If I had a dollar for every time.....

[JimG]

I just watched a 4 horse field at Hollywood in the feature..a 250 grand stakes that included two favorites...Adoration and Star Parade.

Long story short...the two horses dueled a mile and one eight in 44 and change for the half and 109 for 6 furlongs. The longest shot, Victory Encounter came plodding up the rail from about 15 lengths back and closed on the two horses to win by 3 going away.

Mike Smith and Victor Espinosa were the two riders involved in the pace duel. Neither is considered a hack and must have sense enough to know that going at that pace would leave nothing for the stretch.

Why do they do it? And this happens more often than you would think in a short field. I understand the concept of getting loose on the lead, but seeing stuff like this from supposedly decent jockies with the two fastest horses in the race makes me question betting on horses as much as I do.

Jim

PS...I did not bet on the race so there is no sour grapes here.

[Tom]

What amazes me is that only 4 horses were entered for a quarter million dollar purse! If I trained there, I would put my claimers in there just in case.

[DeoVolente]

On paper these 2 horses looked the best. The TVG analysis noticed that Star Parade wasn't warming up well. If Frank Lyons can notice this why can't the other jockey see this and exploit it. Let Star Parade tire while you rate your horse.

[JustRalph]

The Winner of that race ran one hell of a race no matter what the others did........... I agree that they gave the race away.........but don't take anything away from the winner.


I didn't play it either........ I was still trying to get over getting beat in the photo the race before.....I had 20 across on the 20-1 shot who got nailed at the wire........and I would have had the boxcar exotics too..........ARRRGGGHHH! :cool:

[BillW]

Originally posted by Tom
What amazes me is that only 4 horses were entered for a quarter million dollar purse! If I trained there, I would put my claimers in there just in case.


... they paid 5th place?:eek:

[breakage]

Actually they went in 46.26 for the half but the duel probably did take a toll.

[Jeff P]

Conditions: 1 1/8M Dirt. Vanity H. (Grade 1). FOR FILLIES AND MARES THREE YEARS OLD AND UPWARD. By subscription of $250 each on or before Wednesday, April 28. $1,000 to pass the entry box and an additional $1,500 to start, with $150,000 to the winner, $50,000 to second, $30,000 to third, $15,000 to fourth and $5,000 to fifth. .Trophies will be presented to the winning owner and trainer. Nominations closed Wednesday, April 28, 2004 with 8.

Yup. Had there been a fifth horse entered and had that horse merely come out of the gate and galloped around the track and passed the finish line it would have been worth 5 grand.

[JimG]

Tom,

You probably would not have entered your claimer. There were six horses originally entered and two scratched.

Breakage,

The fractions you list are correct but slower than what was flashed on TVG during the running of the race. They still went very fast for the distance and caliper of horses.

Jim

[cj]

Originally posted by JimG
Tom,

You probably would not have entered your claimer. There were six horses originally entered and two scratched...



Jim

Why not? Two is about the average number of scratches per race in SoCal! :D

[JustRalph]

Originally posted by JimG
The fractions you list are correct but slower than what was flashed on TVG during the running of the race. They still went very fast for the distance and caliper of horses.
Jim

What is up with this fractions thing at HOL? I noticed that they were all screwed uup on TVG the other day and they stopped posting them all together the last few races of the day........?

I want my Fractions Back!

[kenwoodallpromos]

Most of the track was fast; stretch was slow.