"You Can Bet On It" April 14, 2023

[rjy]

I must have raised her wrong.

It was The Smarter Half of Team Canuck that called my attention to the Win, Place, and Show clues, and a few minutes later I had the solution. But she did not, for she did not know what those terms meant. In the end, then, it took both of us and was a true team win.

exZACTly how this played out in our house, and it’s funny how the AHA is still every bit as satisfying when solving with your meta-compadre, even when the metanism gets inadvertently blurted out by one or the other. Still feels like a joint brain cracked the nut.

[BarbaraK]

Did you all know that there was a race horse named Broadway Musical?! Ran a handful of races in 2013-15 without any notable success.

True also of many Broadway musicals, and their backers lose a lot more money than do those who were betting on the horse.

But, according to The Producers, "You can make more money with a flop than with a hit!" (As long as you're not hampered by honest accounting.)

[Henry Paul]

Aside from the extremely clever win (1), place (2), show (3) letter clues, I was amazed that they were in four groups: WPS, WPS, WPS, WPS.

I'm stunned at how Mike creates these things.

Happy Patriots Day!

[LizD]

Was out of town and missed the deadline, but I never would've gotten this one anyway! Very cool metanism; props to Mike for the amazing construction!

[Barney]

My distant solving partner got this almost instantly and told me it was simple and a snap. This was not my experience when I tried wading through it.

Brilliant puzzle, deserves a unanimous 5.0 rating, whether solved or (like me) not.

As far as “trifecta” and “across the board,” though, are answers ever guessed, or must they ~~ almost or always ~~ be found‽

[Joe Ross]

Isaac is but a state of mind. We may revel on the shore but we know we will always keep company with Isaac in our future.

[Barney]

Never get tired of the Best Gift to this blog ever

[JetStream]

What a clever puzzle! I saw the win/place/show but never got past looking at the first letters. I guess I'll have to learn to not give up so easily.

Congrats to the solvers.

[iggystan]

Doh! This is why I feel so dense at times. I looked at the clues but didn't see the forest for the trees.

[LadyBird]

I didn't initially notice the "win--place--show" clues, but was getting ready to get caught up in the two Derby clues (34A: FOALS and 45D: RACE). Then 14D: FIRST caught my eye and made me think of a horse coming in first. THEN I noticed all the W-P-S clues and I was off to the races.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is THOROUGHBRED. Twelve Across clues end with “win,” “place” or “show.” Taking first-place letters in the “win” answers, second-place letters in the “place” answers and third-place letters in the “show” answers (TAC, SHORE, BROADWAY MUSICAL, ROMP, ROOFTOP, HOUSE, GLOAT, THEREAT, RIB, RAISE THE STAKES, NEAT, TED) spells the contest answer.

An absolutely ingenious one from Mike! It seemed to be a bit harder than some recent contests--we had 1,362 entries with about 79% correct, in line with our usual percentage. An unusually big turnout for TRIFECTA, with 109 responses (presumably they saw the Win-Place-Show but didn't go the extra lap). Plus STAKES (19), BELMONT (11), DERBY (10), FOALS (6), ODDS (6), LONG SHOT (5), and several others.

Congratulations to this week's winner, Jeff Ammann of San Francisco!

[CromsFury]

The contest answer is THOROUGHBRED. Twelve Across clues end with “win,” “place” or “show.” Taking first-place letters in the “win” answers, second-place letters in the “place” answers and third-place letters in the “show” answers (TAC, SHORE, BROADWAY MUSICAL, ROMP, ROOFTOP, HOUSE, GLOAT, THEREAT, RIB, RAISE THE STAKES, NEAT, TED) spells the contest answer.

An absolutely ingenious one from Mike! It seemed to be a bit harder than some recent contests--we had 1,362 entries with about 79% correct, in line with our usual percentage. An unusually big turnout for TRIFECTA, with 109 responses (presumably they saw the Win-Place-Show but didn't go the extra lap). Plus STAKES (19), BELMONT (11), DERBY (10), FOALS (6), ODDS (6), LONG SHOT (5), and several others.

Congratulations to this week's winner, Jeff Ammann of San Francisco!

THAT'S not how you spell my name!


Congrats to the winner.

[Deb F]

Across the Board. That was the answer I was hoping for as soon as I saw the Win Place Show theme. A bet “Across the board” is an equal amount on each of the three outcomes.

