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YOUR SATURDAY XMAS DINNER PERK

Compete. Eat. Beat. (Sweet!)

Delicious Xmas dinner served at final horseplayer tourney of the year

What a great way to wind up your year as a tournament player: with a roast turkey and Swedish meatballs Christmas buffet as pictured above!

Just by entering the Saturday afternoon Player's Choice tournament for $25, you can fill your plate to your heart's (and stomach's) delight! That's in addition to getting 5,000 Player Rewards points (worth $25) and having a chance of sharing in $850 in prize money and trophies.

Sign up now with a credit card by phoning the mutuel desk at 204-885-3330 ext. 225 . Or sign up at the track. Deadline is 9 p.m. tomorrow.

Never entered a tournament before? Challenge yourself; enjoy the exhilaration of competition! Just bet $2 to win and place on 10 horses Saturday afternoon at track(s) of your choice.

Adding to the drama will be the emergence of the 2016 Horseplayer of the Year! See leader board here .

WILL MERE $20 SHOW PARLAY CAPTURE BUFFET FOR TWO? With just five days of the $6 5-Alive show parlay contest remaining in December, $20 is the highest amount. Can you beat that (playing on Fridays and Saturdays except Dec. 24) to double your money and capture the prime rib buffet for two in January?

Click to expand

DO THE DOWNS

Want highlights for the next 10 days? Click calendar.
What tracks are running in December? Find out here.
What are today’s $$$ carryovers? See them here.
Want to follow sports in the Race Book? NFL-Jets

EVERY FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Free VLT tournaments starting at 8 p.m. Get into the draw for 10 chances to win $20 in free VLT spins. Top winner from each night participates in a month-end finale for more spins and $250 in prize money.

EVERY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT: 5-Alive "Double Your Winnings" contest from 7 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. and $10 buy-in poker. Registration 8 p.m. Game starts at 8:30 p.m.

FESTIVE SEASON REMINDERS:

• Give the gift of great dining

  Thursday prime rib buffet: Tonight Xmas-enhanced; next Thursday, Hanukkah-enhanced. Reserve at 204-885-3330 ext. 0.
• ASD is open Xmas Eve & Xmas Day: 140 VLTs 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. featuring Spin to Win for Xmas cash and $12.95 turkey dinner. Plus complementary snacks, hot apple cider and more.
• New Year's Eve Gala: Hosted by 94.3 The Drive's Alix Michaels . $49.95. For tickets, call Samantha at 204-885-3330 ext. 0.
• Gift card available: Give the gift of great prime rib buffets and other dining pleasures with an ASD gift card available at the VLT cage and from the general office at 204-885-3330.
• Give a $500 share in a race horse! As part of the Assiniboia Racing Club, your gift recipient will experience the thrills of horse ownership. Contact Joanie Hamilton-Johnson at hbpamanitoba@mymts.net.

BETTING

$71,000 Rainbow pick-6 is won for $2.40

A mere $2.40 ticket—with key horses in the first five legs--captured last Thursday's $71,145 (U.S.) Rainbow pick-6 at Gulfstream. The U.S. bettor bought a 20-cent wheel ticket that looked like this: 8-1-8-1-1-ALL. These were the race winners:

• Race 5 (maiden claimer for 2-year-old fillies): Bionsway (11/1)
• Race 6 (maiden claimer): Policy Portfolio (even money)
• Race 7 (non-winners 3L): Not Today (5/1)
• Race 8 (f & m non-winners 2L): Latent Princess (9/1)
• Race 9 (alw optional claimer): Bull Dozer (3/1)
• Race 10 (maiden claimer for 2-year-old fillies): Maria and Beto (42/1)

What a dream ticket heading into the last leg, eh? The ticket-holder had ALL which meant hoping and praying he hit a horse that gave him the entire pool – which is what happened.

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50-cent pick-5 ticket on Los Al thoroughbreds pays a record $265,000

Three records were set at Los Alamitos Race Course Sunday since thoroughbreds returned there in July, 2014.

• 50-cent pick-5 (started race 1: 2-4-5-8-3): $265,800 (U.S.)
• 50-cent pick-4 (started race 2: 4-5-8-3): $74,000
• Highest win price (race 3): Devils Triangle $185.80 (maiden claimer)

Did you play it? Would you have had it? See program pages here . The Los Al thoroughbred meet ends Sunday. Racing in Southern California resumes with Santa Anita on Dec. 26.

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Mandatory payout of Woodbine harness jackpot set for Dec. 23

“T'will be the night before Christmas Eve and all through ASD,
everyone will be playing Woodbine's mandatory Jackpot with
the hopes of going on a buying spree . . ."

Or something. Yup, Woodbine is freezing its harness pool after this Saturday's Jackpot race and making it a mandatory payoff on Friday, Dec. 23, the night before racing takes a break for two days (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day).

POOL IS NOW OVER $400,000 AND IS LIKELY TO REACH $1.2 MILLION

YOU NAMED ME WHAT? Tail R Swift. Barred from naming horses after live persons without their permission, the person(s) who named harness horse Tail R Swift who is racing at Pompano Park skirted the requirement with a bit of creative ingenuity. But the race call leaves no doubt: It sounds like Taylor Swift, plain and simple, the renowned songstress. Gotta love the name play!

ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY

Baby master Baffert wins sixth CashCall Futurity

Mastery loafs to a 7-length victory at Los Alamitos

Mastery wins by 7 lengths

The baby master of California, trainer Bob Baffert, won his sixth CashCall Futurity Saturday as his Mastery easily dominated a five-horse field in the $300,000 race. With Mike Smith in the saddle for the colt's first race around two turns, the 2-year-old remained unbeaten in three lifetime starts.

Mastery earned a 109 Equibase speed figure. The highest of any 2-year-old so far is Classic Empire in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile with 117.

That was Baffert's sixth CashCall in nine years:
• 2016: Mastery
• 2015: Mor Spirit
• 2014: Dortmund
• 2011: Liaison
• 2009: Lookin at Lucky
• 2008: Pioneerof the Nile

NEXT PREPS ON THE ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Saturday, Jan. 7 – the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct and the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

WOODBINE BETTING INCREASES BY 7 PER CENT: Betting on Woodbine's 133-day meet shot up by 7.1 per cent, reports Woodbine Entertainment, with record wagering on the track's three big days: The 157th Queen's Plate saw $11.8 million in wagers, Ricoh Mile Day, $9.6 million, and Canadian International Day, $9.2 million. Lorne Spearman, a one-time ASD jockey agent who now works at Woodbine, said bettors found the new Tapeta track “formful,” which was a decided improvement over the days of Polytrack.

Worth Doing (#2) beats favoured Lotta Blues Man (#3)

FASTEST BABY IN CALIFORNIA WINS $2,000 A YARD FOR 400 YARDS: The richest dash for babies in California, the 400-yard $2 Million Futurity at Los Alamitos quarter horses Sunday, saw a $50,000 purchase, Worth Doing, beat a nine-horse field to win $801,381 or $2,000 per yard. Worth Doing paid $17.40, beating even-money favourite Lotta Blues Man by a neck. Lotta Blues had been the fastest horse in qualifiers for this finale. There's nothing like quarter horses for heart-stopping excitement and they're also the speciality of ASD horseplayer/bus driver Roger Jones who has won a tournament on the strength of quarter horse play and will be looking to do so again this Saturday.

"I WON BIG" HITS LONGSHOTS BUT MISSES OTHER LEG: Last Saturday's “I won big” group had the right idea at Tampa Bay: it wheeled “all” horses in two tricky legs of the pick-4—getting an 11/1 and 7/1 horse--but unfortunately missed the 4/1 horse in the first leg. The $1 pick-4 paid $2,145 ( U.S. ) for $1 and the 50-cent pick-5 paid $4,628 ( U.S. ). It was close! We're back to make amends this Saturday as usual at 10:30 a.m. on the Clubhouse plaza.

WINS COME TOUGH FOR ASD TRAINERS ON THE ROAD: ASD trainers are encountering very competitive fields on the road. At Turf Paradise, Jared Brown is 13-1-2-2 and Don Schnell is 19-1-6-3 while Jerry Gourneau's record at Delta is 28-1-2-0.

HORSEPLAYERS MOST READY TO FORGIVE LAINE GOAL? When Patrik Laine scored on his own net to give the Edmonton Oilers a win over the Winnipeg Jets last Sunday, horseplayers were among the best-suited to feel his pain and most likely to forgive his error. It reminded me of the time a player bought a group ticket on a Woodbine pick-4 only to discover he had accidentally bet the early pick-4 instead of the late pick-4, costing “the team” almost $4,000. He was devastated. I was similarly hit—although for a much smaller amount of $300—when I bet the wrong race number in a group superfecta in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Whether on the ice or at the windows, human error is always lurking to bite us.

Tips ’n’ Tricks

with Marshall Posner

Q. I've been having trouble signing into HPIbet using my iPhone. When I click the login button, it doesn't go anywhere. What should I do?

A. This has been a common problem for many iPhone users over the past 6 months or so. It's unclear what causes the problem but it's likely due to a bug in your web browser application (Safari) with processing usernames and passwords. It could also be due to a recent software upgrade that is slightly incompatible with your smartphone, especially if it's an older model of the iPhone. Here are 3 suggestions to try and fix the problem:

1. Close the application completely and simply re-start your iPhone by turning it off and then re-booting it. Believe it or not, this often fixes the problem.
2. If that doesn't work, download another browser application from the App Store such as Google Chrome and try logging in using that application instead. This has also worked in the past.
3. See if there is a recent software update that is required for your phone. It's possible that you're using an older version of the software that is now causing the problem and/or there is a bug fix that a software patch will correct.

Got a question for Marshall? Email theinsider@ASDowns.com

HISTORY ON THE HOOF: The best of Bob

The late, great trainer Don Gray described this K5 beauty as the best filly he ever trained. This week Bob remembers the Manitoba-bred grandam of multiple graded stakes winner Goldencents . And the answer as Alex Trebek would have it: “Who is ……. ?" See it here.