I again bumped out the high odds horses, and tried the trifecta strategy. Lost miserably when Friday the 13th bumped a high odds horse into the money. Wish I woulda picked that one. Lost $8 on that one.

There was one more WPS bet ($6) that I lost, which meant that I walked out of there officially $.50 lighter than I walked in with (without factoring two programs and a pack of smokes in). Not too shabby for an hour at the track I think.

Westbrook cut by Cowboys

Don't get me started on the Lions draft day problems. Westbrook seemed like a good choice at the time, but hopefully is now out of football for good after proving he didn't have the speed or technique to play with even average receivers in the NFL. The last few years, the Lions have gotten bitten in the ass by teams grabbing players shortly or immediately before the Lions picked that would have been perfect on the roster. Let's look back, and just at round one:
2001: Lions select Jeff Backus, immediately after Seattle grabs Steve Hutchinson, who would have been the better pick at that point for the Lions' line.
2000: Lions select Stockar McDougle, immediately after Seattle grabs Shaun Alexander, who would have definitely looked good in Honolulu blue.
1999: Not so bad. Lions grab Chris Claiborne, two picks after Champ Bailey. However, the Lions traded up to grab Aaron Gibson at the end of that round, with Jon Jansen still on the board.
1998: This one burns me still. Lions grab Terry Fair, one pick after Vonnie Holliday (my ideal pick at that point). One pick later? Randy Moss.
1997: Lions, with a high pick, get Bryant Westbrook, two picks after the guy I really wanted, Shawn Springs. Walter Jones and Tony Gonzalez, among others, still on the board.
1996: I miss Reggie Brown. Guy was going to be a poor man's Derrick Brooks. Two picks after Brown, Marvin Harrison. Can't fault this choice though, freak circumstances struck down his career right before he was due some good recognition.

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but with the talent that was grabbed right before us in 1997-2001, we'd be a lot better off.

Good riddance Bryant Westbrook.

WHY I DON'T GET DEPRESSED ABOUT BEING WITHOUT A GIRLFRIEND:
I call it the "ugly people at the mall" theory. Ever been to the mall, and you see two horribly disfigured people holding hands and walking along? Maybe they're toting a few kids along (probably ugly as well), but they've got a look of happiness on their face? Maybe they're even both retarded or have Down's Syndrome or something?

See, there's someone for everyone. If ugly people can find a match, I can plan on finding one someday. Look on the bright side, at least I'm not fishing out of the same pond the ugly people swim in.

Top Seven List of the Day:
TOP SEVEN USES FOR MY PALM PILOT (m105, basic version)
in order from least to most uses
7. Writing "notes" to take directions to someplace, or a phone number of a client to call if I'm not at my desk.
6. Euchre
5. Address Book for personal numbers
4. Schedule for ideally how I'd like my days to go
3. Cribbage
2. Alarm clock to signal me to change tasks during my day (largely ignored)
1. Yahtzee. 632 is my record.

Thoroughbred Selection of the Day:
Great Lakes Downs, Race 1, Friday, September 13th 2002
Four Furlongs, $5000 claim price

I'm not going to buy into all the hype and tell you that because it's Friday the 13th, that we should expect major upsets in the cosmic balance of the universe, or at least at the track. At GLD, favorites tend to come in for you. And the better jockeys are better for a reason. Therefore, opening line on Gone Clever, at 2/1 with Mary Doser out of the 6 hole is a great pick for tonight. As is my habit too, looking at Freddie Mata's horse usually results in a pick too. And there he is on the pole at 9/2, which is the fifth best odds in the field. Hopefully, that will shake closer to 6/1 or higher as betting progresses. That horse, Lulu's Little Sister, is carrying more weight (by three pounds) than the rest of the field. So Freddie's a good pick too. Dark horse? Bold Lady Blusher ridden by James Schwartz, carrying 112, out of the four hole. It's opening at 10/1, which is the worst set of odds in the pack, but it's got a good spot, and a decent jockey, not to mention riding really light. Maybe that Friday the 13th stuff will pay off tonight.

Trifecta Pick: Gone Clever, Lulu's Little Sister, Bold Lady Blusher - boxed (1,4,6)
WPS Pick: Lulu's Little Sister, although I'd throw some money on Gone Clever, understanding you probably won't make a whole lot when Mary Doser crosses the line first tonight.

Fantasy Football Thought of the Day -
Call it my thought, or call it a wish, but I think by midseason Marcel Shipp is going to be starting for Arizona at RB. Thomas Jones has had every opportunity to show he's not a bust. He's gotten more chances in this league than Ki-Jana Carter. Unless he shows and proves over the next three to five games, he'll be relegated to the bench.

Breakfast as I get older:
Used to wake up to a Mountain Dew and a cigarette in college. Now? Diet Dr. Pepper and a Pop-Tart. That's when you know you're getting old.

