Mike Maker off the claim

[makomaniac]

Can anyone offer any insight into how Mike Maker can claim horses with no turf pedigree and stretch them out on the turf with solid numbers? I can\'t seem to ever catch him. Other trainers have to scratch their heads when he consistently wins these marathon turf stakes.

[bluechip21]

I have nothing to offer except that he either sees something no one else can see or he is “one of those guys.”  Idk how that works on turf, as I feel the later to my thought is tougher to do on turf. But I have no other opinions. It’s not like he is 30% or something, but the results he gets with claiming and moving horses up are mind boggling.

[toppled]

I wouldn\'t be surprised if he\'s looking for turf hooves and claims them off his visual conclusion.

[richiebee]

This has been going on for three or four years now.

In addition to the fact that Maker is moving these horses up (that is an
observation, not an accusation) they seem to run extremely well on many
different turf courses, including when shipping.

It is hard to imagine (without eliminating the possibility of) a gray area PED
which is more effective on turf than on other surfaces.

My theory (expressed previously) is that Maker employs an outstanding
blacksmith or some sort of innovative shoeing method/technology which helps
maximize his runners\' (and if I am not mistaken they are predominantly
colts/geldings) performance on grass surfaces. Maybe even those runners who do
not have a turf pedigree or turf hoof.

Golf Note: Speaking of \"innovative technology\", I went to the driving range
Sunday and swung a golf club in anger for the first time since 2015 and must
report that it might be time for the graphite shafts. My 9-iron felt as heavy
as a tree trunk.

First step towards a heroic return in the 2021 (Senior?) (Spectator Free) TG
Open sponsored by Runhappy.

[IK]

............having made the switch to graphite in 2012, I feel I must warn you the next stage is wondering why a round of golf wasn\'t designed for 12 holes.

[ajkreider]

Heard a story on sports talk radio the other day that the ball companies already have a prototype that increases ball spin as the swing speed goes up.  So, you and I don\'t notice a difference, but Dechambeau slices it OB if he goes for it.  An attempt to keep current courses relevant.

The hoof size angle seems too easy.  I was thinking it was more of horses with dirt breeding and no speed, but have a decent kick.  They never hit the board in dirt races, because they\'re too far out of it, but can go around with a pack of turfers all day until it\'s time to run.  That info would take some genuine study, instead of \"Hey,look at that hoof\".

[TreadHead]

Been on this soap box for nearly 15 years (and catch grief on it regularly), but hoof size is a physical piece of data that should be provided on every starter and available to handicappers, in the same way that weight should be.

People are welcome to laugh, but there was a former trainer (can\'t even remember his name now) who had a brief posting career on twitter and wrote articles for BRIS at derby time well over a decade ago, and he was always able to acquire and publish hoof size of derby starters in his article.  

Given it was a very limited sample size for a specialized condition (his article only lasted a few years, maybe 3 or 4), there was a CLEAR abnormal impact value in the positive for horses with large hooves and negative for horses for small hooves for the years he published this data (His theory was that at CD in general, given its higher sand content (unless completely packed down by water), horses with smaller hooves sunk deeper into the surface and had a tougher time getting over it).

I would certainly never claim that such a small sample size proved his theory, however, the results were certainly interesting enough that I thought they warranted a study that involved an appropriate data set to draw a real statistical conclusion and see if there is something there.  But it appears no one else in the industry believes such an edge exists and handicappers aren\'t owed this data.

[shanahan]

When I live in Chitown during the 90s and went to my first horse race at ARL (baseball players strike), I watched a guy stand in the ring every race and did nothing more than look at the hoofs (hooves?).  Mark his program, make his bets.  My wife and I referred to him as \"the weapon\" to support any horse we liked.  He was really good.  If he\'s reading this, sorry to look over your shoulder during those early days...LFM

[Boscar Obarra]

Yeah, the art form has been around forever. Picked it up many years ago , hanging around with grooms in the paddock.

 Not the keys to the kingdom , but I was pretty good at the read when I attended live.

  Very hard to do off the TV sadly, and they go out of their way to make it impossible at most tracks.

 Kind of a cool idea to maybe take a picture of the horses feet once every few (or 6 ) months , and put that online.   There can be some change over time , so you need updated info.  Don\'t know if even HK does anything like that .