Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Check your tickets…


I noticed the sign as I made my annual Derby day contribution to Twin Spires. As I walked away from the counter I thought about looking through the dozen or so ticket in my hand, but decided against it. I reasoned that I had watched him punch in the numbers I dictated so what could be wrong with the tickets?

As the race ended I thought to myself “well as least I got an exacta”. I dutifully waited for the odds to be shown and was quite pleased to see the 76:1 odds. But when I began flipping through the losing tickets I noticed something wrong. The 2 / 4 boxed bet I had made was entered as a 2/ 4 straight bet. The pretty good payout I was already mentally spending was now nothing. My new mantra is and forever shall be “check your tickets”.   

2 comments:

Glenn Craven said...

Ouch! Sorry about that.

I recently broke my rule of keeping active wager tickets in a separate pocket from the credit voucher(s) and absently-mindedly threw money in the trash at Oaklawn. Not hundreds of dollars, but more than I'd care to admit. THAT won't happen again.

My favorite thing about this post, however, is that it looks like Calvin Borel thinks winning the Derby for the third time in four years is really tasty. ... "Yum!" ... I don't think I'd seen that exact shot before.

Linda Shantz said...

I was going to say exactly that about the photo - I thought for a moment it was Photoshopped!