Mailman Delivers $20,000 DerbyWars Win
Mike Lazarus (MikeLaz) delivers mail for the U.S. Postal Service for a living.
He knows his way around his New Jersey routes like the back of his hand.
Saturday, Lazarus found himself in some unfamiliar territory for a change and it had absolutely nothing to do with street addresses.
For once, he didn't have to worry about blocking his competitors and it really didn't matter if he even picked a winner going into the last race of the DerbyWars $20,000 Saturday game.
Instead, he was atop the standings in the featured cash game by more than $54 heading into the last race at Santa Anita Park.
The New Jersey native was a virtual clinch for the the first-place prize of $8,000, delivering a dominating effort over 95 opponents.
"I’ve had a lot of bad beats for a lot of money recently with darts (longshot winners) being thrown late in contests. It was nice for a change to know that if the bomb comes in, it couldn’t hurt me," said Lazarus as the $50 win-place cap put the game out of reach.
Despite landing his second victory in the 20K game, and owning a second-place finish in the 100K and Sunday High Stakes win, Lazarus admits that he's suffered some brutal defeats that have knocked him out of cash spots in big games.
"It was just really nice," he said two days removed from Saturday's 8K score.
Lazarus' big day was keyed around One Lucky Step, who returned $43.60 to win-place after taking a turf sprint in Gulfstream Park's 11th race.
"He was the play for me heading into the day," Lazarus said. "Taking the blinkers off...switching to Paco (Lopez)."
It was the second winner of the day for Lazarus that returned a total of at least $42.40 on the day as Weep No More lit up the toteboard at Tampa Bay in the Suncoast Stakes.
Lazarus revealed that it has been advantageous for him to break down the games into thirds.
"I can't ever really bring myself to play chalk. Those horses can't hurt me so I'm always looking for a price," Lazarus explained.
Lazarus attributes most of his handicapping success to identifying horse pedigree and feels that his approach is bizarre compared to most horse players.
"Everything I do starts with pedigree and I kind of work backwards from there if I need to," said Lazarus, who believes that basing his decisions mostly on pedigree allows him to handicap quicker and more efficiently.
Another thing that is important to Lazarus is diversifying the levels of games he plays on DerbyWars.
He puts as much stock and time into playing a $175 winner take all, as he does in playing a $100K game.
"Winning smaller games allows me to build my bankroll and attack bigger games," Lazarus said.
Adding another big score to his DerbyWars resume is further proof that both Mike Lazarus and MikeLaz know how to deliver.
--- By Dustin Haluska
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