Sands Lands DerbyWars $10K High Stakes Win
Michael Sands (uksands) defines himself as an “action guy.”
He likes to play the races all the time.
Over the past year, Sands added online tournaments into his horse playing, and Sunday it paid off. Sands, who currently makes a living as an air traffic controller, landed the biggest win of his tournament career in the February 28th $10K High Stakes game on DerbyWars. Downing 29 other opponents, Sands earned $5,000 for the victory and also picked up a lot of confidence.
“There are a lot of really good handicappers in these tournaments and I can’t help but think maybe if I can continue to be successful, it’s possible that I can be one of the monthly leaders one day,” Sands said. “I was never a big tournament guy. My friends have been telling me about tournaments for years and I wasn’t really interested. I would always play horses five days a week and that was enough for me.”
“That (Mo’ Green) was the critical horse for me. After that I felt like I got in a groove,” Sands explained.
However, some of that momentum did turn to indecision late in the game for Sands. He admits that during the last race at Santa Anita he was more inclined to let the standings dictate his decision.
Holding a slight lead over a trio of competitors, Sands turned to All Star Parade instead of his top pick, Iancol. Iancol won the race, while All Star Parade finished second, but it was a foregone conclusion as the others in close contention didn’t select Iancol.
“My friends were texting me before the last race. They were sick for me, but I figured those that were in third and fourth would play the (2 All Star Parade) to catch me so I went for the block,” Sands said. “My wife has been busting my chops about playing horses all of my life, but she’s been proudly wearing my DerbyWars fleece the last couple of days so that’s a good thing as well,” he added jokingly.
— By Dustin Haluska
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