America’s Best Racing puts together a yearly slideshow of the 3-year-olds expected to compete in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. This year's race on May 7 at Churchill Downs became more intriguing as the race drew closer as several of the final prep races were won in eye-catching fashion.
Month: April 2022
Poker Bankroll Requirements
Your bankroll is the amount of money you have set aside to play poker with. Some players can easily add to their bankroll from outside sources while others have no way to add if they lose theirs. If you fall into the latter category, it is very important to not play at limits that exceed your bankroll. One very important point you should know is that until you become a consistent winner it doesn’t matter how big your bankroll is. The only thing that will matter is how much you have to lose. For this reason, the information below is written for you assuming you are a winning player overall.
The first rule is to not confuse bankroll and buy-in. A buy-in is the amount you sit down in a game with or the entry fee in a tournament, not the entire amount you have available to play poker with over a period of time. For example, you may have a bankroll of $10,000 to play 15/30-limit holdem. If this were the case you would probably buy-in for between $500 and $1,000.
I have seen bankroll size suggestions ranging from 200 times the big bet at the level you are playing at ($800 at 2/4) to 300 times the big bet ($1200 at 2/4). My recommendation, particularly for holdem, is to start with 300 times the big bet. I play much better when I have this cushion. I have played at levels that I had much less than 300 times the big bet in bankroll and it sometimes hurts my play. This is a psychological hurdle but when reduced to facts it makes sense. 50 times the big bet is a common downswing, even for professional players, and nothing to become too concerned about if you are still playing well. However, if you start with only 100 times the big bet, if you are down 50 big bets you have lost 50% of your bankroll. If you had started with 300 big bets and are down 50, you have only lost roughly 17% of your bankroll.
If you are a very sound Omaha/8 player, you can play with a 200 big bet bankroll. This is because Omaha/8 is a much more mathematically direct game than holdem, or in other words there is less short-term variance or luck. Because of the short-term variance in holdem, even professional players may see a 200 big bet downswing at times. For this reason, that extra 100 big bets may keep you from being forced to drop down a level before the cards turn in your favor.
Glimmer of Hope for Grants Pass Downs
Nine days after the devastating news that Grants Pass Downs has called off its 2022 race meets and will let the track's commercial license lapse, Randy Boden, the executive director of the Oregon Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (OHBPA), revealed that plans are in the works to keep the southern Oregon track open for training and possibly a short fairs-style race meet this summer, with the ultimate goal of bringing back a larger slate of racing in 2023.
“When it became apparent that [Grants Pass Downs] was not going to renew their commercial license, we decided that the best thing was for the HBPA to seek that license for itself for the continuation of the commercial meet as well as the obvious benefits of the off-track betting (OTB) network,” Boden said during the Apr. 21 Oregon Racing Commission (ORC) meeting.
ORC executive director Jack McGrail welcomed the OHBPA's intended actions, which have the short-term goal of keeping alive the state's four-stop summer fairs circuit while plans for a longer, more viable, OHBPA-funded commercial meet are hashed out.
“Obviously, the cancellation of Grants Pass Downs has us scrambling a little bit,” McGrail said. “Although things are a little grim right now, there is a path forward if we can get to use that facility. It's been improved dramatically, and it really is a track that we can have some really lengthy and good meets at. So those improvements do provide an opportunity for us down the road.”
McGrail continued: “We are working towards, hopefully, a successful summer fairs season…. That track at Grants Pass is a vital training facility, even if it's not running a commercial meet. And without it, it's hard to see how our horsemen and women will have a chance to get their horses legged up in time to run at these fair meets.”
Travis Boersma took over Grants Pass Downs, which is located on the Josephine County Fairgrounds, in 2019. After making substantial capital improvements and seeking historical horse race gaming to fund the racing there, the ORC recently voted to deny an operating license to the gaming part of the operation based on a Department of Justice opinion that called the project unconstitutional because of the way the state's gambling laws are set up.
So on Apr. 12, Boersma pulled the plug on the upcoming racing season, stating that “Grants Pass Downs has lost its economic engine.”
During Thursday's meeting, Grants Pass Downs president Randy Evers confirmed that Boersma wasn't bluffing.
“I'm saddened to say that we just didn't have enough horses to run a successful commercial meet,” Evers said in a succinct presentation to the commission. “The horsemen and women have until Apr. 30 to exit the backside. At that time it will be closed. We do have a few horses left over and a few recreational vehicles that we've been assured will all be leaving next week.
“The plan is to operate the off-track-betting OTB network until June 30. That's when [the] racing license expires. That continues to bring in some revenue for our horse associations; the racing commission, and provides the opportunity if someone else wants to take over the OTB network and the commercial racing license at that time.”
That's where the OHBPA would step in.
“That is our plan,” Boden said. “We're going to be in that process. As you guys know, it's a very extensive thing…to have everything in place so that there is no lag time between June 30 ending and July 1 beginning, so that there is no stoppage of the OTB network.
