Gary Stevens did a real good analysis on the BCJ and pointed out with a head on shot that the rail was dead for that race. You could see how it was not harrowed like the middle of the track and it was deeper.
I\'m wondering if this was already factored into the TG fig?
I\'m more wondering about the rail yesterday, and I mean horses all the way directly against the rail for some significant part of their trip. I think everyone saw the 1 and 3 stop in the Derby, but did anyone notice El Padrino? He gets all the way over to the rail at the back of the pack, passes a few horses in deep stretch but was out of it by the turn. Pretty much same story with Union Rags.
Also have to wonder if Bode might have hung on had he not run almost the entire homestretch against the rail.
I think the rail was fine. The first race I watched yesterday was the 4th where Night Party rode the rail to wire the field. The rail wasn\'t the problem for El Padrino. He hadn\'t trained well going into the race and I just think the string of efforts going back to late January had taken there toll. Union Rags ran a good race, a great race considering where he was after the start and what he and to overcome. If they run him back in the Preakness, I wouldn\'t overlook him. Lookin At Lucky had the same trip in the derby.
Now go back and take note of every horse that ran in the races after that spent significant time on the rail, some at pretty short odds, and tell me how they did. I admit that 7 horse ran well, but the evidence is anecdotal compared to how everyone else did, not to mention you are talking about a race that happened 6 hours earlier. Union Rags did all of his running as soon as he shifted off the rail.
The talking head jocks all said the 2 path was the place to be. But that doesn\'t answer my original question, because Hansen and TCI both raced on rail in BC Juv. I\'m wondering if their figs for that race had taken this into account since there\'s no marking on their sheets for a dead rail. Stevens was alluding to the fact that because of this, Hansen\'s BCJ performance wss better than it looked and that UR rags was actually running on best part of track in that race. I would imagine we could upgrade TCI\'s performance as well.
\"I\'m wondering if their figs for that race had taken this into account\"
No.
Thanks Rich.