Back in the 20th century,the betting windows at the track specified an amount. There were many $2 windows, some $10 windows, one or two $100 windows. There was also a “$6 Combination” window, where, instead of going to a $2 window and requesting three tickets, one for win, one for place, one for show, you could get a single $6 ticket. But nobody ever said "I'm betting a combination on Number 5." It was "I'm betting it across the board."

The father of a college friend was an accomplished artist, reviewed in NYT and WaPO. But he had a day job – selling at the $6 Combination window at Aqueduct and Belmont.

Exactly where I was but it said "word" specifically so I abandoned the thought! Great minds...

[LizD]

Isaac is but a state of mind. We may revel on the shore but we know we will always keep company with Isaac in our future.

OH MY GOSH I never saw this before and it just made my day!

[Tripod]

I'm back! Late, but I made it ashore.

[Bird Lives]

@Hidden in 3D (#266) isn’t the only one here with a racing pedigree.

The title and prompt told me right out of the gate that this one was in my wheelhouse paddock. I could read the Racing Form by the time I was in junior high. My father raised me right. After all, he owned race horses

We’re not talking Kentucky Derby contenders here. Most were low-end claimers ($1500-2500), but we had a couple that were a cut above that. They all ran in the cheap circuit of West Virginia and Ohio. (This was before Pennsylvania legalized horse race betting.) In 1958, Waterford Park in West Virginia tried to up its game, and it created The Independence Day Handicap with the biggest purse the track had ever offered. And our horse, naturally, won. Set the track record too.
.

[The XWord Rabbit]

We were off to the races this week with Mr. Shenk’s “You Can Bet on It” puzzle. Twelve of the across clues ended with the word “win”, “place” or “show”. The “win” clues directed solvers to take the first letters of the entries, the “place” entries the second letters and the “show” entries the third.

Your Rabbit totally agrees with mheberlingx100, suggesting that those of you Muggles who were put off by this mechanism watch the “The Sting”, the Oscar-winning picture of 1974 (and your Rabbit’s favorite movie of all time.)

Being a bit of a tout himself, the XWord Rabbit had an easy time finding this week’s nominee.
It was Hidden in 3D, of course, who was actually named after a racehorse!

"I was determined to solve this meta because of my one claim to fame: I had a racehorse named after me as a child. Not a thoroughbred, but a horse of a different color. Sara Black was a standardbred owned by my grandfather. (He named all of his horses after relatives and people close to him.) She was his most successful on the harness racing circuit; at the time the only Adios-sired standardbred filly to clock a 2-minute mile on the trot. I can’t remember a thing about this momentous occasion since I, like my namesake, was only three years old. Attached is a photo of the plaque that commemorates her accomplishment. It hung on the door to her stall in the stable – and I do remember that place well. I loved playing there while my father was shoeing horses."

"I wanted to double check the statistics I mentioned above, so I went to the Pedigree Online All Breed Database. (It’s a website that details horses’ bloodlines and best times.) After finding my memory was correct on Sara Black’s stats, it hit me that perhaps there might be some famous horses in the grid that would lead me to the meta solution. For much longer than I care to admit, I put crossword answers into the search engine to see if there were horses with those names. Here’s the short list of grid answers that are or were actual horse names, in no particular order: TED, TARO, ARMADA, PERCY, MATT, ATHENS, BOUDOIR (!), FARE, FLOSS, DROP, SHARP, SHORE, DOONE, HUTCH, HOUSE, TOAST, ELEPHANT, PRIDE, NORA, REACT, GRIST, COY, TACO, ARAL, BEAR, NEAT, SLIP, IKEA (?), ROMP. I just kept digging and digging in that same burrow, fascinated at the names owners chose for their horses, with no regard as to how said names could possibly help to solve the meta! Me and my one-track mind!"

So jealous! And while we're on the subject, it's a beautiful day for the race ...



Until next week, then --

[Bird Lives]

So jealous! And while we're on the subject, it's a beautiful day for the race ...



Until next week, then --

OMG, I remembered so much of this, and I hadn't heard it for many, many decades.

[hoover]

Ahh, the original spaɪk ʤoʊnz! (This one, not that one.)

[MaineMarge]

Lopsided team win for us.
I found the WINS. @Bob cruise director found the rest.
Now back to Trigger-
If I show you his place in the blooming garden, I bet he’ll win your hearts