Okay, let me put in my two cents.  First of all, if War Pass can\'t beat this bunch then he\'s simply not the horse he was last year.  And, on the subject of War Pass, with the abundance of 3 yr. old stakes this time of year, why would you take a speed horse to Tampa?

TexasWildcatter - I bet this horse last time and caught the exacta but I don\'t like him today.  There\'s a glaring omission from his resume that was there last time.  He had a very sharp work before the Gotham, not so today.  IMO his best race was at Philly.  His two IT races are almost identical and not fast enough to win today.  Of course he may like the main track, that\'s an unknown at this point.  I think his biggest plus is Arroyo off.

I don\'t even think TW is necessarily Pletcher\'s best horse in this race.  Spurrier ran as fast as he did last out.  He looks like an improving horse who might want more ground.  And, he\'s the one with the good work today.

If Anak Nakal can overcome the bad post he might be in the exotics.

As Richiebee noted, Court Vision has a win over the track, and at the distance although you could read half of War And Peace in the time it took him to do it.  I don\'t like the horse but it bothers me that apparently Gomez passed up Circular Quay at OP and the putative favorite out on the monkey track (SA) to ride this horse.

basket 777,

Since I apparently hurt your feelings, I apologize.

basket777,

Is English your second language?

Seriously, as Miff already made clear, getting involved with show minus pools is not a good idea because you have to be right every time.  Horse racing is not conducive to being right every time.

When a reporter told Norman Braman, the man Tose sold the Eagles to under duress, that Tose had said critical things about his handling of the Eagles, Braman replied, \"Why should I care about his opinion, the man has no furniture left in his house\".

I find myself in the unusual (and unenviable) position of being on the same side of an issue as Chuckles.  If you can\'t see that the horse had no business being 45-1 even AFTER the race, may God have mercy on your souls.

Unfortunately, I had him boxed with A.P. Arrow and the chalk, so I got nothing out of it.  That\'s what makes this game so tough, you don\'t get anything for spotting a live, overlaid longshot, you still have to hook him up right.  But he was a serious overlay and I\'m not just saying that after the race.

Bobphilo,

Bay Meadows said no to the CHRB and they made it stick.  If SA,et al had done the same, California racing would be much better off than it is now.  Would more horses have broken down in that event?  I don\'t know and you don\'t know either.  You\'re a zealot and you have been one going all the way back to when this issue was first discussed on this board.  Zealotry is never a good thing.  It\'s mindless.

Enough.  I\'m done with this.  In the end no one changes anyone\'s opinion anyway.

One more thing, allusions to civil rights and gay rights legislation have no place on a horseracing website.  Try to have some perspective.

Bobphilo

Where is the definitive evidence showing conclusive cause and effect relationship between breakdowns and track surfaces?  Nobody wants to see horses breaking down, it\'s a sickening sight.  It\'s easy to cast yourself as the champion of all that\'s right and good.  But this is a real world situation that has obviously not been handled well.

If you want to go in for analogies, I would say New Coca Cola versus Classic Coca Cola. Do you remember how that turned out?

When it first became apparent that the situation at SA was the fiasco that it is, this guy Shapiro tried to act as the aggrieved party.  He wants to blame the installers of Cushion Track.  Even a casual observer can see that the source of the problem is a mandate by a government body that was rushing to judgment.  Why didn\'t anybody try to stop them, or at least slow them down?

California tracks need artificial surfaces like a moose needs a hatrack. If Del Mar has another year like last year it won\'t be a first class track anymore.  If Keeneland has another Blue Grass like last year, the horsemen will start to avoid it.

As far as I know, there has never been any definitive study proving that the main cause of breakdowns is track surfaces.

Yes, but artificial surfaces are the future of horseracing. Michael Dickinson said so.

Go to the Left At The Gate blog before you even bother telling me Tapeta is the answer.

I did.  I know better than to go to Mth on a rainy day.  But I went anyway. A bad day was capped off by getting shut out in the last race when the only three contenders I could see ran 1-2-3.  Actually, 3-2-1 from the way I had it figured.  Then on the way home I had a flat tire which is always fun on a rainy night.

We all know Mth is a speed favoring track.  Well, yesterday it wasn\'t.

  As soon as I looked at the Juv. Fillies I liked Smarty Deb.  After her stablemate won a stake yesterday, you can be sure she won\'t be 30-1.

Heard a lot of people comment on what a mess can be expected today when the crowd will be much larger than yesterday.

Had no traffic problems whatsoever.  But I got there early, left as soon as the horses crossed the wire in the last race and know how to avoid Rt. 36 entirely.

What a shame that all the planning in the world can be undone by something as fickle as the weather.

What does this colt have to do to get some respect?  None of the \"experts\" in the DRF give him a tumble.  His last two races are excellent.  The raw time for his last race is identical to the Haskell.  If you factor for track speed on the respective days, it\'s a couple of ticks faster than the Haskell.  This compares very favorably with most of those wonderful three yr. olds running in the Classic.

In his prior race he just held off Lawyer Ron at a flat mile.  Lawyer Ron came back to run a monster race in the Whitney and be generally acclaimed as the best horse in the country (at that time).  Gottcha Gold came home in 25 flat after running six in 1:09.1.  Compare his two turn Salvator Mile with Corinthian\'s one turn Met Mile.  Get the picture?  I know, different tracks, different days, but still.....

But all of this is trumped by the presence of Discreet Cat.  As they used to say about Willie Mays, he belongs in a higher league.  His works say look out.    Gottcha Gold has to be on the front and Discreet Cat can probably take the lead away whenever he wants.  If he chooses to take the lead at the quarter pole, will Gottcha Gold persevere down the stretch?  Not knowing the answer to this question militates against a Discreet Cat/Gottcha Gold exacta.

If Disreet Cat were in the Classic where he belongs (if he had the seasoning),I believe Gottcha Gold would dust the rest of these horses off and pay around twenty dollars.

Well, it\'s not a hurricane, and that\'s the only good weather news there is.

Anyone planning on tossing Discreet Cat had better take a good look at his last two workouts.  Those works are telling you he\'s not the same horse he was on Sept.30.

If you want a horse to toss in that race, I\'d suggest Lewis Michael.  He likes to run on turf, he likes to run on oatmeal.  His record on dirt is not as good.

JMA11473

If memory serves (and it does) Mth did once run at this time of year.  I think they ran into early Nov.  It must have been before that abortion known as the Meadowlands came to be, so it was a long time ago.

The records must exist somewhere if someone wanted to see if running times were affected.  Seems like getting into the area of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, to me.

As to Brad Thomas, I wouldn\'t trust the opinion of anyone who would wear those sunglasses.

Since we\'re doing this without PP\'s, which is beyond rash, I\'ll say La Traviata will win wherever she runs.  Nobody will beat her out of the gate and she won\'t come back to them.

Remember Very Subtle ($35)?  Same situation.  If the fastest horse out of the gate can run a 24 flat final quarter, how they gonna catch her?