Hello everyone, and a special Happy Kickoff Sunday to NFL super-fan Marcus Hersh!
Yesterday, I watched the huge card of harness racing at Yonkers Raceway, headlined by the $1M International Trot.
I have to hand it to Yonkers, quite honestly - they've tried to make that place work, especially on big days.
Not only do they have their own ADW where even small bettors can get an 8% rebate and a 10% winning ticket bonus (imagine if HPI - who actually charges more than track takeout for some U.S. tracks - did this), they seed some pools.
And that $25,000 seed for the $100k guaranteed pick five was certainly lucrative for punters, with only $59k bet into it. The problem, of course - the CAW's are not shadowy organizations who know everything about everything in this sport, contrary to popular belief. If they did, they would've hammered such pools.
The bottom line with seeded pools - if the carryover is in the Equibase ADW feed the CAW's see it; if it's a seeded pool that isn't in their automation they couldn't find an elephant in a phone booth.
Speaking of blind as a bat, I missed my takeout reduced ticket foray due to the massive clunker thrown by Devilish Hill in the 6th. If I have been good at one thing lately, it's betting horses who run ten lengths slower than their par times.
We (well, me at least) complain a lot about short prices in harness racing, but we ain't the only ones who can complain. On Saturday, Churchill Downs assembled multiple millions in horse flesh for their stakes-laden late pick five. The races were won by Built (2-5), Manuka Honey (4-5), Splendora (1-5) and Salahudin (4-5). I find that over the last several years this game is so tough to make exciting.
Over at Scioto, I thought Big Ranger looked pretty good off the Hambo razor-thin loss to Apex. Is there a world where this horse is the 3YO Trotter of the year? Apex, I thought, has looked awful in his last two. If he's cooked, and Ranger wins out maybe so. Big Ranger is trotting like a metronome for Annette.
How about Redland Rocket Man? OK, I have the track last night 4/5's fast, but 146.4 is nothing to shake a stick at, either way. Trainer John Pentland and team should be rightfully ecstatic about this gelding.
This horse, like many Pentland horses, seem to just get better over time, and they aren't doing it with fancy pedigrees, or with high price tags. Again and again this man enters sound horses who improve.
In a world of flash and pomp, this horse began his career at Grand River Raceway a little over a year ago, off a 2:02 qually where he was 6th by 11. In last night's Simcoe, he stamped himself as the best colt in the province, and it should be noted, Pentland had two of five entrants; the other colt a homebred from a mom and pop with one broodmare.
Earlier this spring I posted that I thought by the end of the year, either Sweet Lovin Lou or Fragment would end up the fastest and best colt in the division. You were probably right to flame me for that, because it might end up being little-known Redland Rocket Man. Well done John Pentland.
Beau Jangles continues to confound his backers, but perhaps it's not their fault.
Beau Jangles disease (noun) has infiltrated this sport, because horses now race in sires stakes at two. They can go undefeated and look all-world in restricted races, and if they run the table in a grade I beating suspect stock, some crazy proclamations can follow.
This is not a world where Dragon's Lair can one-up Nihilator, Western Shooter can get beat by another fast colt like McArdle, Artsplace has to show Die Laughing who's boss, or Niatross has to beat Whamo as second choice in the Wilson. That was a time of Open stakes, where the top two year old colts banged heads ten or twelve times at several racetracks. They traveled, they fought, they threw it down. There was absolutely nowhere for a colt to hide.
This world doesn't exist anymore - there are probably five or six undefeated two year olds this minute who haven't left the home stall. But in my view, we have to be better in handicapping these things and think in context if we really want to understand how good a horse is, or isn't.
I love Randy Waples, but post-race last night - where I thought (my new pal) James drove Beau fine - he was on a narrative that the colt needs a helmet, still focused on what once appeared to be. Co-host John Rallis seemed to try to move him back to the topic at hand (Rocket's Canadian record), but it was futile.
In my opinion, Beau Jangles disease can make us think a horse is racing well below his par - where changes have to be made or drivers have to be fired - when in reality this reputation was never earned in the first place. Beau's top, all-out under the stick at two was 48 and change; his top at three was probably last night - all-out in 47 and change.
He's a nice horse, but over the last five or ten years there have been dozens and dozens of horses with those tops. I don't think there's any mystery here.
There are times I wish Frantic Hanover was just a bit better horse and beat him in the Metro; maybe that would've cured the disease for some. But it's still here, and it still confuses me.
Have a great Sunday everyone!
