I have been frantically trying to catch up today and it’s kind of working. . .bills paid, driver’s license renewed, wife driven to airport, Ts crossed, Is dotted, photo credits corrected, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All in a desperate effort to clear the decks to do a little freelance editing tomorrow.

I just finished handicapping today’s card enough to offer a pick (we’ll get to that in a minute). The weekend was a blast. A rare no-guest weekend, which was nice in that it allowed Susan and I some quality time. Saturday I went over to the track late and did the usual. The card was kind of dire from the point of view of being a Saratoga Saturday, but all in all there was still some fun stuff to gamble on. WISE DAN looked phenomenal walking by and I put my money where my mouth was (see Saturday’s Bankroll Play) and cashed a nice ticket. Saturday night Susan and I had a mellow dinner out at Harvest and Hearth, then headed over to the mall to see The Campaign. Some extremely funny stuff in there and definitely plenty to say. Some of the raunchy gags were amusing but my favorite thing in the whole movie was a drunken Will Ferrell getting pulled over driving drunk singing along to “Baracuda.” No one else in the theater thought that was funny but me. Well, no one else was laughing out loud anyway.

Early Sunday was spent at one of my favorite spots in town, the Victoria Pool, where we got to see some strange fashion choices (What? Is skin cancer not a thing up here?) and experience gossip Saratoga style (“Look at her! She’s not even watching her kid. She’s just sitting with her feet up reading Fifty Shades of Gray“). Despite that, a pleasing lunch and a nice little dip had us feeling good. We arrived at the track for Race 6 and Susan’s looks plays were en fuego. She made four bets, cashed four tickets, and we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Siro’s. Not too bad, is it?

BANKROLL PLAY OF THE DAY

Race 9: $50 win and place on #4 SWEET CAT

I love to bet Todd Pletcher horses off of these type of breaks and this miss is a flow move-up out of her last. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this tactically oriented filly run a career best today.

MEET TO DATE RESULTS: Sunday’s tip ran OK but didn’t cash, dropping me below four figs once again, -$1,071.25