They call him Kentucky Tom because he always roots for the Wildcats.
Once basketball season’s over, though, the Bluegrass State turns its attention to horse racing, the Sport of Kings.
Kentucky Tom’s real name is Tom Peat. He lives in Liverpool at the Liverpool Mall apartments right in the center of the village business district.
On May 5 he traveled outside Onondaga County to visit an Off-Track Betting Parlor to place a small wager on the 138th annual Kentucky Derby.
“I don’t know anything about horse racing,” Tom admitted to me later. “But I saw there was a horse running named I’ll Have Another. I liked that name so I played him across the board.”
Across the board
Across the board means Tom played the chestnut colt to win, place and show.
He was betting on I’ll Have Another – a 15-to-1 longshot – to finish either first, second or third. If his horse finished third, he’d have collected only on the show bet. If his horse finished second, he’d have collected on two bets; place and show. But when Tom’s horse finished first, he collected on all three.
He won $130.
Rookie jockey Mario Gutierrez rode a masterful race, moving I’ll Have Another way in from its starting position at post 19 and into perfect stalking position behind early leader and betting favorite Bodemeister. That favorite placed second and Dullahan came in third.
I’ll Have Another
Does Derby-winner I’ll Have Another have what it takes to win another?
Kentucky Tom is thinking it over as he anticipates the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, the Preakness Stakes, being run at 6:24 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.
The final leg of the Triple Crown is the Belmont Stakes on June 9, at Long Island’s Belmont Park.
The last horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown was Affirmed way back in 1978.
In any case, here’ wishing you good luck, Tom, good luck to you and I’ll Have Another.
Jim jumps to TV
Central New York’s voice of reason now has a face.
Long the host of WSYR-AM 570’s afternoon talk show, Jim Reith was unceremoniously fired last Oct. 26 before being replaced by controversial loudmouth Bob Lonsberry. That Rochester renegade is so unceasingly offensive it’s as though the inmates have taken over the asylum over at the Plum Street radio station.
Anyhow, Reith, who grew up in Baldwinsville, is now hosting a new television program aptly titled “The Jim Reith Show,” airing at 6:30 p.m. weekdays on WCNY-TV Channel 24, with studios at 506 Old Liverpool Road.
Jim and his guests will take phone calls from viewers. Yahoos dial at your own risk.
Welcome back to the airwaves, Jim!
Cross-cultural saga
In the mid-1650s when the French ventured to the land of the Haudenosaunee (a.k.a. the Iroquois) to build a mission, they chose a site on the southeastern shore of a little lake called Gannentaha. Today we know it as Onondaga Lake.
Local historian Jon Anderson will play the part of a 17th-century Jesuit missionary to shed light on those long-ago events at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 17, at the Liverpool Public Library, 310 Tulip St. The presentation is free; 457-0310, lpl.org.
Live music at 407
Live music continues Thursday and Friday evenings at Café at 407 at Ophelia’s Place, 407 Tulip St., smack dab in the center of the village.
Percussionist Karl Sperber performs a set of acoustic jazz and new age music at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 17. Sperber is a member of the eclectic combo called Kanjira.
The Christopher Ames Trio will plug in at Café at 407 at 7 p.m. Friday, May, 18, to perform original tunes from the 2011 disc, “Journeyman.” The last time I caught Chris and his combo at Ophelia’s Place, they started off the night with a sparkling set of Beatles songs.
Syracuse Area Music Award-winner Isreal Hagan returns to the café at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday, May 24, for a soulful set of acoustic rhythm & blues; 451-5544.
Admission is always free at the café, but don’t forget to drop a couple bills in the tip jar!
