Dear Powers That Be at Thorograph,
Santa Anita is currently running 6.5 furlong turf races in two configurations -- one is the about distance down the hill and the other is a flat non-approximated distance. Would it be possible to put an asterisk or something to make clear which figure is a down the hill figure and which is a flat? This can be done by looking at the form or by knowing what was running at the particular time, but now with both configurations going it is more complicated and some sort of designation one way or another on the sheet would really be helpful.
Thanks,
Loyal Customer
I\'ve got a funny story about a horse named Finders Fortune, which was trained by Darrell Vienna in the early 90\'s....this was a down the hill specialist at SA, who was never as good on the flat as he was running that very special course.
In the mid 90\'s I was visiting a farm down past Oceanside and met Vienna, who had some horses laid up there. He walked me over to a small paddock to introduce me to Finders Fortune, who was more or less retired at that point. When I told him that I had made a lot betting the horse at SA, he told me that Finders Fortune was completely crooked up front and never could carry his speed very far on the flat.
But he said, this horse\'s stride works perfectly running down that hill. He doesn\'t know he\'s crooked at all in those races. Go figure.