Eric Luper's Random Musings

Last week, in honor of BUG BOY's forthcoming release I held a caption contest for this photo:



I got some great responses and you can read them here.

I told you last week that I was going to draw a winner at random. Well, with me things are rarely that simple. I noticed author Kate Messner held a contest a few weeks ago and she drew her winner in a very interesting way. I decided that I could not be one-upped by the likes of her. So, I've decided to select a winner for my contest in a way that I doubt has ever been attempted before.

Considering BUG BOY is all about the horse racing industry, I am going to let the horses pick my winner. Saratoga horses are not racing yet (opening day is July 29th for the 6-week 2009 season) but the ponies are running strong down in Belmont. It just so happens that there were 28 qualifying entries to the caption contest and there are 31 horses in the first four races on Wednesday (close enough) and there is a 12-horse race on Thursday. That will let me run races to determine who wins, places and shows in 4 races, coming up with 12 finalists. The race on Thursday will be a no-holds-barred race to victory!

Here is the lineup (your match-ups have been drawn at random):

MAIDEN SPECIAL WEIGHT

P# PP Horse Virtual Stable A/S Med Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 3 Nikimoto (FL) <input ... > 3/F L J L Castanon 118 W A Ward 12/1 1A 5 Sacredness (KY) <input ... > 3/F L J L Castanon 118 W A Ward 12/1 2 1 Miss World (KY) <input ... > 3/F L R Maragh 118 C Clement 3/1 3 2 Star Orchid (KY) <input ... > 3/F L E Coa 118 M E Hushion 4/1 4 4 Beyond Our Reach (IRE) <input ... > 3/F L J R Velazquez 118 T A Pletcher 7/5 5 6 Upper Gulch (KY) <input ... > 4/F L J Samyn 123 P J Kelly 6/1 6 7 Toocleverforwords (KY) <input ... > 3/F L1 E S Prado 118 C R McGaughey III 8/1 7 8 Discreet Empire (KY) <input ... > 3/F L J L Espinoza 118 S M Hough 15/1

In race 1, we have:

1 proseandkahn
1A culturattiKids
2 Bill Atherton
3 gregpincus
4 AnnGainer
5 thewritejoyce
6 Dimitri Vorona
7 marjorielight

Just match up your name above to the grid above that and you'll be able to find your horse and all the nitty-gritty details that obsessive bettors like to obsess over, like jockey, impost weight, age/sex (A/S), trainer and the all-important ODDS! In that race, AnnGainer is the odds-on favorite at 7-5, but remember... anything can happen!

Here is Race 2:

MAIDEN SPECIAL WEIGHT

P# PP Horse Virtual Stable A/S Med Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 4 Amiga Del Sol (NY) <input ... > 2/F R Maragh 118 J C Kimmel 7/2 1A 6 Musicsetsmefree (NY) <input ... > 2/F L1 J Lezcano 118 R M Hernandez 7/2 2 1 Notably Made (NY) <input ... > 2/F L J L Rivera, Jr. 118 J Aquilino 20/1 3 2 Silver Shoes (NY) <input ... > 2/F L J R Velazquez 118 F A Alexander 5/2 4 3 Bretton Woods (NY) <input ... > 2/F J Castellano 118 G Weaver 5/1 5 5 Smoke After Six (NY) <input ... > 2/F L1 J A Wilsey 118 G C Contessa 10/1 6 7 Nice and Naughty (NY) <input ... > 2/F A Garcia 118 C Clement 9/5 7 8 Peggy's Princess (NY) <input ... > 2/F L1 J F Chavez 118 C J Domino 12/1

And the matchups are:

1 kimmiepoppins
1A justinelavaworm
2 NYPL
3 artistq
4 librarina
5 J. Grotevant
6 joknowles
7 michaelnorthrop

Onward we go to Race 3:

STAKES

Promonroe S.

P# PP Horse Virtual Stable A/S Med Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1 Undocumented (NY) <input ... > 5/G L J Castellano 121 N Chatterpaul 12/1 2 2 Executive Search (NY) <input ... > 6/H L J R Velazquez 121 D Jacobson 8/1 3 3 Platinum Couple (NY) <input ... > 6/H L J F Chavez 119 J A Lostritto 15/1 4 4 Law Enforcement (NY) <input ... > 4/C L K J Desormeaux 119 M A Hennig 9/5 5 5 Dr. W (NY) <input ... > 4/C L R A Dominguez 121 S M Asmussen 2/1 6 6 Groomedforvictory (NY) <input ... > 4/G L J Lezcano 119 B Tagg 3/1

And the 6 lucky matchups are:

1 kimmiepoppins
2 Steve Sanfilippo
3 Tracy Kaback
4 mweinstock
5 Prisca
6 kellyrfineman

And our last race for Wednesday:

ALLOWANCE OPTIONAL CLAIMING $35,000

P# PP Horse Virtual Stable A/S Med Claim $ Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1 Can't Refuse (NY) <input ... > 6/G L $35,000 R Maragh 121 R Persaud 20/1 2 2 Remarkable Storm (NY) <input ... > 3/C L $0 J Lezcano 116 J Parisella 8/1 3 3 Kettle Two (NY) <input ... > 5/G L $0 A Garcia 121 C Baker 8/1 4 4 Citifest (NY) <input ... > 5/G L $35,000 S Morales 121 J O Hertler 15/1 5 5 Elusive Fox (NY) <input ... > 5/G L $0 R A Dominguez 121 D J Manning 2/1 6 6 Peperoni (NY) <input ... > 4/G L $35,000 R R Rodriguez 121 P O Ortiz 20/1 7 7 Victorious Affair (NY) <input ... > 5/G L $0 E S Prado 121 P J Kelly 12/1 8 8 Bagavond (NY) <input ... > 6/G L $0 J F Chavez 121 W H Turner, Jr. 4/1 9 9 Iron Curtain (NY) <input ... > 4/G L $0 J R Velazquez 121 S Klesaris 5/2

Here are the matchups:

1 My Alma-Mater High School
2 Prisca
3 Chris374358
4 ATombank
5 SusanWrites
6 St. Anne's Institute
7 hipwritermama
8 suzDC
9 expressionsofme

You may have noticed that there are three long shots in the four races. Any horse that had worse odds than 15-1, I ascribed to a charity or organization that I felt could use a copy of my book. This way, active entrants had the best odds of winning. There is a horse for the New York Public Library, a horse for my high school alma mater, Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield NJ, and a horse for St. Anne Institute, a not-for-profit boarding school for troubled girls here in Albany that I do some work for.

The win, place and show horses from these four races will move on to Thursday's final 12-horse race. If your horse gets scratched, sorry that's how it goes! I will keep you posted on the results. Good luck and don't break a suspensory ligament!