Brag post: Anniversary celebration

I hold onto what others would mistake for scrap paper like a trophy.

The hieroglyphic markings of a pick four punter would surely confuse anyone but the most seasoned multi-race player, as my dizzying array of ABCs, numbers, slashes, and dashes provide the road map to what I hope will be a profitable Thursday.

I sketch this map on a notepad that features the photo of a man more striking than me holding a dachshund. The caption reads, "there he goes again showing off his wiener." I smile as I think of my dachshund Roxie napping at home.

I start to write out six tickets, scratch two of them out, and end up with four complete plays at $.50 per combination. The tickets cost $122 total. More than I usually spend, but it's been a good start to the New Year at the windows, so I don't mind playing the whole thing even after a couple coworkers decline the chance to buy in for a piece.

It's January 15, 2009, and I have a lot on my mind. There are some personnel changes scheduled for January 16 in my department, and I will be saying good bye to a coworker I've enjoyed working with for six years. He doesn't know it's coming, but I do, and the whole scenario costs me sleep. Since I can't sleep I might as well handicap.

My four tickets are

• 4, 10 with 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 with 8 with 2, 5, 7, 11, 12
• 4, 10 with 11, 12 with 7, 8, 11, 12 with 2, 5, 7, 11, 12
• 4, 10 with 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 with 7, 8, 11, 12 with 11
• ALL with 11, 12 with 8 with 11

I get to watch the first two races live before getting called into a meeting to discuss the next day's changes, and I'm sitting in a good spot going into the meeting as the four romps in the first leg at 4.30-to-1 and the 12 wins the next leg by a neck at 7.10-to-1.

The meeting ends up taking up the rest of the afternoon, so I miss the last two legs. I assume things went well, though, because the two guys I had offered a piece to (and thus knew the tickets I was playing) give me a thumbs up sign as they walk by the conference room.

It didn't take long for the meeting to break for them to ask me, "Did you play the tickets you sent us." I told them I did. "Well then you just won like $9,000."

Stanley Hough trained the winner of leg three at 40-to-1 and the deuce won the last at 5.80-to-1. I only knew this, of course, not because I got to see the race live and cheer home the biggest score of my life, but by reading a chart after I already knew I won a lot of money.

That's typical of racing, isn't it? I hit for $9,928.10 (about a $9,800 profit before taxes), and I'm still complaining that A) I didn't get to celebrate live, and B) that as much as I want to celebrate I'm still subdued by the events that I knew were occurring 15 hours later. It's sort of like winning because another horse broke down. I cash the ticket, but I'm not over the Moon about it.

The good news is that the experience has aged well. I still have the PPs and notepad from the score and knowing that I turned $122 into $9,900 always puts a smile on my face because even though it happens every day (or at least has the potential to), I know it's rarefied air among horse players.

Too much is never enough in racing, though. Just like I remember when T.G.I. Friday's seemed like a high-end restaurant to me, so too, did winning $100 seem like a big deal. Now I'm not satisfied unless it's prix fix at The French Laundry and I'm winning so much at the track that the IRS takes its cut off the top.

So as they say on PTI, happy anniversary to me. On this day one year ago I climbed one of racing's highest peaks and skied down a black diamond slope. I haven't so much as won a quarter of that since, but not for lack of trying either. Maybe I'll celebrate the paper anniversary of my biggest score by having to sign some paperwork (albeit electronically) of my own today!

UPDATE: I'm done betting for the day, and the one-year anniversary was a bust. In fact, this whole year has been a bust so far. Gotta keep swinging, though, right? 350 days to make 2010 a winner!