March 6-8: Tampa Bay Derby Weekend
Kim and I left for Orlando Wednesday morning for an extended visit with our son Brad and his family. A special treat was getting to enjoy two of our grandson Oliver's hockey games. One of THE coolest parts of the weekend was playing an PS2 game with my son. It was an interactive game where you, as a player determined what happened throughout the game....centered around androids fighting for their freedom. What was most interesting to me was in the beginning I was on the side of protecting the humans but by the end led the revolution which enabled the androids to gain recognition as a new, intelligent species to live with the humans. Very interesting....loved every minute of the game, especially playing with my son.
Thursday I had four selections and won with the first two. War Warrior tracked the leaders into the stretch, tipped out into the clear and drove by to the wire. Came right back in R4 with my second play and watched as Dirty Diana drew off.
Friday was another two win day for me. I split two third place finishes (at 8/5 and 4/5) with two winners. In R4 Maitre D dueled between rivals through the turn and into the lane before drawing off. And in R8 Starship Juliette stalked the leaders into the final furlong before edging clear.
I was excited for Saturday, Tampa Bay Derby Day and it was also "Big Cap Day" at Santa Anita. The good news is that the two "BEST Bets" of the day delivered, albeit at short odds....and the second of which, Splendora, I way upped the bet. The bad news was I only cashed four tickets while watching EIGHT of my selections run second and five more finish third. You're not going to have a winning day with those kinds of results, sigh.....
Sunday morning we went to Oliver's hockey game which was slated to begin at 10am. But when we arrived there was a 13-under game going on for the right to play for a berth in the state finals. And one of the teams was the Florida Panthers junior team. They trailed a team from Clearwater by a goal heading into the final minute. We were standing behind a trio of mom's of Panthers players and to see their explosive excitement when their team scored with 00:11.7 left on the clock was so cool. No one scored in the ten minute overtime so it went to a shoot-out. A Clearwater player beat the goalie but the puck hit the inside of the post along the ice and slid out through the crease. SO close. Then a Panthers player buried it for the win. Tough way for Clearwater to lose and I remarked that to one of the Dad's who shook his head and said, "Well, that's hockey." And then we high-fived the Mom's and shared we were Florida Panther season ticket holders which drew a huge smile. We drove home - was smooth going for the most part and then I watched the replays for the day. Only won one of four, but it paid for all the other selections and had a couple dollars profit.
This Tuesday (March 10) Kim and I fly out of Miami International on a non-stop flight to Paris to begin our Cities of Light trip with Viking cruises. We're so excited for the extended 17-day adventure and to be sharing it with our good friends Pam & Bob Murray and Claudia & Gary Wanlin.
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