For over 30 years, Jack's Blue Card has been providing picks at Golden Gate Fields. Now that this venerable selection service is available through Case the Race, we contacted the Golden Gate Fields handicapper, Monty, to get more details about his background and approach to handicapping. In the 7 years he has been handicapping for Jack’s Blue Card, Monty has always managed to name at least one winner on the card. Along the way he has also picked some high paying winners. With diverse horse racing background and countless hours working around horses and at the track, Monty has developed a keen ability to read horses. This ability, combined with a lot of track-specific knowledge about Golden Gate Fields, gives him an upper hand.

Here are more details about Monty, of Jack's Blue Card:

Case: Tell us about your introduction to horse racing.

 

Monty:  I was basically born into it. My father rode when I was young. My grandparents had horses. I worked as a groom. I had my own horses. I worked the starting gate. I was a chart caller for Equibase. I was a morning line-maker for Vallejo Fair, Sacramento and Fresno. I was a jocks agent. I was a racing form program distributor for Golden Gate for the Daily Racing Form.
Case:  It sounds like you’ve had just about every job in this industry.

Monty: Just about – except for riding I've been doing Jack’s Blue Card for about 7 years, for Northern California only.

I don’t keep the dates and such, but on our sheet we have first and second picks and longshots… I think it's been four times, maybe five when every race had a winner on the card. I had a second pick one time that paid $110…. AND it’s never been blanked. There’s never been a day when there wasn’t a winner on the card. That's never happened to me.

…In my handicapping, I have a good memory. I like to look at the horses physically and can generally remember how a horse looked in the previous race. Some horses are habitually nervous and sweaty and skinny and bandaged up and ratty looking. Those are the type I don't care for. I like to stick with certain trainers and certain riders. Obviously, I'd rather be picking high percentage connections than low.

Case: Is there anything about your handicapping style or method that sets you apart from other handicappers?

Monty: Definitely [a preference for] horses for courses. You remember which horses like certain tracks…. If I'm between two horses and one is 4 wins out of 10 races on the Golden Gate synthetic tra ck and the other is 0 out of 10 I'm going to lean toward the horses that show a liking for the track. I prefer to see horses that are working regularly. I don't like missed works.

Case:  What kind of preferences do you have when you handicap?

Monty: I definitely prefer to pick second time starters in a maiden race. In my opinion they learn from the first race and either improve leaps and bounds from one race to the second, or there really isn’t much horse there. Or horses that are stepping up in class. And I like blinkers off – not in every race, not in every barn, but a lot of times I like it. I don’t care for blinkers. I think they make horses focus too much on going quickly. I’d rather see them relax… On the synthetic track at Golden Gate I prefer a horse that can finish, finish from a little off the pace, or be on the pace going relatively slowly.

Case:  Do you have a favorite kind of bet? 

Monty:  I mainly play to win, but I don't mind having an exacta with one horse on top or maybe two… the occasional trifecta. Pick 3s come in handy… You've got a couple selections in each race on the tip sheet. Maybe you can roll them into triples.

Case:  Are there one or two high points in your handicapping history that really stand out? 

Monty:  I had a $200 to win on a $77 horse one time. That was fun, especially after risking such a small amount. My own horse that I trained, he won his first race and I made a pretty big score on that. Another one of the horses that I claimed… I collected something like $25,000 when it was done.

Case:  Anything else our readers should know about you?

Monty:  Myself, when it comes to the betting aspect, I take the wins and losses in stride. I learned a long time ago to do that -- not to get too high, not to get too low.