It had already been a good week for Tory Cameron. Six days earlier, he finished up work and went home to cheer on his lifelong-favorite football team, the Seattle Seahawks, as they advanced to the Super Bowl. Now, it was time for the the 49-year-old bartender to indulge in one of his other loves—handicapping. 

A longtime Saratoga Springs, N.Y., resident who sold popcorn at the track at age 14, Cameron has been playing the races for quite some time. In January, he managed to parlay a $28 feeder victory into a $1,500 seat in the $325,499 Flo-Cal Faceoff. Then, after a good amount of deliberation, he decided to purchase a second entry shortly before the tourney began.

“I just like this mythical format so much better than live bankroll,” he said. “All the races were set, and I liked the idea of having a second horse in each race so I could sort of play off of myself. Also…there are different income levels at play in these big contests. I’m a bartender. I work six days a week and don’t make a ton of money. If I play in the BCBC and manage to run my $7,500 up to $25,000, I know it’s not enough to win, and that $25,000 has a lot different meaning to me than to some in the contest. That $25,000 can pay off my car. I don’t know that I can stomach making the kind of bet needed to get me north of $150,000. I get the strategy completely, but it’s not really for me.”

So Cameron splurged on that second Flo-Cal entry, did his handicapping and entered all of his Saturday picks before heading off to work in mid-afternoon to Augie’s Family Style Italian Restaurant in nearby Ballston Spa where he tends bar.

Cameron didn’t shirk his work responsibilities at all on Saturday, but he made sure to monitor his progress after each contest race. Thanks to an early hit on 11-1 Mis Brunellas in the very first contest race and a $10.60 place collection in the next, Cameron found himself doing quite well—especially given the fact that the rest of the day at both Gulfstream and Santa Anita turned out pretty chalky. By the time the restaurant had closed and Cameron was tidying up the bar, Cameron had accumulated $120.00 on his better entry. That was good for 3rd-place and a $2,440 Day Money bonus. His other entry had $58.20—not great, but hardly disgraceful given the paucity of good-priced winners during the day.

On Sunday, Cameron woke up excited. His biggest gambling score ever had been $14,000—won on a Sha Tin trifecta bet that he surreptitiously placed at 1:30 in the morning while watching a rather unexciting movie on his couch with his now ex-wife. A couple of other times, he had $5,000 and $10,000 scores…but now he was in the mix for a $117,115 first-place payoff in the Flo-Cal Faceoff!

Cameron tried to keep things the same on Sunday as they were on Saturday. He did his handicapping, entered all of his picks, then went to work. The plan was not to change any picks unless he had to. 

Wouldn’t you know? He had a fast start on Sunday—just like he did on Saturday. He hit the first two winners and now had the lead. A couple of place collections followed. Things were going great.

Until they weren’t.

Over a 10-race span in the middle of the Sunday competition, Cameron had eked out just one 5-2 winner and three very small place collections. He had fallen to sixth place. Doubt was creeping in. A lot of it.

After the 8th race of the day, race 1 at Santa Anita, Cameron discarded the picks he made at the start of the day and began playing race-to-race, entering picks just before off time. The last thing he wanted was to go from first place to finishing out of the money. Most of his revised picks were on favorites. It didn’t help. 

“I had lost confidence in myself and was second-guessing everything,” Cameron remembered. “I was literally, ‘Oh my God, let’s just get SOMETHING.’ I went off the rails. My confidence was completely shot.”

It was right after yet another even-money loser that Cameron saw a call coming in on his phone from a horseplaying friend, John Fasola. It was Fasola who first got Cameron interested in contest play a few short years ago, and Fasola happened to be playing in the Flo-Cal Faceoff as well. Cameron picked up, and it soon became clear that this was no courtesy call.

“What the hell are you doing?” Fasola barked, not bothering with any pleasantries.

Cameron thought Fasola was simply referring to his recent run of poor results, but that wasn’t Fasola’s point at all. 

“You can’t play an even-money horse right now,” Fasola said forcefully, interrupting some mumbling on Cameron’s end. “You just can’t! This is one of the few times in your life to make a six-figure score. You’ve won $5,000 before. If you’re just trying to maintain your position and do that again, I get it…but if you want to win, you have to change what you’re doing!”

Not long after Cameron hung up with Fasola, a call came from another friend, Craig Cockrell.

“He’s a Los Alamitos degenerate,” Cameron laughed.

