Jerry,
I miss Soup - can you let him back on the board? Only kidding.
It\'s now our responsibility to keep some handicapping strings alive now that we will no longer have 20 Soup postings. Any chance of picking a track or a few races to discuss for Saturday?
Did anyone watch Jerkens\' horse Greatness run 6.5 furlongs this past Saturday? This 3 year old making just his second start was about 2/5 of a second off the track record although he was running on what appeared to a be a speed favoring muddy track. Jerkens works these horses so hard that it seems a shame that this one might run his best races in conditional allowance races and never make it to a major stakes race. Jerry, if you had a 3 year old that ran a 2 in his first race would you point him towards a sprinting stakes race for his second start or would you run him in a non-winners of 1 allowance? I know that it also depends on what stakes are available. Just curious.
...it\'s dead without Supes around.
Who\'s playing AP this weekend?!
By the way, Jerry, what was in the highplainsdrifter stuff --- more obscene links?
Just curious.
I\'m of a conservative let\'s wait and see how this horse (Greatness) develops and runs thru his conditions before saying much more about his future. I expect Allen to go right thru NW3 with this horse before seeing him in a stakes race. And they\'ll be no reason not to wait and see what will happen over the next few efforts. It\'s not like you\'ll loose out on any great betting opportunity on Greatness-he\'ll likely be very heavily bet over his next few races so the smart thing may be to bet against him.
Too fast too soon? Maybe and perhaps not. It\'s June and not March and that make a difference to me with 3 year olds running fast numbers. On a related subject, I wish they would start the triple crown later, like what\'s wrong with starting on Memorial Day weekend and running the Belmont on July 4th weekend?
I can\'t bring myself to question Allen\'s handling of any horse in his care. He\'s one of a handful of people on the backstreach who has forgotten more about training than most conditioners will ever learn in their lives. I can\'t see Allen ruining this horse by going thru alw conditions. Only time will tell us If this horse has any kind of class and ability and I have confidence Allen will bring out the best in Greatness.
Phil,
I certainly never expect to get any decent odds on this horse in the near future and will probably never end up betting on him - I\'m interested in him as a horse that appears to have a chance to be a great sprinter.
From a management standpoint, I have mixed feelings about running very fast horses through all their allowances. One group would say that this is the proper way to bring a horse along in his development. Another group, such as Lukas, would probably tell you that horse flesh is fragile and you better take a shot at the big races while you are healthy. Lukas appears to ruin a lot of high end horses but at the same time his strategy might benefit the owner financially. By getting a graded stakes win or two under the horse not only does the owner collect more purse money but the horse becomes valuable for breeding. If Greatness runs 4 0\'s to 2\'s and wins nothing but his maiden and allowance races his breeding stock worth will be less (I did not notice but I am assuming he is not a gelding)and the owner will have spent more in training and boarding to win less money than if the horse won a big stakes race or two and then was retired for breeding. Just a thought in a racing world where there don\'t seem to be many quality horses that last too long.
Yeah, he \'appears\' to --- that\'s the key phrase.
He\'s GOT a whole lot of high end horses, so naturally a lot of \'high end horses\' come up w/injuries for him.
Just like McPeek \'ruined\' Repent, right?
How about Tempera --- are they \'ruining horses\'?
How many horses start the triple crown trail, and how many finish?
Is it because all these trainers are butchers?
Obviously, when you\'ve got more horses, and more horses in the spotlight, you\'ll have more injured horses, and it\'ll be more noticeable when you do.
In general, I don\'t believe in running horses in allowances if they are good enough to run in stakes. You get a finite number of good efforts per horse, and the upside isn\'t high enough. In general, you have to be willing to lose races, if you want to run it as a business. This is one of the problems I had with Michael Dickinson, who has since changed his management style.
We\'ve finally escaped pm\'s uninsightful and (way)off-base analysis of Godolphin\'s string (let\'s be honest pm, you don\'t have a clue when it comes to G and their training methods; so stop pretending) and then I see this gem from another genius.
Tempera developed a colitis and succumbed to laminitis. And by the way, her races were spaced: 24 days, 31, 22, 62, 138 and 30.
Just because you\'re myopic, don\'t blame the typist.
And so you have a more insightful clue about Godolphin. Enlighten me.
I\'ll get you started by asking where and when will Express Tour show-up?
Do you have anything useful you want to say about Godolphin or would you rather continue telling me I\'m way off base without saying something useful people may coinsider when handicapping a race with Godolphin runners?
and your insightful comments about my uninsightful and way off base Godolphin comments? Dude, if you can\'t support what you say with facts...oh forget it.