Money management makes the pari-mutuel world go ‘round, Part 5

by Frank Cotolo

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Part 3 is here.

Part 4 is here.

Claude was in a crisis. It was the 1980s and the only two ways to make a bet on the Daily Double at Hollywood Park was to know a bookie or put his ‘79 Chevy into overdrive down LaBrea Boulevard and get to the track proper, pay for parking and admission, and push his heart-rate to the limit on foot getting to a teller inside the Grandstand area.

Claude did not know a bookie so he hit the gas on Santa Monica Boulevard and turned right on LaBrea to defy the speed limit to the landmark racetrack. He needed much luck to overcome the possible trials of the trip. There was always a lot of traffic going north and south on LaBrea, no less around noon on a weekday, and there was always a chance the route was congested due to an accident or a police-car chase or a stop-and-go delay because a section was being used for a movie shoot.

He cursed himself for not leaving earlier though there was no guarantee that could have made much difference. Determination was on his side because he was convinced that he could hit the Daily Double that day. But at the moment Claude was firing on all five cylinders and the goal was to make the bet. The physical act of making the bet ruled the venture. To be shut out of the Daily Double meant failure to the Nth degree.

Claude was already emersed in a euphoria. He was in a battle with only one true conclusion: get the action. What could happen during or after the wager almost meant nothing compared to getting his bet in on time, that is, feeding his need for, the action. Claude would breathe deep with relief once the bet was made. Then he relaxed and soaked in the winning possibilities that he ignited. Last on his mind was the amount of money he wagered on the Daily Double.

Claude got the action that satisfied his goal. Making the bet was getting the action and getting the action ignited the thrill of betting with no regard for the two possible outcomes. For winning or losing was not so sweet when both conclusions would put Claude right back into the irresistible need for more action.

This is no fable. This was and still is the virus that slowly breaks down whatever sized bankroll used by a pari-mutuel gambler. Chasing the action for the sake of the thrill is a death sentence to a betting bankroll since the era of making bets with the poke of a finger began. Not just to make a pari-mutuel bet. In the 2020s the technical ease of betting on just about anything has fed the potency of thrill-based bets. These days financial ruin to reach the thrill at any price — literally — is the safest bet anywhere.

This topic falls into the category of money management because chasing the thrill of the bet distorts the value of any size bankroll and can devastate any and all chances of turning a profit.

Through the decades of writing about gambling on pari-mutuel horse racing I encouraged readers to watch a movie that defines the scourge of thrill-based bets. The Gambler was made twice. I encourage the original 1974 version. It stars James Caan as Axel Freed, a popular and successful professor of literature who seeks thrill-based bets to the crucial depths in his life.

Critic Roger Ebert wrote: “Axel’s problems and dangers seem like our own.” Critic Vincent Canby wrote: “Axel’s downward path keeps you thinking there must be some illuminating purpose, but there isn’t.”

I offer no spoilers. You must see the 1974 original. It is chilling without being preachy while following themes of risk and obsession which in one way or another “seem like our own.”

I knew Claude. I also knew Edmund. His thrill-bet craving was a Pick-6 treasure. Edmund’s journey was backed by an astounding dedicated bankroll due to his professional status. “I just need to hit one big Pick-6,” he told me. I was not privy to the expenses involved in hitting one (not that Edmund kept accurate records) but long after I left him avoiding crowds at Santa Anita, I heard from a friend that Edmund hit a huge Pick-6 carry-over pool.

Edmund found me many years later on the Internet. He said he was fine even after losing all of the six figures he made on the multi-race exotic. I offered my condolences but I was not surprised because Edmund was smart and careful and intelligent and worldly. I thought, “there must be some illuminating purpose, but there isn’t.”