Ah yes, Tom Petty had it right so many years ago.
Russ Jubert has been playing the ponies at Canterbury since it was called “Downs”, not “Park”. Over the past 30+ years, he has been a weekend warrior, handicapping the races, betting a couple of dollars, enjoying a small beer and building friendships. Russ is a great person but a self-proclaimed average handicapper, winning here, losing there, while every once in a while finding a live longshot. That all changed on Saturday as part of the highly enjoyable Road to Kentucky Handicapping Tournament.
Russ’s tournament day started out like so many others: 26 points after three races. Most likely another back-page low weekly point total and another lost beer on a head-to-head side bet with his track pals. Then something weird happened. Something cosmic. Almost spiritual. Russ got hot. He had the next six winners and we’re not talking all chalk here…
R4) Blackberry Wine $10.40
R5) Two Emmys $32.80
R6) Charming Lady $3.40
R7) Shake Some Action $30.20
R8) Echo Town $28.00
R9) Quebec $5.60
Can you imagine if that had been a Pick 6 sequence? How historic was this run? To put it in prospective, if Russ had started a $2 six-race win parlay, his final payout would by over $164,000. As the fictional character Dr. Jay Trotter stated in the 1989 cinematic masterpiece Let it Ride, Russ was “having a VERY good day”.
Russ added a few more points in the last four races and was easily the weekly winner of the Road to Kentucky. As the weekly winner, Russ wins $300 and entry into the Grand Prize Contest, with the winner getting an entry to the $2 million National Horseplayers Championship in 2021, plus airfare and accommodations. If you’re not playing the Road to Kentucky Handicapping Tournament every week, you must hate money because as Russ proved, you should gamble every day because you could be walking around lucky and not even know it.
This Saturday the free contest will feature all the races from Gulfstream Park. Entry deadline is 10:30 AM.
Story submitted by Jay Lietzau
