Race Card darkening

[Capper Al]

People have talked in the past about how a trainer would hide a horse's true ability in the past performance lines by not trying for the win or putting a horse on the wrong surface, etc. They called this form darkening. After handicapping Ellis Park's card today, I believe we can create the term "Race Card Darkening", if it hasn't been created before. First of all, I don't want to single out Ellis Park for this. I've been noticing this all over.

Race card darkening is an attempt to mess with the line-up of a racing card by the racing secretaries for various reasons. Ellis Park has a featured ninth race -- the Ellis Park Turf Stakes. Here it looks like the goal is for a good Pick 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 payout. Okay, throwing in cheap claimers and maidens is a fair enough challenge. What get's me is how they interfere with the data so a handicapper has an impossible time trying to figure out a race. Things like the same jockey appearing on two horses. Forgivable for entries, but Ellis has same jockeys on non entries. Also listing a bunch of horses that they know will not run. Several race sectaries will put in a false favorites. This is a horse that is in good health and would just walk away with the race, but is scratched before the race. This will lead a capper to highlight a race as an easy pick and might make him handicap the entire card for a pick 6. After the scratch, the capper is too invested in time and energy to look elsewhere.

[therussmeister]

Things like the same jockey appearing on two horses. Forgivable for entries, but Ellis has same jockeys on non entries. Also listing a bunch of horses that they know will not run. Several race sectaries will put in a false favorites. This is a horse that is in good health and would just walk away with the race, but is scratched before the race. This will lead a capper to highlight a race as an easy pick and might make him handicap the entire card for a pick 6. After the scratch, the capper is too invested in time and energy to look elsewhere.
If you think they are making it hard now, think of how hard it would be if they didn't list the horses they know aren't going to run, but they wind up running anyway.

[skate]

Till I'm Blue...Yeppers.

I will call this, what you say is true everywhere in racing/my opinion, for what it is.

horses win a very small % and for an owner/trainer to make some Money, they bet when they THINK the horse is somewhat ready.

Always take your higher Odds play (not easy and that's why i stress the play).
Does not mean you just go off and play the Highest Odds Horse.

The Owners/Trainers want to capitalize on a pay off worth their money and time.

This is not cheating, it is part of the game.

[startngate]

You do realize that Ellis ... like many other tracks with turf courses ... leaves the also eligibles on the program in case there are late scratches because the race comes off the turf. These AE's will often have duplicate jockeys because they will only run if there is a scratch, and it gives the jockey the chance to still ride the race if his original horse comes out.

As for the stakes race, by virtue of the type of race, an owner can scratch for any (or no) reason up to (usually) one hour before post time of the race.

The only real race order that seems out of place to me is the non winners in 2011, which most of the time would have been placed earlier in the card. I'm sure it was placed here to give the track crew time to check the turf course before the Stake with all the other turf races on the card.

As for horses hit the overnight that aren't eventually going to run, you're looking at the wrong spot. It's not the racing secretaries that do that, it's the owners and trainers. And given today's heat index in most of the midwest, I'm not going to complain about anyone scratching their horse today.

[therussmeister]

After handicapping Ellis Park's card today, I believe we can create the term "Race Card Darkening", if it hasn't been created before...

This will lead a capper to highlight a race as an easy pick and might make him handicap the entire card for a pick 6. After the scratch, the capper is too invested in time and energy to look elsewhere.
That fiendishly clever racing secretary at Ellis enticed handicappers to bet a whopping $906 on the pick six today!

[Capper Al]

That fiendishly clever racing secretary at Ellis enticed handicappers to bet a whopping $906 on the pick six today!

It just might be what racing secretaries have to do to keep their card interesting in today's competitive simulicast world. It still does waste the cappers time shifting through races and recalculating them. I too don't blame any trainer for scratching their horse yesterday because of the heat.