Today's Best Bets

This year it's a tie at the top between Matt Graves [Albany Times-Union] and Bill Taylor [The Saratogian]. Bill was sitting in fifth-place at the mid-season mark, while Matt needed a late season rally -- grabbing a remarkable 68 winners over the last three weeks to climb to the top from 13th-place at the mid-point mark. Solid work by both handicappers -- as well as Tom Cavanagh [NY Daily News] and Mark Cusano [The Daily Gazette] who were right behind the top pair with 113 winners each.

And an extra tip o' the cap to Matt Graves for 'beating the meet' -- posting a positive ROI had a $2 win-bet been placed on each of his top selections throughout the season.

For the sake of comparison, final meet totals for the past few seasons can be found here: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003.

And mid-season numbers: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004.

As for our own numbers -- equidaily.com's Best Bets always shoots for the century-mark, 100 winners-on-top, and hopes to pass that number by a fair margin, if possible. This year however we had a couple of light weeks -- Week Three with only 13 winners, and Week Six with 14. Otherwise we were pretty much on-track to reach our goal.

That said we had some good days and playing around with the selections should have offered some fun and value to our readers.

Our $671.50 ROI -- while not enough to "beat-the-meet", did best five of the eight handicappers that topped us with winners-on-top and provided ROI numbers, and placed us at #4 among the eighteen handicappers that provided ROI info. And frankly, we were just a hop-skip-and a jump from "beating-the-meet". This past Thursday our top pick in the 2nd race ran second at 21.90-1. And on Saturday we goofed and left the 12th race off of the page -- missing a $6.70 winner [although, for verification, we used the horse on the Bankroll Page]. A little racing luck -- and a little less absent-mindedness -- and we have $50.50 more in the bank and we're a 2-1 shot away from having a positive ROI for the season. But -- that's what makes it interesting...

Note: Discrepancies in total number of races played is due to some handicappers losing races due to scratches.
ALSO: Dollar amounts shown are the ROI if a $2 win-bet was placed on each handicapper's top selection. Not all handicappers supplied this information.

	Matt Graves Albany Times Union		114-361 ... $742.20

	Bill Taylor Saratogian		114-362

	Tom Cavanagh NY Daily News		113-365 ... $692.30

	Mark Cusano Daily [Schenectady] Gazette		113-365

	Brien Bouyea Saratogian		108-361

	Daniel Feiss Saratogian		108-364

	Jerry Bossert NY Daily News		104-365 ... $676.90

	Kyle Brownell Post-Star [Glens Fall, NY]		104-365 ... $643.10

	Dave Litfin Daily Racing Form		103-363

	Bev Swimm Albany Times Union		100-363 ... $596.10

	Tim Wilkin Albany Times Union		99-364 ... $595.00

	Nick Kling Troy Record/Saratogian		98-365 ... $627.30

	Debbie L NY Post		98-363 ... $656.70*

	Seth Merrow Best Bets - equidaily.com		96-364 ... $671.50

	Dave Little NY Daily News		95-364 ... $603.40

	Tom Law Saratogian		93-364

	John DaSilva NY Post		90-365 ... $575.10*

	Laim Durbin Saratogian		90-365

	Bill Heller Daily [Schenectady] Gazette		88-365

	Dan Lauletta NY Daily News		86-364 ... $586.30

	Ed Fountaine NY Post		85-365 ... $532.60*

	Mark Hoffman The Recorder [Amsterdam, NY]		85-365 ... $538.40

	Vic C NY Post		83-363 ... $625.10*

	Mike Jarboe Albany Times Union		79-363 ... $523.70

	Mike Lipack NY Daily News		76-365 ... $628.00

	Affrunti NY Post		58-365 ... $469.40*

* NY Post ROI figures might be one day off. Figures were calculated from the numbers published in Monday's [9/7/09] edition -- but while we double-checked and verified the winners-on-top totals, we're not sure about the ROIs. If updated numbers are subsequently published we'll relay those figures. Numbers for all other handicappers and newspapers should be correct.

3-10. Winners in the 5th [$16.60], 6th [$8.80], 8th [$7.90]. Also, reverse exacta in the 2nd [$13.40/$2; quinella, $9.50]. Our third pick completed that tri [$28.40]. Another reverse exacta in the 3rd [$22.20]. And in the 4th [$14.80; quinella, $8.70]. Our fourth pick rounded out the tri in that race [$40.00]. A very generous cold exacta in the 5th [$121.00] -- the race and the wager that proved to be the object of much consternation due to our major-league gaffe on the Bankroll Challenge page. In the 6th it was our top selection over our third choice for the exacta [$76.00] with our second pick rounding out the tri [$314.00]. In the 8th it was our top pick over fourth selection over second choice for the exacta [$21.40] and tri [$103.00].

No racing. See you next year.

equidaily.com Best Bets Homepage Today's picks The Challenge Calendar Track Info Weather

Note: Pages on this site are labelled with the equidaily.com logo. Some links are for information only and lead to pages at other sites. equidaily.com is responsible only for the pages on this site. equidaily.com assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Always check with official sources to verify info.