The Belmont Stakes weekend at Saratoga kicks off today.
We already have pundits chiming in, on who's the right or the wrong horse.
Every body jockeying for position, just like Cinderella ugly step sisters wanting to go to the ball, they wan to be seen and heard.
Good handicappers, fly under the radar, they don't telegrapth or video their plays for clicks and attention, they strategize on how to make a score.
This participation game has changed over the years, with social media at the forefront you got every Tom, Dick and Joe telling you who they like.
Videos of handicappers filming themselves telling you who they like has become a fad, I better have grown a 'fuc^#$ng' unicorn before I put my face on a video, you don't need to see me to know what I am thinking. You can read it.
The industry is all about self promotion, self marketing, but when it comes down to the real stars themselves, the horses, they can take a backseat to joe blow self promotion and adulation.
You will never catch me on a weekend like this walking around the track solely to get selfies with important industry people and post them like you are on the cover of Wheaties. You would find me scouring horses, in the paddock and post parade and wait as long as I could before hitting the windows. I don't need to be seen.
I need to see less people yaking on the TV and more of the horses, please. Because, as a handicapper and a player, most of all, on a weekend like this, you participate, you play to make a score. You play to cash a ticket.
You don't need to see your face to hear there was a score to be made, because on days like this every one has an opinion, you know the saying, I won't repeat it.
You, as the horseplayer, have to make a decision, am I out at the track to look good on social media or am I out there to make a score and recoup some of the crazy monies spent for this weekend.
It's one or the other, can't be both, and most likely it would be neither, if you chose to watch from home, mute the talking heads and watch the horses.
There it is..... watch the horses, watch the paddock for nuggets, less is more from a horse, the more animated the horse the bigger the chance they are too amped up and run a poor race.
Less is more in the paddock, less is more in the post parade, and less is definitely more going to the gate. Hear me now and listen to me later.
Just like the antsy horseplayer who wants to bet, there is a difference between a horse touting him or herself to be wagered on, to 'I want to bet', or 'bet against'.
Some horseplayers like a horse and make a case why, the best horseplayers and ones who make monies, crazy as it sounds, make a case for a horse and then like him.
There are those who only like the tips: "The valet who parks my car told me 'they like [fill in the blank]."
You want to start an avalanche of support for a horse at the windows, you tell the guy who parks your car.
Has anyone ever thought of starting a 'Valet handicapping sheet?'
Again, if it's not selfies, its 'I heard they like.....', Handicappers who make monies are selectively deaf and mute.
My own experience with our own Amy Kearns, pliers and a crane couldn't get her to vocalize who she likes and why, you ask Amy if she likes anything today and you get 'A little of this and a little of that', seriously, I have refrained from asking and just go look at her tracks she is responsible for, i don't dare ask, I know what's coming, so duck, dive and roll to her tracks.
Amy is about the perfect handicapper, she quietly does her job, you rarely see her taking pictures of herself, she would bludgeon me with a # 2 pencil, if I suggested she make a video of her selections.
You want to piss her off, ask her to vocalize her thoughts, she is a pen, paper, clipboard handicapper, which is so refreshing.
Soooooooo be like Amy, be like Cinderella and find a way to not lose your slipper at the ball.