These are a few of my favorite things:
John Coltrane playing "My Favorite Things" turns the song from a corny Broadway musical song into a searching, meditative, hypnotic ballad. One of my favorite things for sure.

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Race Prediction of the Day
Turfway Park - September 14th, 2002 - Race 13
Kentucky Cup Classic
Purse: $400,000
Distance:One And One Eighth Miles
Surface: Dirt
Post / Horse Name / Age / Sex / Weight / Jockey Name
1 Miner's Prize (KY) 5 Horse 113 Calvin H. Borel
2 Nothing Flat (FL) 3 Colt 112 Victor Espinoza
3 Abreeze (KY) 7 Gelding 114 Richard Migliore
4 Pure Prize (KY) 4 Colt 115 Mike E. Smith
5 Dollar Bill (KY) 4 Colt 117 Pat Day
6 There's Zealous (KY) 4 Colt 114 Kent J. Desormeaux
7 Woodmoon (KY) 4 Colt 113 Mark Guidry
8 Hero's Tribute (KY) 4 Colt 113 Craig Perret
9 Tenpins (MI) 4 Colt 116 Robby Albarado

Not going to give me a morning line on this race? Well, here's my early choices, which I'll refine as the lines become available. Now, with the understanding that with some combination of age and speed, horses are given more weight than others, we can figure that the top horses in this race are Dollar Bill, with Pat Day aboard, and Tenpins, a Michigan horse, with Robby Albarado on mount. Now, as the lady who bought my brother and I beers at the track on Saturday proved, NEVER bet against Pat Day. Especially not on a four year old colt running out of the five hole. He's my pick. I'll lay that out right now. Next, gotta look for Espinoza's horse. How can you bet against a horse named Nothing Flat? Three years old, and running with 112. Possibly risky against more veteran horses. But go with Victor.

Early WPS selection - Pat Day on Dollar Bill. Probably not going to be a great pick for making cash, but he won't lose your bet either usually.
Early Exacta Pick - Dollar Bill, Nothing Flat, boxed. 1/5.

I'm not too satisfied with my fantasy football team this year. In a 14 team league, I had the 5th overall choice, which I thought was good, until I started thinking about how it was going to shake down to me. I knew my top three players (Faulk, A.Green, S.Alexander) would all be off the board, which they were, and Warner was gone as well. That left me wondering what road to take. My next RB on my rankings was Corey Dillon, but I thought drafting him at 5 was too high. QB isn't overvalued in our league like it is elsewhere, so I usually take a journeyman (I got Fiedler this year, had him and Jim Miller last year, Brunell previously) and still make the playoffs. So that left me looking WR at 5. Grabbed Terrell Owens there, and David Boston with my next pick. Then I had to grab Michael Pittman and Jerome Bettis with my next two.

So I've got two lumbering, fragile RBs in my backfield, and Jay Fiedler running the show. All those picks, and very, very little to show for it.

On the plus side, I do think I did pretty well stacking myself with some depth at WR. Only problem is going to come in parlaying those players out into others via trade. I'm not 100% confident that our RB hungry league is going to part ways with even marginal starters without a huge trade proposal.

On the plus side, I did win week one, on the strength of Fiedler, Boston, and Qadry Ismail. Got a much tougher game this week, and my matchups aren't as favorable. I'll let you know how that goes.

Top Seven List of the Day:
TOP SEVEN THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WON THE LOTTERY (big jackpot)
In no order:
1. Spend a week in Vegas, alternating between blackjack, betting in the sports book, and getting massages from hot strippers.
2. Buy myself into thoroughbred racing as an owner.
3. Open a small Italian restaurant. It would seat about 30, have two seatings a night, and a menu that was different every day depending on my whim.
4. Move to Italy, and become a goat farmer. My dog is a herder by nature, and would love it.
5. Move to Jackson, Wyoming, and whitewater raft as much as possible.
6. Decorate a room in my house with original pre-renaissance Catholic artwork.
7. Buy a small apartment in Manhattan for the few weeks a year I'd spend there listening to live jazz and spending loads of dough on myself.

Oh yeah, and teach yourself to use html tags properly to use links and whatnot. Trying to make this a little more dynamic here...

This is more to remind myself to do it than anything else, but two things I'm looking forward to doing when I'm home from work tonight. One, my very first daily top seven list. Different topic daily, and I don't like limiting myself to just five. Two, my periodic "recommendations" column, where tonight I'll list some movies in here and why I love them so. Keep your eyes peeled.

As I've just started this thing up, let me tell you a little about myself. 28, single, and bored to tears here in West Michigan. I recently moved over from the Detroit area, and I still just know so few people here, it's killing me. I have a good job, I work as a recruiter for a local company, which provides me with a great income potential. Slow market so far though. I'll do well at this. I've got little margin or patience at this point for failure.

For fun, it's either me and the dog, or me and Madden 2003 for the PS2. I'm still trying to get good at the game. I do have online capability (MM_BoyGZA, wave hi if you see me online), but I got so smoked the first time online, that I've been trying to find the time to go into the lab and get better.

