Picking Winners Like Examining Gems, Jeweler Finds

On June 28 at Hollywood Park, Speaking Part, running a six-furlong sprint against fillies and mares for 4-year-olds and up, started out fourth in a 12-horse field after breaking from the No. 2 post position. Speaking Part moved up to third at the quarter-pole and took over second at the half-mile position. By the stretch, the horse was in front by a head. Extending her lead, Speaking Part won by three-quarters of a length.

When the mutuels were posted on the totalizator board, the “Gem” wasn’t even at the track, although he had his first winner of the day. The horse paid $32.40 to win, and system backers were off to a good start after losing the first race.

The Gem never gets to the track until the eighth race, after closing his store, which he has had for many years, in the Jewelry Mart building in downtown Los Angeles.

Being meticulous and precise, the Gem first conducts whatever business enters his shop, whether it’s designing pieces of jewelry or selling items he buys from other designers. A creative type, artistic in nature, the Gem would rather design rings, pins and bracelets and enter them in various national and international competitions than actually sell them to his customers.

In fact, despite the huge sums of money his creative pieces would bring, the Gem gives many of them to his wife to wear, and that way keeps them in his possession, instead of selling them to his rich customers, many of whom travel to his shop from all over California.

The Gem’s system is a simple one, which he designed after studying the local newspaper’s horse-racing pages. What he does is bet a money-progression system to win on the nine top horses chosen by one of the local newspaper handicappers. With a progression of $5-10-15-20-25-30-35-40-45, the Gem needs $225 a day for his betting.

On June 28, the Gem was betting on the picks of Pat Ray, who is one of the handicappers listed in the Consensus box published on racing days in the Sports Section of The Times and who was the leading money winner among those listed.

Ray had a loser the first race when his pick, Wildly Irish, going off the favorite, ran sixth in a nine-horse route. After losing $5, the Gem’s friend bet $10 on Speaking Part, which returned $162. After deducting the $15 bet on the first two races, the Gem was ahead $147.

The third race turned out to be another good bet for the Gem when Ray’s top choice, Intrepidness, ran in a six-furlong sprint against 3-year-olds. Breaking slowly from the No. 3 post position, Intrepidness settled into sixth at the start, beating only two horses out of the starting gate.

Gaining his rhythm by the quarter-pole, Intrepidness moved up to fourth by the half-mile and at that point made a bold move, taking a one-length lead into the stretch, where he pulled away to win by two lengths. With the horse paying $10.40 for every $2 bet, the Gem received $78, profiting by $63 on the race and $210 overall.

The fourth race turned out to be Ray’s and the Gem’s third consecutive victory. Quite Regal took the lead at the three-quarter pole, opened up four lengths in the stretch and coasted to a 6 1/2-length win in a 1 1/16-mile race. Being the favorite, the horse paid $4.60, bringing the Gem $46 for his $20 bet and profit for the day hit $236.

When Fraulein Maria came in sixth in the fifth race, the Gem lost $25, cutting his winnings to $211. However, in the sixth race, Free Love, running 5 1/2 furlongs, started out second, entered the stretch 1 1/2 lengths in front of the 11-horse field, and easily finished first by 3 1/2 lengths, paying $5.40 to win. For his $30 wager, the Gem received $81, made $51, and increased his total winnings to $262.

Orrefor ran last in the seventh race and although the Gem dropped $35, he was still ahead a hefty $227 for the day. Arriving at the track just before the start of the eighth race, the Gem watched Ray’s selection, Flirty, take the lead at the beginning of a 1 1/16-mile route on the turf. Flirty opened up 1 1/2 lengths at the quarter-pole, maintained her position entering the stretch and held off the fast-closing second-place horse to win by a head.

Racing as an entry with the second-place finisher, Flirty ended up the favorite in the race paying $4.60 to win. The $40 bet resulted in a return of $92 and a profit of $52. Now the Gem was ahead $279 with only one more race to go.

Since the bet for the ninth would only be $45, the Gem knew he couldn’t lose for the day. He calmly plunked his money down on Ray’s choice, Excellentperformer, and watched as the nag made a move to third entering the stretch. In the stretch, however, the horse tired and ended up fourth. Despite the loss, the Gem left the track with a $234 profit.

Another good day for the Gem was on July 5, when Ray again hit five firsts, winning the second, third, fifth, seventh and ninth races. What made the day’s betting more satisfying than most days was winning the ninth race, when No Money, No Honey raced a mile against six other horses. The nag ran second through most of the race until the stretch where she passed the tiring Bigger Ability and raced to a half-length victory.

No Money, No Honey paid $7.20 and the Gem received $162 for his $45 wager. With a profit of $117, the Gem left the track ahead $178.50 for the day.

The Gem concedes that despite his good fortune in choosing a hot handicapper most of the time, betting on the horses is similar to identifying a good gem. By just looking at a gem, it is almost impossible to see if the inside is flawed. However, when one looks through a magnifying glass, then the flaws stand out.

The same is true of a horse, he says. If one just looks at the animal, there is no way of seeing the heart inside. However, in the case of the horse, it is the magnified competition that brings out the heart.