Contest Update:
The second week of the Saratoga Saturday contest looked a lot like Week 1. Saratoga has the reputation of being the “Graveyard of favorites”, but that didn’t play out last Saturday as 8 of 11 winners on the day paid 2-1 or lower. In fact, only 2 of the 11 races generated more than 300 contest points, so it was not a day to gain points in large chunks. Those of us selecting longer-priced horses in each race are probably not threatening the leaders at this point.
The maximum score available this week was 1,766 points. Preliminary results for Week 2 indicate that Steven Johnson was the winner with 1,108 points, followed by Kalib Martin with 1,091 points. The winning total was 62.7% of the maximum available, which is on the high side of what we normally see. Congratulations to Steven Johnson and all the winners this week! Former Handicapper of the Year Kalib Martin’s second place finish also gave him the Saratoga Saturday’s overall points lead after two weeks, and he is moving up the leaderboard in the 2014 Handicapper of the Year competition!
I checked in with 630 points this week. I managed to find one of the two 8-1 winners and had a couple of other minor placings, but the epic fireworks display that was supposed to be my contest card turned into nothing but bottle rockets and Black Cats. Diseased…
Jockey/Trainer Updates:
Below are the top 5 jockeys and trainers in ROI at Canterbury Park so far in 2014, updated through August 10. I looked at jockeys and trainers currently ranked in the top ten in wins at the meet.
Jockeys
Justin Shepherd 19 wins ROI $1.46
Ry Eikleberry 46 wins ROI $1.00
Alex Canchari 47 wins ROI $0.91
Quincy Hamilton 16 wins ROI $0.90
Seth Martinez 27 wins ROI $0.88
Trainers
Bruce Riecken 10 wins ROI $1.42
Valorie Lund 18 wins ROI $1.07
Miguel Silva 21 wins ROI $1.06
Francisco Bravo 11 wins ROI $0.91
Dan McFarlane 11 wins ROI $0.91
Notice that the top two trainers Robertson and Diodoro are not on this list, but the top two jockeys Canchari and Eikleberry are on the list. Despite their high number of wins, wagering on Robertson and Diodoro hasn’t been the way to go up to this point in the meet. Continued success at the windows!
The Oracle
