The Beyer Speed Figures for horses who ran in the Withers have been increased by a whopping nine points each! UN OJO's number has been upgraded to an 80. He earned a career-high 84 winning the Rebel at 75-1.
Jerry Brown: Did you alter your Withers ratings too? I tossed UN OJO in the Rebel, but if he\'d come off a much better ThoroGraph in the Withers...
The Withers was the only 2 turn race on the card, I marked it for review. So far there's no reason to change it, but we will be watching when more come back.
They were also lightly raced 3yos, many figure to go forward. UO went forward one point.
A very slow muddy track with a lot of gap winners , notoriously hard to make a figure you can hang your hat on .
Also, changed it from what to what? For all I know they had it too slow the first time.
UO saved ground and didn't come close to getting the best figure at OP. Likewise the Maker horse at Tampa.
Didn\'t see the number, but I\'d guess they had it too slow off the slow time.
EDIT Upped from 78 to 87
John, the Maker horse paired up at Tampa, and that race is rock solid. I would be surprised if it turns out we didn't get the Withers right. Which doesn't mean some won't jump forward, they're spring 3yos.
At 40-1, Maker became my underkey (part-backwheel) when Chad scratched his horse. I killed the race. Beware Maker's young horses this time of year zooming forward. Especially at Turfway soon. It happens every Spring with him there. Here though, at Tampa, he scored a nice check but he apparently did not move forward.
During the week, everyone expected huge volcanic rain at Tampa last Saturday. Funny to turn to that race and see it sunny with a dry track. Did track maintenance scrape it beforehand? Was it speed-biased? The winner and Maker went 1-2 all around the track. Maker rail-all and the winner 2-path-all. The winner won by 2 lengths. Brian Lynch's good horses tend to run pretty "straight" ThoroGraph's (though 2nd off a layoff they can improve a bit), so I presume CLASSIC CAUSEWAY paired his Sam Davis. And if the winner paired, it makes sense that Maker paired too.
By the way, with no Baffert this year in the Derby, it\'s worth noting CLASSIC CAUSEWAY breaks really well from the gate. Does he break better than any west-coast-based Derby-bound speedballs? Asmussen\'s speedball at FG?
So you\'re the one that killed the exacta price!??!
Good Luck,
Joe B