“We also have received a list of equipment from [Grants Pass Downs] that's available to be purchased for us to continue,” Boden said.
“Obviously we'll need the correct equipment to run a race meet, everything from starting gates to the stalls to tractors, et cetera, et cetera, all down the line. So we are going through that list as we speak, and we'll be acquiring as much of that as we can to further our goals in that regard.”
Two years ago, Oregon's racing community rallied around Grants Pass Downs, which transitioned from a fairs track to being the lone commercial licensee in Oregon after the closure of Portland Meadows. Grants Pass carved out a 35-date, split-meet season over two staggered meets, May through July and September through November.
The plan was for Grants Pass to dovetail with the state's four summer fairs meets. The Eastern Oregon Livestock Show meet in Union traditionally kicked off that circuit in June. Crooked River Roundup in Prineville then followed in July. Tillamook County Fair in Tillamook ran in August. Harney County Fair in Burns rounded out the fairs circuit in September.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic wiped all four fairs off the map in 2020, and Grants Pass Downs supported the circuit alone.
The start of 2021 looked promising. But by May, Harney executives told the ORC it wouldn't be running.
In July, jockey Eduardo Gutiérrez Sosa was killed in a Quarter Horse racing accident at the Crooked River Roundup.
Nov. 9, 2021, was the final day of the Oregon racing season. It turned out to be an ominous premonition when the half-mile oval at Grants Pass was plunged into complete darkness eight seconds into the running of the final race when the track's lights cut out unexpectedly, leaving the field of six sprinters barreling blindly into the first bend of a three-turn race.
There hasn't been a sanctioned horse race in Oregon since.
“We are further looking into the possibility of working with Southern Oregon Horse Racing Association (SOHRA) to see if there's a possibility of running a short race meet in between the end of Union and the start of Prineville,” Boden said. “Currently, since we have no racing license until June, we have no standing to run a race meet as the HBPA, but SOHRA has many years of experience running race meets at Grants Pass [prior to Boersma taking over].”
Boden said that SOHRA had a meeting scheduled for Thursday evening, beyond deadline for this story. He expected them to discuss and possibly vote on working with the OHBPA to bring racing back to Grants Pass.
“And if it works out that [SOHRA] would like to do that, then we would have to be willing to fund that meet to go forward that way,” Boden said. “That would be the optimal thing.”
Boden then focused on the fairs meets.
“We've got to get something open for training. These horses are not fit. They are not ready to run,” Boden said. “And so the last thing we want is for the horses not to be ready for the rest of the fairs, because that will be a negative thing on the fairs and the population of horses that are ready to go there-as well as the fact that some of the horses may wind up going to Wyoming or Montana. And any horse that goes that far away is not going to come back to run at our fairs.
“We want to keep our horses in the state as much as we can. We want to be able to offer the horsemen a place to train, and make sure that if nothing else happens, that we have a very successful summer fairs season. The fairs are important to all of us, and we're going to support them all the way down the line,” Boden said.
“Ultimately, going forward, we talk about '23, we'll be able to once again put a commercial race meet together and allow for us to get our legs back under us a little bit in that regard.”
The post Glimmer of Hope for Grants Pass Downs appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
St. Lawrence University Staff Rallies To Help Neurologic Mare Recover
In the spring of 2019, Clara Mugnai boarded her 14-year-old mare, Minor Details (“Juno”), at St. Lawrence University's riding facility in Canton, NY. She noticed the mare was dragging her toes slightly and went on high alert – her school was amid an Equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) outbreak and that slight difference in her way of going might indicate that Juno had contracted the disease, reported the Chronicle of the Horse.
EHV is relatively common; it often causes fever, mild respiratory disease, and nasal discharge in affected horses. EHV is a contagious disease that is spread through contact with contaminated objects.
However, some horses with EHV develop potentially life-threatening neurologic signs; these horses are affected by Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM).
Juno rapidly became so neurologic that she had to lean against a stall wall to stay on her feet. She was tested and confirmed to be suffering from EHM.
Faculty, staff, and students at St. Lawrence rallied around the mare to assist her in any way they could. The maintenance team created a fabric sling to hoist the mare to her feet when she went down in her stall; they placed jump poles across the top of her stall and used tow straps and a stall mat connected to an engine hoist to get her upright again.
The mare received aggressive medical care in addition to supportive care. After six weeks in the makeshift sling, the maintenance team had to modify their design to allow for the mare's increased movement in addition to providing support.
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As Juno continued her recovery, the maintenance staff assembled a rolling walker with a sling that was designed by St. Lawrence engineers. The large metal cart had casters that allowed the mare to walk up and down the aisle until she was strong enough to walk unassisted.
Juno has recovered from her battle with EHM with no permanent neurologic deficits and has gone back to jumping low fences in the show ring with her veterinarian's blessing.
Read more at the Chronicle of the Horse.
The post St. Lawrence University Staff Rallies To Help Neurologic Mare Recover appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
