Scratches

[harpowitz]

Downloading daily entries from BRIS (never used BRIS before), I noted that after the last race entries there was a scratch sheet showing the last 3 scratches(?-not sure of this)or less for the horses running that day. The reason given for the scratches were either trainer, off turf, stewards, or vetinarian. Are steward or vet scratches a significant warning signal? On 9/3 at the Meadowlands, Pooksa Hill was running in the 1st race. The sheet showed he was a vet scratch abt 2 months earlier. He had 1 workout at 4f a month prior to raceday. He was dropping from high claiming and allowance races at Belmont to a $20 claiming race. This is an obvious case and you may not need a scratch sheet to spot this. He finished a badly beaten 3rd and had a PPWR of 1. How much weight should be given to these types of scratches? Other horses on the sheet came back and ran well. The only thing I noticed was they came back at the same level.

[mhrussell]

"Harp"-

I would not worry too much about this. Life is too short. I would recommend you let price be your guide in these situations. If the horse's soundness is in question and he is 2-1 on the board; forget it. If he is 25-1 and has OK numbers in other areas go ahead and bet him.

[JimH]

Herb,

The only scratches to really pay attention to are veterinarian scratches. This is an indication that something was wrong with the horse on that day--nothing more and nothing less. Be wary of just tossing a dropper after a vet scratch though. After a vet scratch, most trainers feel that the next race is a "free shot." You wouldn't claim a horse that looks that suspicious, would you? One of my horses was a vet scratch at Delaware on 7/16--he was dropped down to the $25,000 claiming level (the scratch was from a $40,000 race) on 7/27 at Monmouth and breezed to an easy six-length win under wraps. The reason for the scratch? He coughed a couple times that morning and we elected to not ship him two hours because IF it was an infection of some kind (we didn't know), the trip would make it worse. Turned out to be something that went away in three days, but we played on the side of caution. By the way, after he won the $25,000 claimer, he went back to our barn--he wasn't claimed.

Stewards' scratches are the generic means of listing trainer scratches at a lot of tracks, so don't pay a lot of heed to them. It's also how some tracks list a "scratch" when a horse fails to draw in off the AE list. And trainer scratches happen for any number of reasons, most of which have no bearing on the horse's next start.