CHALK TALK
The 2020 handicappers for the Pink Sheet are having fun amidst a dreary season
In the past, driving past the Saratoga Race Track on Union Ave on a summer day would illicit excitement from the Saratoga and horse racing communities.
The crowds would be lined up outside the gate, you could see Pink Sheet hawkers in their bright pink shirts weaving in and out of the snaking line trying to meet their quota for the day, and most importantly, if you were lucky enough, you could catch a horse crossing the street from the barns and training track and go through the race track gate.
During the coronavirus pandemic, things have changed at the horse track not only for fans, but also the 2020 Pink Sheet handicappers.
“I was up there the first weekend when Dr. Shane ran, the first weekend. It was so depressing I wanted to go home. I left after the first race,” said Saratogian Pink Sheet handicapper and horse owner Dan Feiss. “The restaurants, the night life, the this, the that, it’s not there. My wife wanted to come up and I told her to stay home. I was crying on the way home because it’s such an experience to go up. We go up every year.”
Feiss was not alone in this sentiment for missing the days of bustling crowds, Pink Sheet hawkers, and horses holding up traffic.
“It’s one of those situations where it looks like Thanos snapped his fingers and half of humanity was destroyed,” said former Saratogian sportswriter and now Pink Sheet handicapper Andrew Champagne.
“There is an emptiness. It’s dreary, there’s no question about it,” said Pink Sheet handicapper Wise Owl, who’s identity remains anonymous.
“I drive past it and downtown about two times a week. It’s great to see some outdoor diners but the streets are not bustling like they used to be and obviously the concern is for the local economy and you realize how heavily dependent it is for the people here for the meet. We have an incredible chamber of commerce that are doing a great job of attracting people.”
The Saratogian Pink Sheet celebrated its 130th anniversary last summer. Other than a video produced by the Boston Herald, the Pink Sheet kept the accolade to a lull. It rather continue to celebrate it’s pickers and the history of the race track rather than the history itself has.
But, that doesn’t mean that the handicappers do not take great pride in being part of it.
“Being able to do this and being able to contribute to something that I hold as near and dear as I do, the Pink Sheet, is really special. I grew up in Upstate New York, I grew up going to Saratoga,” said Champagne. “I could go on for 30 minutes. For a number of different reasons, this is special.”
Champagne noted that one of the things that makes being a contributor to the Pink Sheet so special is that the Saratoga Race Track is one of the last cathedrals in the sport of horse racing.
“I am extremely honored to be part of the Pink Sheet,” said Pink Sheet handicapper and creator of Eponies.com, Liam Durbin. “Before my father passed away he knew I was in the Pink Sheet and it was another thing that was a source of great pride for me. I agree with Andrew that there are a few tracks left that are in the upper crest of horse racing and Saratoga is one of them.”
Each of the 2020 handicappers for the Pink Sheet is not only a veteran to the sport, but is a veteran to the Pink Sheet as well. Champagne and Sam Hollingsworth are former Saratogian staff members who remain on to contribute picks and other content, Feiss joined the handicapping team in 2010 after owning several horses and handicapping at different tracks, Durbin’s picks have spanned across several different publications such as USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, and the most recent addition, from 2014, the Wise Owl, grew up not too far from Belmont Park before finding his love for the sport.
“I grew up on Long Island, three miles from Belmont in a town called Franklin Square. There, horse racing was just horse racing, it wasn’t Saratoga,” said Wise Owl. “I would pass the back of the grand stand, probably about a thousand times before I was 10, to come up North to exit 25, Loon Lake in the Adirondacks. Never went to Saratoga. Every time we passed Belmont, I knew it was a horse track but I didn’t know what happened there.”
After settling down in Saratoga with Mrs. Wise Owl, the anonymous handicapper began to find the sport, and betting, much more intriguing.
“When I first got a NYRA account, I assured my wife it was for Saratoga and I wouldn’t start betting Aqueduct or anything,” said the Wise Owl. “Soon enough, I was recording the Belmont and Aqueduct in 30 to watch and bet.”
The reason for the Wise Owl’s anonymity is a simple one: his old job did not want his name associated with his picks. Now, as the Owl has moved on and so have his reasons for anonymity, the only thing holding him back is his first Pink Sheet title.
“My former boss assured me that if I ever win, he would allow me to unveil myself. Now that I quit the bank, I would proudly put my name and likeness to the picks.”
