Kentucky Derby 137 Hangover

Not unlike the build up to your wedding day, planning for and picking just the right Derby horse takes months of preparations. Not unlike hiring just the right entertainment, food and hall for your special day, finding all the right qualities of that one Derby winner takes investments of time and money. If you've done your homework, the payoff for your big days is evident to you and all those around you. If you've maybe come up a little bit short with your choices of partner - either human or equine - the throb of opportunity lost along with any and all funds that went along with those poor choices can leave you feeling tired, empty and achy. Your basic hangover recipe, especially if you've numbed your pain with alcoholic beverages!

Like most years, I again came up short on putting the right combinations of horses together on Derby Day. Unlike my Derby Picks blog, I backed off Soldat when I saw no rain - your basic cold feet. I, instead went with Mucho Macho Man on top of a superfecta wheel that included Brilliant Speed, Nehro, Archarcharch and Dialed In. Still not a winning wager, but a last minute change that was better than watching Soldat back up through the final furlongs. To go along with this superfecta, I bet a trifecta box with just four horses: Mucho Macho Man, Shackelford, Midnight Interlude and Animal Kingdom - that's right a 13, 14, 15 and 16 trifecta box. It was close as I would come.

The real bummer was the one horse I had to choose to complete my Twinspires.com Derby Prep Parlay Pool. With three "uninvested shares" and a $25,000 pool, I choose Mucho Macho Man over Animal Kingdom for my win wager. I did not, as I stated in my blog yesterday, back up Mucho Macho Man by placing a small win wager on Animal Kingdom.

I have reconciled my losing wagers because I made some important decisions that were right, at least in my thinking, if not in my wagering. Take a scroll down and you'll note that none of my tosses ended up in the top four places. As usual, I  wasn't able to put all the pieces together to strike it rich! Check down and and look over the proposed superfecta wheel that included three out of the top four finishers - I would have left Mucho Macho Man out of third and just missed a $24,000 payoff! That would have really hurt. And just as your way too drunk uncle at your wedding didn't realized the bar was closed, I had no idea there were no dime superfectas on Derby Day.

Unlike your wedding day, that is if you're lucky enough in life to have chosen wisely or been chosen, you don't have to go through the indignation of feeling the hungover losses of Kentucky Derby Day alone. If, well, you haven't been or don't wish to go through the preparations for a marriage with a special someone, maybe you are reaping such benefits and hit it big yesterday. At the end of each Derby loss, which there have been more than I like to admit, I get to smile and nod toward my beautiful wife, who understands my Derby dreams or at least tolerates them, and I feel very lucky. For real!

So if you head hurts from the unrequited love of a Derby choice that came up empty, there's always another race today, the Preakness two weeks from now or a well deserved rest. Whatever your future wager will be take the time to prepare and choose wisely and just maybe, such planning will reap monetary benefits. In the case that you're real patient and want to start planning for next year's Derby, good luck! But don't worry your hangover shouldn't last more than a few more hours - mine is already fading...