ITM Telegraph — Bingo and Track Bias, Plus a Solid Start to the NYB Sale | Monday, August 17, 2026

In The Money Telegraph

Monday, August 17, 2026 · By ITM Staff

What His Daughter’s Bingo Streak Taught PTF About Track Bias

For a New York horseplayer, the second week of August means one thing: Saratoga. But in a new personal essay, PTF writes about the years his wife’s family tradition pulls him in another direction entirely — to Capon Springs, a tucked-away Appalachian resort in West Virginia that’s been run by the same family since 1932, with no cell service, an honor system, and a menu that hasn’t changed in decades. And it’s there, of all places, that he found one of the sharpest lessons in handicapping he’s ever seen — delivered by his 13-year-old daughter, Perrin, at the resort’s weekly bingo night.

Perrin, it turned out, had won bingo five times in ten summers — a rate that dwarfed her parents’ combined total. PTF assumed luck, until he watched her work: she wasn’t picking cards at random, she was studying the backs of them, where past players had scrawled notes about which ones ran hot and cold. The real edge, he realized, was track bias. Over the years the resort had lost a few bingo balls, so certain numbers simply never came up — and the winning cards were the ones built from the survivors. His daughter had, in effect, been counting cards. “I’ve scarcely been prouder,” he writes.

It’s a warm, funny piece about family, probability, and the way a handicapper’s brain never really clocks out. Read the full essay →

A Solid Start for the New York-Breds

Sales season rolls on in Saratoga. The Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale opened Sunday night with a solid session — 63 head sold for a gross of $7.62 million, a session average of $120,984 and a median of $100,000, with ten yearlings bringing $200,000 or more. Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. called it an excellent opening, right on par with last year’s record renewal. A colt by Cody’s Wish topped the night at $360,000, more evidence of the buzz around the first-crop sire.

Ahead of the sale, JK sat down with Lane’s End Sales Director Allaire Ryan to walk through all seven of the farm’s New York-bred consignments — a group topped by an eye-catching Flightline colt and, fittingly, a colt by the very same Cody’s Wish. Watch the Lane’s End preview →

Walk the Shed: Pletcher on Renegade and the Repole Question

JK is back with Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher for another trip through the shedrow. They talk Keeneland September — the sale Pletcher calls the lifeblood of the industry, and the source of stars like Renegade, whose deep-closing win in the Jim Dandy capped a five-win Saturday for the barn. Four of those came for Mike Repole, which sets up the essential question after a day like that: is Repole actually happy yet? Pletcher’s answer is worth the price of admission. Watch below.

And the Tournament Winner Was… Tory Cameron

John Gaspar welcomes Saratoga-based contest player Tory Cameron, who followed up a six-figure FLOCAL Challenge title earlier this year by taking down a NYRA Bets Saturday Challenge on Whitney Day. It’s a terrific, candid look at how a serious tournament player thinks — bankroll management, when to press, the discipline to skip the two-year-old maiden races, and the hard-won lessons of live-money contest play. Watch below.

Monday’s Card

It’s stakes Monday at Presque Isle Downs, where the $75,000 Princess of Sylmar — a synthetic route for state-bred fillies and mares — headlines Race 7 at 6:12 p.m. ET. Chance Rains has the full card, and likes Justifiable Steel at a price in the feature. Read Rains’ card →

More all week at inthemoneypodcast.com and on the ITM YouTube channel, with premium coverage on ITM Plus.