Hello everyone!
A few notes from the weekend action, and various other topics.
First, how about that Preakness ride on Journalism? It's been analyzed on the twitter and elsewhere, so I don't have much to add to that, but it always strikes me how the result dictates how we tend to feel about an occurrence or event.
Let's for a second forget we saw something absolutely special from the excellent McCarthy colt, but instead saw the horrible side of this move. That is, a horse went down. On national TV.
The topics today would, of course, be much different. The New York Times would be calling for an end of the sport, NBC News would have a nightly feature. Rispoli would be hammered at least as much as Paco Lopez on a random Wednesday.
To me, the result doesn't change much.
If the sport is trying to get rid of dangerous riding so the horses and riders are protected; is worried about the public being able to count the number of whip strikes over six; if raceday meds are a no-no; lasix is cruel; if Kentucky Downs needed to raise juice to pay for "HISA bills" ..... then how is the sport not giving Rispoli three months off?
Is forcing your way out of a bad spot and putting other horses and riders in a dangerous situation only bad if it goes wrong?
"Angles"
I had a fun discussion with one of my most favorite people in racing this weekend - Chris Larmey. The podcast is here for those who might want to listen. We talked a fair bit about angles, both past and present.
In the age of Formulator, and CAW bankrolls as large as the real estate value of Santa Anita, angles are sometimes as obsolete as my family's first 237 pound microwave oven, but massaging and subsetting some data (if it's totally logical) can still, in my view, lead us into spots.
Today I find I get some angles to try based on whatever I can find that is outside formulator, or sometimes on a complete whim. Case in point, trainer John Ennis.
I heard Ennis get interviewed on TVG during the Keeneland meet and he noted his horses weren't fit enough because of a lot of bad weather. It's logical to think - with a little recency modification - that I can flag those this month.
I'd like to say I am swimming in cash, but only one or two converted. Again, however, the result is not a damnation of the little goofy angle. His horses have run well, and I almost scored big, with some of you I imagine, on Abbi Fede Saturday night at Churchill at 13-1, losing a bank breaking head bob. Epic Ride ran his eyeballs out at Pimlico on the weekend, too.
CAW's and computer players have a lot of things covered nowadays, but sometimes things as simple as a quick quip in a TVG interview can give us a little info outside the PP's.
"If it's in the PP's it's in the Price"
This is a Larmey quote that I will modify for one racetrack.
"If it's in the Aragona odds line it's in the price" is, in my view, as rite as rain.
But what happens when Aragona, who is very rarely wrong, wrong and the board says his 9-2 morning line horse is a 2-1 shot? It's one of the weird questions I wrestle with as a player. I've gone with the last few - even if I considered them underlaid - because I believe what we were seeing was not in the PP's and it was important. But I have no idea if following the 'against' money with Aragona is wise or stupid.
Shout out to CDI
How do I give a shout out to the Death Star racetrack?
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| CDI board meeting today |
I do when I find the on-track feed coverage is so damn good. Way to go Tony, Joe and Kevin. Fun discussions, I love having you on in the background while I am navigating a few tracks.
I am an unabashed fan of "ITP tickets", and fully realized from talking with many of you that they can be hard to get our heads around.
In Part II of the discussion with Chris Larmey, I discussed the "Magic Number of Three (legs)" and some practice we can put in, for low stakes in low bankrolls, to embrace the ITP Way. If you're not happy with your pick n's and wanted to dip your toe in with the warm and cuddly twitter poster we call ITP, maybe you'd find it helpful. It helped me.
Side note -- I had to chuckle this weekend, as when I turned on the Preakness coverage on TVG, Todd immediately mentioned ITP tickets on the telecast. I like Todd a lot, I have heard and believe he's a good guy, and it's cool to see him having fun with the whole ITP thing. It's what the game is - opinions.
Have a great Monday everyone. And if you're in the Tundra, can someone remind me why Woodbine doesn't race a card on Victoria Day again?
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