A story only a horseplayer could love...

So there I was stuck in a late November Portland downpour. Smack dab in the center of downtown P-town at about 1:45 delivering some RFP for "The Man."

When I emerged from my delivery, I realized I was one short block away from the OTB I usually visit.

"Hey," I thought, "I'm so close, I know it's Tuesday, it is probably closed, but I'll just walk by and see what's up."

When I get there, the place is basically deserted except for the degenerates of the degenerate crowd-all three of them. The only races on the screen were Turf Paradise and Beulah. TP (which I love) had what looked like a competitive race with double digit runners and no clear favorite. The only problem was that post was about 12 minutes away. Too long for my visit.

But wait...BAM!! Good ole' Beulah park was 0 MTP so I pulled up a chair and shook off the excess rain drops.

Looking at the tote board, I notice the 6 (turns out its Halo de Oro) is 1-5. The 9 (turns out its Slew City Max) goes off at 5-1.

The bell sounds (I guess it was a bell, there was no sound in the joint. And as a sidebar, for some reason all of the tote-machines were shut-off for the day, that's how slow it was!)

Anyway, the 6 jumps out to a first-quarter lead in like 22.4 and is starting to look huge as they get to the turn....as they get around the turn, the 6 starts to completely freak out. I could see all that well, but it looked like the jockey was completely pulling the horse up due to injury or maybe equipment malfunction. The 6 (who actually went off at .20-1) is just being yanked backwards ad to the outside as 4 other horses-led by second favorite Slew City Max-continue to pass on by.

I remarked out loud "Jeez, folks are gonna be pissed. 1-5 and he breaks down/gets pulled up."

Well wouldn't you know, just as the 9 starts to turn for home looking like an extremely lucky winner, the 6 comes roaring back. Down the stretch, about a dozen paths out from the rail, the 6 absolutely runs away with the race winning by what Equibase says was 2 1/4, but really looked (and felt) like more.

The point of my story is this...if there is some system available to you all out there....go out and watch the 9th race from Beulah Park. You will be amazed and I think thoroughly entertained. You can also let me know if you see anything that gives more indication than just "bolted approaching stretch"-as per Equibase.

I think you will find this $5K claiming race to be pretty enjoyable.

9th Race Chart from Beulah Park 11/29/05