Quote
Originally posted by: snidely333
Wasn't so easy. 7262 entries and first place was 5 out of 10 correct. My wife had 3 out of 10 correct, good enough for 112th place.
Were there any prizes other than the $1,000,000 for getting them all?
Many years ago DonDiego participated in a similar contest on Kentucky Derby Weekend at the Lady Luck Hotel and Casino.
The Lady Luck was DonDiego's downtown headquarters. They treated low-rollers like high-rollers. Rooms were like $39.95 - or free if one was participating in some sort of event. They provided a small bus for free transportation to/from the airport. They had pretty good blackjack rules and fair slot pay-tables.
DonDiego's headquarters on-the-Strip were usually determined by whoever would offer him a cheap/free room or, more likely, whoever was hosting a blackjack tournament which included accommodations. This usually restricted him to the northern end of the Strip - the Stardust, the Riviera, the New Frontier. . . and sometimes the Sands.
Life was good.
But DonDiego digresses . . .
Anyway High-Roller-DonDiego was invited for Kentucky Derby Weekend at the Lady Luck Hotel and Casino. And the highlight was entry into the horse picking contest, . . . just like the "Million Dollar Challenge" except for far-less money. There were 15 horses racing that year. One had to pick the finishing order of each horse; one got 15 points for picking the winner, and 14 points for picking second-place, etc., etc.
DonDiego did something he almost never does in preparation for this event. He spent something like $20 to get handicapper Wayne Allyn Root's winning selection. [DonDiego just Googled a bit to find out what year this was.] It was 1989 and Mr. Root's selection was Northern Wolf to win. It so happened that DonDiego's handicapping before receiving Mr. Roots selection had Northern Wolf finishing last.
What to do? What to do?
DonDiego moved Northern Wolf up to something between 6th and 10th.
Anyway, . . . DonDiego correctly picked three of the horse-placings correctly, . . . 1st, 2nd [Sunday Silence and Easy Goer] and 7th if he remembers correctly. And DonDiego won 2nd place, . . . $300, or maybe it was $200. The winner got $500.
The strangest bit of the story was yet to come. After arriving back home DonDiego received a letter from Wayne Allyn Root explaining that, in fact, he had handicapped the race correctly and Northern Wolf should've won, as he was moving up rapidly when he finished in 6th place. Say what! [In 1990 Northern Wolf did go on to set new track-records for 6 furlongs at both Laurel Park and Pimlico.]
"In 2012, Root predicted Mitt Romney would win the United States presidential election, 2012 against incumbent President Barack Obama, citing, among other factors, that the 'Enthusiasm Factor' for Romney was 'huge'.
When Mitt Romney lost the election, however, getting only 47% percent of the popular vote, Root admitted in a Fox News editorial: "Well, I was wrong. The 2012 electorate looked almost identical to 2008. Obama's supporters didn’t just come for a second helping of misery -- they came out enthusiastically and even appeared to cheer for more." Ref: wikipedia
