Well, at least from my own self-torture. When Swifty and I were at Saratoga, Thorn Song was running in the 3rd race that Saturday, a 68000N1X on the inner turf. We both really liked him and had discussed him in the handicapping torture chamber the night before the race.

I’m still not entirely sure how it happened, but I didn’t include him in any of my bets. It was a great race, he pressed the pace from the backstretch to the turn and made his move pulling ahead in the stretch and then held on to win over a closing Codeword by a neck paying 31.80.

To make matters worse (at least for my ego), Swifty had $5 on him across the board. I felt like a total moron was completely pissed at myself for the better part of an hour… and it bothered me for the rest of the day.

I think it was a combination of not paying attention, not doing a good job of indicating that I really liked him in my notes and plain old stupidity. It was an awful a feeling, and one I hope to never relive again. I’ve actually since modified my notes system a little to safeguard against this kind of sloppy oversight.

Fast forward to today… I was working from home, for a number of reasons, most notably because my dog has severe separation anxiety and The Lady (who works from home) was out of town for a long weekend (he’s whimpering while I type, poor thing). I also had a late afternoon doctor’s appointment. I watched the second race at Saratoga over lunch and turned off the TV, lest I not get any work done.

I was having a snack in preparation for the long, long wait that was to be my late afternoon (I was there for 3 and half hours) and I again turned on the TV. It was the 6th race and Jason Blewitt was discussing the entrants. He gets to the 4th horse, it was Thorn Song!!! I couldn’t believe it, and he looked great too!

I fired up the extremely sloooow YouBet and threw $10 on him to win. Mind you, I hadn’t handicapped it and didn’t have a clue who the other horses were… I just knew he was a nice horse who looked good that I forgotten last time out, and I was not gonna do it again.

He broke awkwardly but took the lead pretty quickly. He was under pressure the entire race and was never ahead by much but held on again to win by a neck… wire to wire! Sweet vindication! He paid $16.40 to win, and while it’s not the 31.80 I missed last time out, at least I had him!

He’s actually doing really well, he’s won 3 in row off of breaking his maiden. It took him 7 tries to break his maiden and he’s been through a few trainers, but it looks like Dale Romans is on to something with him.

Another horse from that day, 47-1 winner Fresh Episode, pictured in my Saratoga visit post, won the first race today and payed $34.20. Perhaps he’s not a fluke after all.