Many years ago, in the fall of the year, I hit a losing streak at Twin River Greyhound Park which was then called Lincoln Greyhound Park. I was completely mystified when my handicapping skills seemed to leave me completely when it came to the second half of the program.

I had been making a small but steady profit when, all of a sudden, I couldn’t seem to handicap the later races to save my life. The dogs I bet would do fine at the beginning of the race, but once they passed the final turn and hit the stretch, strange things would happen to them.

Some of them would suddenly seem to pull up and break their stride and then fade. Others would actually veer off to the outside and almost stop before recovering – but not in time to win.

It was as if someone had a ray gun trained on them and was freezing them right before the finish line, where I stood at the fence and watched my money disappear. This went on for a couple of weeks.

Finally, one day I was late getting out to watch a race and wound up nearer to the last turn then I usually stood. So when the dogs passed me, I turned to look up the track toward the finish line.

That’s when I realized what had jinxed me. As I looked down the track, the same way the dogs were looking, the sun blinded me like it was blinding the dogs.

I hadn’t realized that, in the fall, the sun is lower on the horizon. Every time I bet on the later races in a matinee performance, I was betting on dogs who couldn’t see to finish the race.

Since my dogs were almost always in the lead at the end of the race, they got the full effect of the sun’s blinding rays. Once I realized what was happening, I quit betting the later races until the sun’s angle improved.

It’s little things like this that can make a big difference in how well you do at the dog track. Look around at your track and notice anything you can that makes an impact on the races.