Bourke wins trip in and of his dreams

Michael Bourke is going to Australia courtesy of Sky Racing World and DRF Tournaments.

Bourke, a retired attorney, doesn’t play in a lot of handicapping contests, but he is on the DRF Tournaments email list, and a few weeks ago he saw a note about a game that interested him: the Everest Tournament.

“I deduced that because of the Australia part that the contest wasn’t going to be an inundated with entries as some of the other free events [DRFT] feature,” said the 62-year-old from Prescott, Ariz. “I correctly diagnosed that I had a better chance on a parimutuel basis relative to the size of the prize.”

And what a prize it is: a trip to Randwick next April for Bourke and his wife. The trip is made all the sweeter because just four years ago, Bourke’s wife found a long-lost Australian uncle through an ancestry site, so now they have family to visit in Sydney as well.

“We’re very excited,” said Bourke. “I’m hoping I can extend the trip at least a few days.”

Bourke grew up in Orange County, going to races with his family. “We used to hang out in the Santa Anita infield,” he said.

When he was at college at UCLA, he continued with occasional visits to the track, though he never got too serious about the gambling side of things. “I enjoyed the pageantry of it,” he said, and it was a good excuse to go out on a Thursday or Friday afternoon and be frivolous. Hollywood Park was closer to us but Santa Anita was worth the drive.”

These days he mostly plays on racing’s biggest days – he cited the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup days as the ones he follows. He’s played in a few small money contests but doesn’t spend a lot on contests. As for the Everest Tournament, “I figured it was free so what the heck?” he asked rhetorically.

Bourke was a little sheepish when asked about his plays in the tournament. “I didn’t play my phone number but it was close,” he admitted. “I did not know trainers or jockeys or horses. I looked for middling odds figuring I couldn’t pick all favorites or all 30-1 ones.”

After he made out in his picks, he went to bed. “I didn’t watch at all,” he said. “Having spent zero time handicapping I didn’t think the additional investment of three or four hours was worth it.”

While Bourke dreamed, he cashed in six of eight races, including the Everest itself, where Redzel returned him $24.60 win-place combined. But when he woke up the next morning, he thought he’d suffered a tough beat. He was second on the leaderboard, $5 behind Al Isola Jr.

As it turned out, Isola could not make the trip. “A few weeks ago I got an email from DRF Tournaments saying, ‘Congratulations, you won the trip.’ We were very excited.”

Bourke doesn’t know much about Australian racing, but he’s looking forward to learning. “I’ll have to buy their equivalent of the Racing Form and I’ll have 18 hours on a plane to study,” he quipped. “I’m truly embarrassed to have picked on odds alone and have more success than any real handicapping I’ve ever done, but I can live with that.”