The $20 Junior Challenge – Race 1

Yesterday, I began a new, year-long betting scheme. I would concentrate on one horse at Saratoga Harness – a horse officially named Pay Me To Knight, but known at his Checkmate Stable home barn as Junior. A simple bet. $20 on his nose to win the race he enters.

So let’s test this theory out.

Junior’s first race of the Saratoga Harness 2024 meet was Sunday’s sixth race. And there’s a few things to know about this race ahead of time. First, Junior is a trotter – which means his hooves hit the ground diagonally (front left, rear right). A pacer would have his left hooves hit the ground before his right hooves would follow. Pacers and trotters race on different days, they certainly never compete in the same race.

Also, a horse MUST follow that pace or trot throughout the race; any mis-step or gallop declares the horse to have “broken stride,” and that racer must pull back to the tail end of the race. You have no idea how many curse words have popped out of bettors’ mouths the minute their 5th entry in what was a 5-race parlay breaks stride at a turn. 

So let’s see what the race parameters are. Junior races in the Open – the sixth race on the card – in position 3. There are eight horses in the race, including two with a surname of Hanover (apparently the “Hanover” horses are all descended from one of the greatest harness horses ever sired, Burt Hanover – from Hanover Shoe Farms in Pennsylvania). I also recognize two other strong horses in the race, DuckDodgenDive and Bluffinner, but they’re in positions 7 and 8. 

Now I check for the riders. Junior will have Douglas Maura in the bike – the Maura family owns Junior. Let’s see who’s riding the other horses. Billy Dobson is one of the top riders at Saratoga, he’s going to be on Comeonover Hanover (Horse #2). At 9-2 morning odds, Comeonover Hanover has already earned $12,000 in three starts this year, albeit at other tracks. 

Well … I can’t back out now. Fire up the Saratogabets.com online account. $20 to win on Pay Me To Knight, Horse #3 in the 6th race at Saratoga Harness. Bet is locked. And at post time, Junior has 10-1 odds. I’ll take that.

Here comes the sixth race. And away they go. It was a decent start for the race, but Junior got caught up in traffic and was in fifth place by the first of two laps. Ugh. Hard to advance when other horses are right in front of you. The two Hanover horses – Discus Hanover and Comeonover Hanover – finished 1-2. Pay Me To Knight, however, finished sixth out of eight horses.

$20 down the drain.

Well, the only thing to do is get $20 on his nose for the next race.

You can’t win them all. 

But I’m not giving up on this endeavor.