Now that you’re a bit more familiar with the “origin story” of Claim To Fame Racing Club, and some of our current stable, I received a text this AM that prompted me to say “OK, its on.” Victor Collazo is a CPA, and along with trainer Sam Wilensky and me, we started CTF Racing Club earlier this year.
Victor is a rare combination: grew up as an assistant trainer to his father, and his mother was also a trainer. He was indoctrinated into the sport. Yet somehow, found his way into corporate accounting, then started his own firm in the Philadelphia area. He is also the Director of Finance and Accounting for the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. So he’s a lifelong horseman, with a white collar career to boot.
So when this hit my inbox this morning, which I still think of as Vic’s Pics, I decided, in a good way “let’s make this guy famous.” (Very different from the way folks use that term on social media. Victor’s a menche).
Victor and Sam are our pro horsemen at CTF Racing Club. I’m the “horse’s mouth.” Or horse’s a$% if you prefer. (I’m not offended, you should see what they say about me in the comments section of my Seeking Alpha articles).
Victor took a try at the late pick 6 and those races individually at Keeneland today. He and Sam are so good at scouting fields for claiming horses for us, and I see first hand the max effort they put into it all.
But as I’ve related here, the toughest thing about the claming business can be luck in winning shakes. That’s the process where all owners who want to buy a horse enter a claim slip, and one of them gets the horse in a random lottery.
I’ll say this: the math has worked against us in several shakes, because we are aiming for specific horses each time, and set quite a high bar for what we’ll try to buy through claiming races. But Victor’s record at choosing horses that win the race we are trying to claim them out of is off the charts.
Of course, we can’t disclose the horses we are entering slips for ahead of time, except to CTF Racing Club partners. But when I next have some downtime, I think I’ll go back and add up what the Return On Investment (ROI) is on betting those horses.
For those newer to the claiming game, the owner who entered the horse in the race gets the winnings from that race. The checks don’t start cashing for the winner of the claim until that horse’s next race.
Case in point. We have a horse going tomorrow. Claimed out west, running at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. First time racing for us. So first time we can earn from his efforts.
Nursultan Tulyakbay
Is that a real person? Not in fact. But to me and many other fans of the movie Nursultan Tulyakbay is very real. He’s that jealous neighbor, who must have everything Borat has.
So, Victor has Keeneland picks for today. Rob must have Keeneland picks for today.
Here are mine. I am not nearly the experienced “capper” Victor is. And I’m such an el-cheapo wagerer, the thought of “investing” a two-digit sum to cover myself in a Pick-6 is enough to lose some sleep over.
So instead, I’ll stick to my knitting, and represent the 2% of horse players that probably approach the game like I do. Top 4 horses. Enough to place 10 cents on a Superfecta, which won’t win. But this is all about “living the dream,” isn’t it?
