andicap
11-06-2005, 10:28 AM
After taking my daughter to see "Dreamer" yesterday - a great, great family movie by the way -- she convinced me that teaching people to handicap on a basic/intermediate level wasn't all that hard.
(WARNING: Spoiler alert if you don't wand to know the ending).
In the race, the horse, Sonyador (sp?) gets stuck in last after the jockey gets pushed out of his irons. (In the real world, I know the horse would have no shot -- but this is the movies, OK?) She comes back to win in a head-to-head stretch drive.
After the movie, she said to me, "the horse won because it saved its energy and the other horses got tired." Well, that was a brilliant observation for a 6 year old -- making me a proud daddy. The first quarter in the BC Classic race in the movie went in 22.1 so you knew the leaders were coming back. That's how Sonyador won -- the pace fell apart.
I asked her how she knew this -- I thought I had tried to explain it to her once -- but she said from running races in the schoolyard with her friends. She would let them get the lead and then the kids --like most 2 yr old horses -- would run too fast too early and tire out. (run a high %E) and my daughter would pick up the pieces.
I then explained what would happen if the kids were running really slowly -- that she should run closer to the front because they wouldn't tire out and she grasped it instantly.
She has pace handicapping 50% down already. Next we'll tackle positional handicapping and she'll be all set to go.
BTW, ---
Those critics who panned this movie aren't the target audience. It's kids, and my 6 yr-old daughter loved it. I thought it was cute, inoffensive and enjoyed the inside racing stuff (yes, there was some misinformation, contrivances, impossible to believe stuff in there -- but repeat after me, "It's only a movie." Look what hollywood does in its biopics. They change facts all the time in the interest of the dramatic license.)
I still think NTRA blew it big time by not getting behind this film completely to promote the Breeder's Cup. It's a very positive film for horse racing and one kids would love.
(WARNING: Spoiler alert if you don't wand to know the ending).
In the race, the horse, Sonyador (sp?) gets stuck in last after the jockey gets pushed out of his irons. (In the real world, I know the horse would have no shot -- but this is the movies, OK?) She comes back to win in a head-to-head stretch drive.
After the movie, she said to me, "the horse won because it saved its energy and the other horses got tired." Well, that was a brilliant observation for a 6 year old -- making me a proud daddy. The first quarter in the BC Classic race in the movie went in 22.1 so you knew the leaders were coming back. That's how Sonyador won -- the pace fell apart.
I asked her how she knew this -- I thought I had tried to explain it to her once -- but she said from running races in the schoolyard with her friends. She would let them get the lead and then the kids --like most 2 yr old horses -- would run too fast too early and tire out. (run a high %E) and my daughter would pick up the pieces.
I then explained what would happen if the kids were running really slowly -- that she should run closer to the front because they wouldn't tire out and she grasped it instantly.
She has pace handicapping 50% down already. Next we'll tackle positional handicapping and she'll be all set to go.
BTW, ---
Those critics who panned this movie aren't the target audience. It's kids, and my 6 yr-old daughter loved it. I thought it was cute, inoffensive and enjoyed the inside racing stuff (yes, there was some misinformation, contrivances, impossible to believe stuff in there -- but repeat after me, "It's only a movie." Look what hollywood does in its biopics. They change facts all the time in the interest of the dramatic license.)
I still think NTRA blew it big time by not getting behind this film completely to promote the Breeder's Cup. It's a very positive film for horse racing and one kids would love.