Sorry Wise Owl. You still need to win a title to reveal yourself.
The handicapping group is a fun one for the Pink Sheet. Email chains of jabs and chirps back and forth light up my screen at all hours of the night following big days.
The chirps also can tend, but very rarely, turn into praise and compliments. Just kidding. “When I see the guys out there I am trying to beat them everyday. That’s why we have such a comradery, we try and beat each other everyday,” said Feiss.
Feiss continued to issue chirps at every single handicapper, but zoning in on one very specific one.
“Andrew is mostly a chalk guy where he thinks the best horse in the race should win at all times. If you see Andy’s ROI (Return on Investment) it’s the worst. He’s got wins, but he has got the worst ROI,” said Feiss. “The Owl is doing great this year but he will collapse like he always does because he gets too zealous when it comes to these races. You can’t keep throwing 8-to-1 shots out there. I’m more of a middle player.” Feiss continued. “You know Liam’s deal. He is the computer guy. He will take whatever his algorithm spits out. Sam is the type of guy that wants to go to the track, have a cooler of beer and pick some winners. Wise Owl wants to score out.”
“I’d say he’s right,” joked Sam Hollingsworth about wanting to grab a cooler and pick some winners. “I look for value. I know Dan is big on not picking the favorites and I pride myself on not doing that, but I have also picked up a significant amount of easy winners by picking that chalk. For a long time I wouldn’t do that.”
“I try and find those 8-to-1, 10-to-1, 12-to-1 gems. I know I have never finished in the top two, but people up the street that talk about my picks, they don’t bash me with my picks as much as they could with my record,” said Hollingsworth. “If you went through and played a $5 exacto box with the three horses I gave you, you are going to walk away with a nice chunk of change each day.”
Champagne, the 2019 champion and four time champion in the last six years, receives the most flak for picking “chalk,” or favorited winners at the track. He had a pretty simple response to Feiss.
“Are you guys familiar with the Patrick Roy quote where he has rings coming out of his ears? That’s me,” said Champagne. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Dan. I’ve got a lot of respect for the way he handicaps. I think he is a very good handicapper. Having said that, this is the title he won two years in a row, I believe it was 2012 and 2013, and he hasn’t won since. I’ve won this four times in the last six years, I was the leading handicapper across all media at Saratoga back in 2017.”
The Wise Owl quickly chirped in.
“Dan should be most angry with me because I started in 2014 and he hasn’t won so maybe I am the bad luck.”
ROI has been added to the Pink Sheet for the 2020 season once a week. Every Wednesday edition will contain each handicappers average and total win payout.
This week, Champagne’s average win payout was $5.30, his total was $127.10. Feiss’ average win payout was $5.80 and his total payout was $133.30
“I have been told other people like the way I handicap. I am sure that I am giving people winners and making them happy when they go to the races. Obviously the going to the races thing has been muted during the pandemic,” said Champagne.
Each handicapper has there own personality or niche in how they pick. You’ll never get a favorite from Dan. You’ll always get a favorite from Champagne. Sam is going to give you three good horses that you could hit a trifecta with. The Wise Owl is offering value. Durbin’s algorithm will take some biases and human error out of the handicapping, while also using some biases in the consideration of its choices.
“You can try and discredit the computer, but what it is doing is very interesting. No offense to Andrew, he won and wins are what we count, my ROI has been tops for two years in a row and heading into the third year it is doing very well. I’ve been a big defender of making it count for wins because people want winners,” said Durbin. “Over the years, the model has proven itself.”
Durbin’s algorithm was created 20 years ago and is continuously tweaked.
“I wrote it myself years ago. I used to be a pencil and paper regular handicapper, and I still do that quite a bit, but I wrote it myself based on how I handicap,” said Durbin. “Sometimes a horse looks like it has no chances and it is an 8/1 morning line and the other handicappers will ignore him, but my computer program will pick him up and say that there is something in that class there. I have tried to, over the yeas, tone it down where it is not so sensitive to class and it is not so easy to do. I want it to be sensitive to those horses that have that back class.”
The guys have fun with each other. In there discussions, you can tell there is a mutual respect for one another, but everyone still wants the crown. But, will uneasy be the head that the crown lies?
“At some point, if he wants to talk, he has to beat me,” said Champagne.