242nd

Man it has been a bad stretch for me in Monmouth's 'Survival at the Shore' contest, as I have dropped about 50 places in the standings since my last blog post and now stand in 242nd place. I'm very lucky to be still surviving though, as I had skin-of-my-teeth $3.60 and $4 days last Thursday and Friday before putting up a goose egg on Sunday, saved from elimination only by Talike Me's 2nd-place finish in a three-horse field. So despite how poorly my selections have been, I get the additional life preserver by virtue of surviving through yesterday, and I still have a puncher's chance.

I also took a crack at Brisnet.com's free online contest on Saturday. I had a respectable showing, with chalky winners Sydney Road in Belmont's 7th ($4.50, $3.20) and Unbridled's Story in DelMar's 3rd ($5.20, $3.60), plus place payoffs with Coaching (6Crc, $5.40), Lexi's Bay (4AP, $7.20), Ten's Salty Sally (2DMR, $18), and Dumbledore (8AP, $5.20). Six placers out of 12 contest races is not bad, but my total $52.30 bankroll only got me 677th place (I'm not sure what the field size was, but I imagine it was north of 2,000). As I have said, winning a free online contest is a bit of a lottery-ticket proposition given the huge number of competitors, so you have to have an insane day to finish in the top 3. Respectable just don't cut it.