If Fasola’s message could be categorized as “tough love”, Cockrell’s was a bit more…traditional.

“Hey, you’re still in this,” he reminded Cameron. “Keep plugging away!”

There were now three contest races left, and Cameron and Cockrell talked through the remaining races a bit. They agreed that 5-2 second choice Windribbon was a likely winner of the 6th at Santa Anita—and they proved to be right. Though Cameron was still in 6th place after Windribbon’s triumph, and now there were only two races remaining. Still, for the first time in a long time, Cameron felt like he was getting back in the groove.

There was a prohibitive 1-5 favorite in the 7th at Santa Anita, and Cameron’s initial inkling was to play the 7 horse, Little Tinker Elle. That horse, a Los Al shipper, was 17-1, however. 

“On my numbers, she was the fastest horse in the race,” Cameron said. “She figured to make the lead. Granted, she had to go from 4 1/2 furlongs to 5 1/2 furlongs, but speed was holding all day. I couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t getting bet. So I discussed it with my Los Al friend, Chris.”

“What do you think of the 7 horse?” Cameron asked.

“I love that horse,” came the reply.

“Why aren’t they betting it?” Cameron wondered aloud.

“They don’t trust the Los Al form at Santa Anita,” Cockrell responded. Then, almost as an afterthought before he hung up, Cockrell added, “You know, those same connections sent out a $40.00 winner earlier in the meet that was a Los Al shipper.”

That settled it. Cameron was definitely going to use Little Tinker Elle on at least one of his entries. He decided to use the 4 horse, a 9-2 shot, on his “good” entry and Little Tinker Elle on his lesser one. By now, two of the eight horses in race 7 had already entered the starting gate.

Suddenly, for no explicable reason, Cameron started hearing John Fasola’s voice in his head.

—“What the hell are you doing?”—

“You know what…screw it!” Cameron said to himself. With just seconds until off time—and in the middle of making an Old Fashioned for a waitress to serve to a customer—Cameron switched his play so that, just before the last horse loaded, Little Tinker Elle was his pick on both entries.

There was a minor eruption in Augie’s Restaurant when Little Tinker Elle won in wire-to-wire fashion. By this time, the staff was clued in to what was going on with their bartender—and a couple of customers were as well. Tory Cameron was now in the lead!

Just then, Cameron’s phone rang. It was John Fasola again.

“The [bleeping] 7 horse!” Fasola exclaimed in delighted disbelief. “What the [bleep] was that??”

This time, it was Cameron, who would have the last word.

“You told me to play to win—and I played to win.”

Meanwhile, the din of hollers and high fives continued in the restaurant. Yet one voice managed to somehow make itself heard. It was the waitress.

“That’s great, that’s great,” she said to Cameron in a somewhat hurried and understated tone, “but I still need that Old Fashioned.”

“My service absolutely suffered that day,” Cameron admitted with a chuckle. “Once or twice, I asked someone, ‘I need you to keep an eye on the bar.’ We pool our tips, but that day I took nothing. I must have spent the last hour and a half of the workday watching the races.”

There was still one more race to watch, though.

“The last race was partly a math equation,” Cameron explained. “I was ahead by $17.70. I knew the favorite couldn’t beat me and neither could the 8 horse, which was 3-1. Then there were three horses in the 6-1 to 9-1 range. I went with the speedy one that was drawn outside.”

That last pick, 6-1 Rizzleberry Rose, was also put on both entries, and—just like Little Tinker Elle—won wire to wire. 

Not only had Cameron taken the top spot, but his other entry wound up all the way in 11th place, earning him another $4,392 to go with the $117,115 grand prize and the $2,440 in Day Money that entry #1 had delivered him. He couldn’t believe it. He had won $123,947.

“That moment was just such a high,” he said. “Its the best feeling I’ve ever had in horse racing.”

Cameron paused for a moment before continuing.

“Frankly, it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”

The unforgettable feelings from the Flo-Cal Faceoff triumph aren’t completely over with, though. In the days immediately after the victory, a couple of friends—including his accountant—urged him to do something nice for himself. Cameron balked at first. That’s not really his style. Then he thought about it some more. Not all loves last forever—but some do.

He’ll be hard to spot on TV, but one day prior to his 50th birthday, when the Seattle Seahawks take the field in Super Bowl LX, one of the seats in Levi’s Stadium will be filled by Tory Cameron.