Kentucky Derby 2016: Latest Purse Payout, Vegas Betting ...

Look first of all I'd like to be honest with you, I'm not going to claim I "stumbled" upon some "crazy secret system" that nobody knows. In fact, probably more than a few people know what I'm talking about in this article. The truth is that I've been playing the Preakness among many other horse races, for at least 15 years.
The Preakness is the first throroughbred race I ever attended, back in the 1990's. I had played at harness tracks, having been introduced to that at a young age, but had never been to a throroughbred track until 1996.
That year, my good friend and fellow horseplayer convinced me we should go to Pimlico for a big infield party and some big horse races would break out at some point. I didn't know or care much about anything except the infield party and thought it would be fun. We brought a 12 pack and settled in.
Early in the afternoon on the way up, we tuned in to the Baltimore rock station and were hearing all kinds of live music from some of our favorite bands such as Pearl Jam. We were just about pissed off at the fact that we missed some of these bands live, only to show up and find it was just a DJ playing live cuts, and the few local bands on deck hadn't even started playing yet.
I was young and after the party was over and horse races had broke out, I was wondering why Louis Quatorze had won the Preakness and we hadn't bet on him. After that I began some more analysis and started using some figures from Brisnet to help me analyze the races.
A couple years later I liked Charismatic in the Kentucky Derby, among like 10 other horses, but failed to have the right trifecta boxes since I had little clue what I was doing. I liked him in the Preakness as well, still at good odds since people thought his Derby victory was a fluke, but again failed to have the right trifecta when Badge showed up. But at that point I realized that a pattern was emerging.
Eventually I figured this stuff out, although hard-headed about it and unwilling to part from numerical analysis from numbers that I didn't even know how were calculated. I found out it didn't really take a any magic numbers or even much analysis for a basic wagering strategy.
With few exceptions, the Preakness is one of the easiest races to bet. Take the top (4-5) horses from the Kentucky Derby that run at Pimlico two weeks later, and undoubtedly 2 of them will finish in the top 4, in fact, usually the top two horses from the Derby will finish 1-2 in the Preakness. It's really that simple.
After that you do have to put in some analysis to figure out which "outsiders" will infiltrate the trifecta, or possibly even win the Preakness, along with the Kentucky Derby contingent. There are various tools to use to accomplish this but I normally use one I invented.
Unsatisfied with numbers from various other people and organizations with their secret calculations that I did not understand, I decided to make algorithms to create my own numbers and put them into what I call the Grid.
Last year, the Grid gave me Preakness winner Shackleford at 13-1 as the top Speed and Power horse. It was an obvious key horse for me and automatic win bet at those kind of odds. Plus, he was a top four Derby finisher. Apparently people forgot he finished 4th not 14th in the Derby, which was very respectable for a frontrunner.
Combine him with Derby winner and obvious favorite Animal Kingdom at 2nd, and take Astrology as an improving horse with 4th best Early Pace according to the Grid in 3rd place, and you have a very easy trifecta payout. Add Dialed In, the best Late Pace horse coming off a disappointing but respectable 8th place Derby finish, and you have a very easy superfecta.
This is what I call the anatomy of a perfect Preakness exotic bet. You take any of the top 4 Derby finishers that are running at Pimlico, and key them and 1 and 2, get the "outsider" that didn't run in the Derby at good odds, and add another strong contender, usually from the Derby, such as a good late runner for 4th.
You would be surprised how many times the Preakness plays out this way. Often the same horse will win the Preakness that won the Derby, which has happened less in the last few years but they still often finish in the money. And in fact the top two in the Derby often run 1-2 at the Preakness.
So using the top Derby horses is obvious but where will you find the "outsiders" that will undoubtedly take up a spot or two in the superfecta? Well that is tough to come up with by yourself. Normally you will need more of an advanced handicapping tool for that, which is why I use the Grid. I can tell you that the outsider is almost always at odds from 12-1 to 15-1 so that narrows it down.
The year before last the Grid of course gave me the Preakness winner, but only at 2-1 and not much value there, obviously. But also it gave me 11 of 13 winners that day including some nice long shots that provided good exotic payouts.
Of course, since I wrote this, it could just happen that the top Derby horses will finish 1-4 in the Preakness, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that happens. Especially since of my top 6 Derby winning contenders, out of 20, 4 of them finished 1-4 in the Derby.
So now you know the basic strategy now for betting the Preakness. You just need to find the right long shot or two to add to your obvious Derby contenders for some nice exotic payouts. If I were you, I'd use the Grid to get them, but that's just because it always comes through for me in these situations.

Alright, here it goes, sorry for the long delay from my initial posting. Hope no one got too hyped up.
I have always known that one of my Great Grandfathers was involved in Horseracing and Calumet Farms, but this last Thanksgiving week I got some stories that I'm hoping to either verify (or at least verify the POTENTIAL they could be true) or learn more about the circumstances around and where I could learn more.
My great grandfather was the personal secretary/assistant (I get the impression of a Whalan Smithers type) to William Wright (not sure Jr or Sr, I think Jr), the owner of the Calumet Baking Company and Calumet Farms, for sure at the time that Whirlaway won the Triple Crown. That much isn't really in dispute as we have a picture of him handling the purse at the Kentucky Derby wreath ceremony. So the first question is where could I learn more about the company/farm at that time? Any primary resources anywhere?
The "big" story we've always been told is that GGrandpa was given one of the shoes Whirlaway had on either during the Derby or the Belmont Stakes (depending on which Aunt or Uncle is telling the story). Is there any way to prove that shoe belonged to Whirlaway? Was giving people used shoes a common thing to do? How long would horses have used the same shoes at that time? Was getting shoes a pretty common thing for people in that world? Or did they give them out only to pretty special people?
The big story I heard for the first time this trip was that my GGrandpa placed a bet in the "Winter Books" on Whirlaway and won a sizeable sum of money, enough that it was functionally what my GGrandma lived off of after he died in the late 40's. I'm guessing there's no way to see who actually made bets back then, but is there a way to see what the odds were at various times? Maybe there are records of payouts somewhere? Would it have been a bet at the beginning of the season? Or is it possible it was even when Whirlaway was a foal (as my aunt claims).
Another fun story and just indicative of the times, was that taxes on stock holdings and things varied more state by state at the time, and one of my GGrandpa's jobs was to physically take the stock certificates to another state at the time taxes were calculated (or something to that effect) so they were calculated at a better rate. I might not have the specifics there correct, but that he would take the certificates to another state for 24 hours with a handcuffed briefcase is another not questioned item either as my Grandma remembered that personally.
And finally, we have a picture that is supposedly my Grandma and Great Aunts sitting on Whirlaway when they were pretty young, though now looking at the years Whirlaway won, I don't think that can be right, or I'm very bad at identifying people's ages. But is there any way to identify that horse? Would it be that unusual for a personal friend of the owner to take pictures like that?
I hope this is interesting to some people, and that you can shed some light on anything.
Thanks for reading.