I'm also one of those guys that shaves his head clean every morning. Not because I'm losing my hair, which I'm not to any large extent, but because I've been doing it for about seven or eight years now at this point. Started out with just using clippers to buzz it real short, and now am shaving it off completely. I had really crappy hair when I had it on my head, and it's just so much easier to get rid of it all, and not have to deal with it.

As you'll start to notice too, I'm a Detroit sports fan (football/basketball/playoff hockey), and enjoy thoroughbred and harness racing as well.

In an effort to skirt the system and not have to pay the State of Michigan the exorbitant taxes they are now charging on cigarettes, I've decided from now on, I'm rolling my own. I was smoking American Spirit Organic Lights. Which went from $5.75 to $7.50 a pack over the last few years. Ouch. Come to find out, they sell the same organic tobacco loose. OK, sure, sounds good. For a $5 bag of tobacco, I'll get maybe 45-60 smokes, and for $1.50, I'll get 100 paper tubes. Sounds good right?

Sure, until you try to use the stupid little $5 machine that makes the smokes for you. For every one good cigarette I make, I end up with two broken tubes, and tobacco all over the table. Plus, they're impossible to pack all the way to the top of the tube. You're left with 2/3 of a smokeable cigarette. If you don't have one that's got air pockets near the bottom. Argh.

I'm so smart sometimes, I just smart myself out of making any decent decisions at all.

Pistons close to trading Stackhouse to Wizards, says the headline. OK, I'll bite. Stackhouse, Brian Cardinal (bench fodder), and Ratko Varda (a legit seven footer, but just this side of "stiff") to Washington for Rip Hamilton, Hubert Davis, and Bobby Simmons.

This begs the question, "Bobby Simmons? Don't we already have a SF that doesn't score but plays brass knuckles defense in Michael Curry?" Also, this does make the Pistons younger, but does it make us better? Hamilton is potentially more of a complete scorer than Stack (from anywhere on the court instead of 18' and in), but he's not a more complete player. Hubert does what Jon Barry does, but not as well. And Simmons is basically a younger, more athletic Michael Curry.

Huh?

I paid $40 to get in an online football pool for this year. If it wasn't for one TD in that Monday night game, I would have been $24 richer. That's alright, I took $20 gladly off the hands of my boss, who felt strongly enough about the home team Lions to bet them to beat the Dolphins, regardless of spread, with me this weekend. Also, I lost a $10 online sportsbook parlay bet that would have paid $129, because Baltimore couldn't find the offense to put one more TD on the board against a really sorry Carolina team. Although, I think I'm the one who's sorry I didn't hit the bets this weekend. And I still insist I'm not a gambler.

- Friday, September 13th 2002, at Great Lakes Downs in West Michigan will be the running of the Farer Belle Lee Stakes (race 9, $45,000 purse). As I haven't really had the opportunity to look at the program for Friday night yet, I'm going to give you some initial thoughts on the race:
1. Terry Houghton still is AWOL from GLD. I miss having my guy riding, as he was a reasonably safe bet to come in the money in any given race. Hope he's somewhere riding for a lot more money. He deserves it. That leaves us with Mata, Doser, and the father/son Martinez combination as our "money" jockeys. I really think all four of these jockeys are pretty even, so that just doesn't help me decide.
2. Your best "morning line" odds are on the 1 and 10 horses (7/2 for Tank Grrrl and 3/1 for I Match Too, respectively). Tank Grrrl is being ridden by Tommy Molina, and my boy Freddie Mata is riding I Match Too. He's now my bet to be your GLD 6/5 closing line "pick of the race." Which means he'll be in the money for sure.
3. Mary Doser's on the 4, My City Girl, with an opening line of 8/1. Rettele is the trainer, which means I like this combination. There are four horses on the boards with skinnier odds than this (morning line), so if this holds, here's my WPS pick.
4. If you're picking by just name alone, my pick, as a Sopranos fan, is for "Empress Livia." I really miss Nancy Marchand on that show. Empress Livia opens at 5/1, with Joe Judice on the mount. I guess respect's due, but I have no idea if this guy's any good or not. Newer jockey to the meet.

So, what that boils down to is this: Bet My City Girl straight across, look for Doser to come in first or second, and give you a nice return (conservative nice, not clear up your debt nice) if she stays around 8/1. If you're going for the trifecta, gotta box My City Girl with I Match Too and your choice of Tank Grrrl or Sefas Rose (opening at 6/1, the board's fourth choice, and carrying more weight than anyone in the field, which has to mean something).

Fantasy football thought of the day - Jerome Bettis scares me. Not in the good way. The Steelers kept him off the field far too often in the Monday night game against the Pats, and I think they might be covering for either some sort of injury, or the loss of a step or two. I understand loyalty to a team player, but if Zereoue is the best you have, tell us he's your starter. Save my team the misery.