That's the ticket!

- With the lottery-type payoffs from the Derby comes lottery-type stories of those who hit big with hunch plays or random selections. Had to be, because no one who knows anything about the sport could have had that superfecta, right? There's the guy at Turf Paradise who lost his randomly-generated ticket and was bailed out when the mutuel clerk found it. When he thought he'd lost after the Derby, he left the tickets on a table and walked off. [LA Times]

Then there are the two guys at the Meadowlands who meet periodically in a car in the parking lot to place some bets.

There was just something about his name that he liked. He said it reminded him of the former Rangers goaltender Ed Giacomin.

He did think that Afleet Alex had a chance. Ritchie read something about the horse being fed out of a beer bottle when he was baby, and because he likes to down a few libations himself, the story stuck with him. [NY Times]

I've been a Rangers fan for over 30 years, but the thought about Giacomin never crossed my mind. I'm not a hunch player type. If I walked into a track and there was a horse named BetmeAlanfromQueenswithdaughtersChelseaandKayla, and it didn't have competitive Beyers, I'd toss him right out. These guys didn't even watch the race!! And they couldn't find their ticket either - what the hell is wrong with these people?

"I said, 'Brian, I think we hit ... and it's big,'" said Ritchie, who split $3,300 three years ago with Wien when Funny Cide won the Derby. "You got to find those tickets."

Wien was nervous. Had he thrown the tickets out? He walked out to his car -- which had the windows rolled down -- and noticed the slips of paper tucked into the sun visor on the driver's side. Amid the scraps, he found a ticket with the 10-18-12-17 combination. [Newark Star]

Doesn't this make you feel great that you spent all that time agonizing over the race? They collected over $600,000 each after taxes. There were 7 $1 winning superfecta tickets sold, including ones yet to be collected in Philly and Maine. Perhaps those people used them as toilet paper.

The winners at Freehold at least are horseplayers, and placed a 6 horse box for $360.

"That was unreal, and I play the horses a lot," he said. "Right after they put the numbers up, my mouth was open for a while. I looked at the first two numbers, then I kept looking at the other numbers and I said, `What the heck's that comma doing there?"' [Newsday]

And there's the guy in Queens who collected $62,573 on the triple, one of 27 combos he bet.

"The method to this is to empty your mind of all greed, as if you are praying to the Buddha, and, without looking at the odds, go for the horse and the jockey you like." [NY Post]

Buddha, why would he pray to him? He never even made it to the Derby.

- Kentucky racing officials are looking into some unauthorized ads on some jockeys' silks during the Derby, including those of Jeremy Rose.

Racing authority executive director Jim Gallagher said the agency's staff is reviewing photographs and videotapes to determine exactly how many jockeys had ads on britches that weren't approved in advance as required by authority rules. [Bloodhorse]

I'm sure that the people who paid for these ads are thrilled to know that review of videotape is necessary in order to see them; they really got their money's worth.

- A couple of passings of harness racing stars who go back far enough for me to remember racing: No Nukes and Seatrain. No Nukes has sired winners of over $100 million. [US Trotting Association]