Wednesday, August 22, 2012

If He (We) Only Knew

I bet Alpha in the Derby. Not as much as this guy, though, and well, if he read this Bloodhorse article this morning about Alpha and the Derby surely it didn't make him overly happy.
  • "We were very disappointed at Churchill Downs but we had so many reasons for his poor performance," McLaughlin said. "It was very hot that day, very humid, and he just lost it in the paddock. He was very upset and washy and dripping wet and stepped on himself and lost a shoe.
You're at the track, you just bet $100,000 on a racehorse's nose, and he's having a conniption; throwing his shoe like I did at my cottage last weekend.

I was on twitter and I watched the track feed. I saw no mention of this. Maybe I missed it?

If not, this is kind of strange. Millions of people with their eyes on horses to bet the Derby and nary a mention on the airwaves? It's like it's 1932, and some bookie is still charging you -7 on Chicago, knowing the running back and quarterback are out with a hangover.

Notes: The three year old crop in horse racing reads like a medical report during a war. Bode was announced retired yesterday, and today it's Hansen. I wonder how many of these horses would be back if they were geldings. Some of these injuries seem treatable and healable.

The people who make takeout decisions in racing are horsemen groups and some tracks. Sometimes you hear toolspeak from them on takeout. On the other hand, a Horseplayer group uses some statistics. If the pick 5 was not low rake, and implemented, California's handle would probably be much worse. Keep in mind they are comparing it to last year which was pretty bad in the Golden State.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just goes to show how important body language and visual inspection of a horse is before one makes a bet. Aside from that sir, you are way off base blaming someone (twitter in this case) for not presenting this information to you on a platter. One must take ownership and be self-accountable for any bets made.

Pull the Pocket said...

Ahem,

If you read the post there is no blame. There is surprise that in the most watched horse race in the Universe no one appeared to talk about Alpha's issues.

PTP

eric poteck said...

In the new world of Betfair, one can make a lot of money by having inside info of a horse throwing a `hissey fit` or throwing a shoe in the paddock. That is why it is incumbent on the STEWARDS to share such information.

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