Wood Day

[TGJB]

As it turned out the track was not that fast, the one turn times (esp. 7f and mile)were helped by a pretty good eight o clock wind, which helped them both on the backstretch and the only turn they ran around. There were some fast horses who ran Saturday, and they ran fast.

The wind did not help the Wood time (once around), hurt the 1 1/4 time a little (through the stretch into the wind an extra 1/8th mile). The day held together nicely, the Wood came up about as I thought (which as it happened was in line with the sprints once you adjusted for wind, though that wouldn\'t have stopped me if I needed to break it out). I\'m not going to give out more numbers from the day or next week\'s races-- gotta save something for the Derby seminar.

I will say this-- with Ragozin having the NY horses too fast, he\'s gonna have some kind of fun dealing with this one. If he goes off them, he\'s got to give the winner even a crazier figure than I gave him. If not, he\'s got every single horse running in a G1 save one running terrible, way off their tops.

Beyerguy-- yeah, racing secretaries don\'t make figure maker\'s lives easy. They used to run a second two turn race on Belmont day, but that was too good an idea, so they stopped a few years back.

[beyerguy]

Yes, I remember those starter allowances on Belmont Day, hated to see them go.

[P.Eckhart]

Too bad, I wanted to campaign for a -3.75 for Greeley\'s Galaxy.

[TGJB]

P Eck-- there\'s still time, I haven\'t done the day yet.

On any other day people would have been talking about Greeley Galaxy\'s performance.  The Wood performance was so off the chart, people aren\'t paying much attention to his fine effort.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

TGJB wrote:

> As it turned out the track was not that fast,

21.59, 43.30, 1:07.48, 1:20.46 at Aqueduct is not fast? The four and six marks are  searing! Medalist and Don Six are good horses but debateable 7 mark horses. They got picked up by a \"good\" horse. This race is close to track record as well.

BR tied a mark by Riva Ridge set what 30 years ago plus and tracks are slower!!!

Jerry, with all due respect that track was other worldy by the 8th and 9th the other horses in the 9th just weren\'t positioned to toss a good effort in. That track carried a decent horse a long way in very fast time but it happened in part because it was very, very quick.

If you average for the day, I agree, the surface wasn\'t overly fast. But I dont think the other horses on the day were of any significant quality. (Mainly MSW and NW1X - Foggy excepted and he back pedaled in his race)

You\'re implication is that BR may have run off the 3yo chart. I dont think that happened, and if it did, I\'m discounting it. I\'m gonna beat this horse Jerry, if you went off the chart with him consider making it public. You\'re influetial and Beyer already has him at 119. He\'s not gonna be near 5-1 so theres no reason to not let it out.

Respectfully,

CtC

Everyone is probably going to disagree with me, but I don\'t think \"the figure\" given to the Wood is such a big deal. Everyone agrees the race was very fast. It\'s just a matter of how fast.

If he wins the Derby, pretty much everyone is going to have him as the top figure.

If he loses, everyone is going to have some reasonable reason for why he didn\'t duplicate it.  

Even though the Derby is a high profile race and this was a high profile prep, I don\'t see it as something that\'s going to impact anyone\'s reputation as a figure maker no matter what this horse does.

[jimbo66]

CH,

THat statement is the kind of posting that gets you in trouble around here.

People on this board believe the figure is important.  So important that we pay $25 for the figures for a race card, instead of the free beyer figures in the DRF.

If it wasn\'t important what Bellamy Road\'s figure was in the GS race before the Wood, then those of us on this board who saw the T-Graph figure would NOT have know that this horse was starting as 6 lengths faster than any other horse in the race.  THose using the Beyer figures thought Going Wild was faster.

Smarty Jones was much much faster on T-Graph than on Beyers last year and many on this board bet Smarty because of that.  

I for one, want to know if Bellamy Road is faster than the winner of this weekend\'s Bluegrass and if so, by how much.

jimbo,

I\'m not saying that high quality figures aren\'t important. All your examples of their importance are very good ones.

I think \"this one\" is less important because there\'s no dispute about who the fastest horse is. So I\'m not sure reputation is on the line in the same way as when there was a controvsey about SJ\'s disputed figure.  

Plus, I think it\'s highly likely he\'s not going to pair this one up. If I am right, it won\'t be a reflection on the figure maker the way it sometimes can be.

Naturally, I would like the highest possible quality figure and it sounds like JB is giving it as thorough a job as possible.



Post Edited (04-11-05 19:41)

[SJU5]

Jerry,
As I posted in another thread, race 1 and 2 at the Big A, the wind direction was with the horses down the stretch. The third race there was minimal wind present as the flags were not blowing out in either direction. By the 4th race the wind direction had COMPLETELY shifted to into the wind down the stretch and stayed that way the rest of the card.

Do you and your staff take this into account for each race, or make the figs on wind direction once a day?

When I went to the track at Noon, I looked specifically at the wind direction, knowing your feelings regarding wind and its effect. I even spoke to other horse owners who were with me in the clubhouse boxes, and then we discussed it again when we saw the dramatic 180 degree wind shift before the 4th race.

[Michael D.]

SJU5,
interesting post....... tells you what these guys are up against.



Post Edited (04-11-05 20:44)

[mandown]

SJU5

Maybe if I answer this Jerry won\'t get mad. TG\'s trackmen do the race wind speed and direction for each race. Taking the wind just once a day would make no sense as even if the direction stays roughly the same the strength can change substantially in the course of four hours - can\'t believe that you thought we would be that dumb.

Cheers,

George

[SJU5]

George,

The reason I asked the question in the first place was because Jerry started this thread by saying that the wind had helped the horses in the 7 and 1 mile races as it was with them in the backstretch...well the WIND WAS AGAINST THEM in the backstretch in the 1st and 2nd races which were 6 f and mile races. Then he did not mention the wind change (with the runners in the backstretch for races 4-10) when he discussed the wind for the Wood. That\'s why I asked the question. There was a dramatic wind change of direction Saturday!

I DO NOT BELIEVE TG is that dumb BTW.

[TGJB]

SJU5-- just saw this. We do get race by race readings, and Dave Litfin (who does our trackman work in NY) gave us an 8 o\'clock wind all day, actually had it more in the first. Which flags were you looking at? The wind currents at Aqu are infamous-- when they come around the grandstand the two infield flags sometimes point in opposite directions, at each other.

Whether it had something to do with wind or not, I did do the first two a little different than the next three sprints. In general, that stuff is useful, but not definitive-- like all info about wheather, track maintenance, etc. In the end you go by the horses.

[SJU5]

TGJB:

I was siiting with my other owners in our boxes, the 1st 2 races ALL the flags on the right side of the finish line and the set of flags on the 1/8th pole were blowing straight out....left to right (down the stretch) for the 1st 2 races. The third race the flags were not blowing at all...the 4th through the 10th the flags were 180 degree shifted to into the faces in the stretch...we all took note in the boxes because we commented after the 2nd race on the wind directtion change and how that might effect the rest of the days races.

Check with Liftin because a lot of the owners in the clubhouse were discussing this very thing.

Thanks!