I went out the Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis, AR to place my Churchill Downs bets for the next two day since the track and the horsemen are still feuding over how to split their ever shrinking handle.

Two problems
1. I could not bet tomorrow's race 7-10 Pick 4. The wager was not in the system. I have written out a seven tickets totaling $260 but to make the bets I have to head back to Arkansas tomorrow morning. Unfortunately my morning is booked preparing for the throng of kids descending on my house for my second annual Derby party (~50 adults and 30 kids expected). Early betting starts at 7am - perhaps I'll sneak out of the house while everyone is still asleep.

2. I suppose this is not the fault of the Churchill Downs infighting, but I'll blame them anyway. Instead of making the bets from the comfort of my home computer, I was typing them out on a United Tote machine in the smoky drab depressing grandstand of the dog track. My "A" horses in the first leg of today's Pick 4 are supposed to be 1 Zee Zee and 6 Grace and Power. However, I keyed in 2 Holy Grace instead of 1 Zee Zee. Holy Grace has no chance whatsoever.

Update: Of course Zee Zee wires the field. Instead of alive twice to 6/3,8,10/6,11 and once to 6/ALL/6,11 and 2,3,4,5,6/3,8,10/6,11, I have one ticket - 6/3,8,10/6,11. Uggh.

On the plus side, Southland has a pretty nice buffet and the casino looks great. The dog track still looks pitiful.

Another complaint
I made a major run at the Pick 4 in Australia the other night. I hit it eleven times and won $800. Each Pick 4 paid less than $600 so I thought I had avoided any W2Gs. When I checked my account balance I noticed that I was short $1500. It turns out that the IRS now counts the total return on a particular wager in a particular race for multiple tickets as taxable, presumably because the dime superfecta allowed players to hit race for ten dimes and remain below the IRS threshold when hitting it for a $1 would yield W2Gs and/or withholding. So, I won but lost.