Mine This Bird, Randall

As many of you know, the Kentucky Derby was a few weeks ago. And living in Louisville, the town is crazy when Derby comes around. The town does from being laid back to packed full. I am not going to get into much detail about it. The main thing I want to talk about is the Kentucky Derby winning horse, Mine That Bird.

Saturday we headed to Randy's parents to spend the first half of the day over there and place some bets. And I have a very specific strategy I go by when it comes to picking horses. Randy is all about the numbers. He looks at the stats, races won, turf, slop, etc. I, on the other hand, go by the following, in order:
1. Horses name
2. Color of the jockey's silks
3. Odds
A lot of people would think that Randy's way of picking the horses was "better". Well, experience will tell you different. Randy has lived in Louisville his whole life, and betting on horses during Derby for the greater part of that life. I have been betting on horses the past 2 Derby's. And ya know? I kick Randy's butt when it comes to betting on the horses!! I do not bet big, but I apparently bet smart!! There are only a few races that I have not won any money on. Majority of the time, I end up breaking even. On Derby, I made back a lot of the money Randall lost!

The horses I picked for the Derby race were Freisan Fire, Pioneer of the Nile, Chocolate Candy and of course, MINE THAT BIRD! My reasoning was Freisan Fire and Pioneer had neat silks and good odds; Chocolate Candy, I am a woman, need I say more; And last Mine That Bird. I had a feeling about Mine That Bird. I thought the name was cute. But more importantly, Randy pissed me off the night before, so I kept flipping him my bird and telling him to "Mine THIS Bird". At that point, I was teetering back and forth about placing a bet on this horse. Then I noticed the horse was at post 8. If you know horse racing, you know that post eight is pink. That sealed the deal. I was a little nervous placing a large bet on a horse with 50-1 odds. I decided to place the typical "Burns family bet", $2 to show. Little did I know that was a thousand dollar mistake!!!

Later that evening Mine That Bird and all the other Derby contenders lined up to post. The race starts. Mine That Bird was behind right out of the gate. Oh well, $2 lost. No biggie. Half way through the race Mine That Bird is making a come back. He is in the middle of the pack. All the horses are clumped together. Jockey Calvin Borel sneaks Mine That Bird into a between the wall and a horse, no wider than the horse itself. Mine That Bird breaks through and is in the lead! I am screaming, "That's MY horse!! That's MY horse!!" Mine That Bird wins the Kentucky Derby. Talk about a long shot!! 50-1 ODDS!!!
Well, I only won $26 bucks off that race. I also won a bit off of Pioneer. If I would have been smarter with my betting, I could have won thousands of dollars from doing an Exacta Box with Pioneer and Mine That Bird. Lesson learned, don't bet THAT small! Or so I thought. Mine This Bird Randy for making me think I needed to bet small!!

Fast forward to the Preakness this past weekend. Randy calls his dad to place our bets for the next big race. I wanted Mine That Bird across the board and Big Drama to show. A $8 bet. Randy places my bet. Right before the race. I call Randy to make sure he bet Big Drama. He said yes, he bet Rachael Alexandra and Big Drama across the board! WHAT!!!! That was not my pick! I wanted to stick with my gut! Stick with MY horse!! Stick with the Bird!! I told Randy, that if MY horse places at all, he owes me a pedicure. I was so mad!! How could he not place money on MY horse. The race starts. Mine That Bird is in the back of the pack again. Oh well. No loss! I didn't have a bet on him anyway. Son of a gun!! All of a sudden he is in the middle of the pack. Then right behind favored horse Rachael Alexandra!! MY horse comes in second!!! RANDALL!!!


Lesson from Mine That Bird!!! Go with your gut and bet a little bigger. If you lose a few, oh well. BUT, you could also win a lot!!
Oh and one more thing,
MINE THIS BIRD, RANDALL :)