Interesting Baffert quote regarding The Factor

[Leparoux]

"Best performance by a three year old all year and The Factor gets a 106 beyer. Aqueduct would have given him 116."

Thoughts?

[Greyfox]

The track surface was a speedway on opening day.

[NTamm1215]

"Best performance by a three year old all year and The Factor gets a 106 beyer. Aqueduct would have given him 116."

Thoughts?

It is Baffert attempting to perpetuate a myth that Beyer figures are somehow skewed to ALWAYS be faster on the east coast. It is yet another instance of him whining, which has become a very frequent occurrence in the last few years.

That, for what it's worth, was not the best performance by a 3YO all year. However, it's a nice try on his part to influence some Eclipse voters.

[Spalding No!]

"Best performance by a three year old all year and The Factor gets a 106 beyer. Aqueduct would have given him 116."

Thoughts?

Sounds like he's campaigning for an Eclipse.

Too little, too late. After his San Vicente win, Bizzaro Baffert (the smarter of the two) said that The Factor was a sprinter, and that he would be campaigned as such. A couple of days later, he was pointed to the 9f Sunland Park Derby, ultimately going to Oaklawn for a couple of Derby preps there. This cost the horse about 4 months of the year, recuperating from his futile efforts to be a Triple Crown horse.

Even after the colt returned with a strong, if tailor made, win in the Pat O'Brien, Baffert still couldn't help himself, ducking real sprinters at the BC after his Ancient Title flop to contest the Dirt Mile. It didn't stop the bleeding.

He should be thankful after his two previous debacles that The Factor hasn't soured completely. As he was only facing horses trying to make the transition from allowance ranks to stakes yesterday, and pretty much got things his own way, it still remains to be seen whether this horse can overcome any adversity or handle a grueling pace scenario.

[davew]

if he wants a higher number, he should race at Aqueduct


or is he politicing for horse of year?

[Greyfox]

Besides the track being souped up, the quality of horses was not that impressive for G1.

[andtheyreoff]

I'm not sure it was even possible for The Factor to run a 116 over that strip.

I mean, he ran 7 furlongs in 1:19.4, which is assumedly somewhere around a 140 on the Beyer rating chart. And yet, he only got a 106, which means the track variant had to be around -34. For him to get a 116, he would have to do 1:18.4, which would be difficult for some of the greats in racing to do, let along The Factor.

[Tom]

Compare that so-called great race to the maidens earlier in the card.
Someone buy Baffert a copy of Picking Winners.....he needs to brush up. :lol:

[Hard2Like]

Surprised no one here has mentioned anything about how another of BB's 3 entries shuts the door on Rosario and the press n go move of the 2 entering the turn.Couldn't (and didn't want to )hear Baffert's post race comments from my seat at simulcast,but I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd said "If that couldn't get it done this year,next year we'd enter 6 of 'em and turn it into the damn roller derby"
Not sayin' the 2 woulda won,but when you've got blockers like Go-Go on your side,things out front really do get easier

[GregReinhart]

It was clear on the replay that Rosario's horse jumped a shadow or something entering the turn and checked. There was no interference or blocking - Hoorayforhollywood maintained his path the entire time.

[cj]

"Best performance by a three year old all year and The Factor gets a 106 beyer. Aqueduct would have given him 116."

Thoughts?

My thoughts are Baffert should stick to training and leave figure making to those that know what they are doing.

[thaskalos]

My thoughts are Baffert should stick to training and leave figure making to those that know what they are doing.
I agree!

And he should also learn to call the horseplayers..."our customers", instead of..."the gamblers".

The man is a genius...until he opens his mouth.

[Valuist]

Baffert only looks foolish in that he entered the horse in the wrong BC race. How many lengths was Euroears beaten in the Sprint?

[Spalding No!]

Baffert only looks foolish in that he entered the horse in the wrong BC race. How many lengths was Euroears beaten in the Sprint?

18 lengths. The Factor would have been beaten no more than 10 lengths in the BC Sprint.

[classhandicapper]

"Best performance by a three year old all year and The Factor gets a 106 beyer. Aqueduct would have given him 116."

Thoughts?

That's actually a lot funnier than most will realize because Thorograph argues that Beyer and Ragozin have California too fast.

I would guess that Baffert's view is the result of noticing that figures earned by Grade 1 synthetic horses are generally lower than figures earned by Grade 1 dirt horses.

Quite a number of his horses shipped east to run on dirt and ran to their CLASS and not their figures (ran faster on dirt). That was typically explained away as a surface preference or one time peak (and in some cases that was probably true), but IMO it's likely there are also race development, pace, and other issues that tend to make horses that run on synthetic look worse than they actually are and speed figures don't capture it.

Unless he thinks the entire circuit too slow because of the figures earned on synthetic being used as input, SA should be in sync because it's a dirt track.

[dnlgfnk]

It's a silly statement to any savvy speed figure practitioner. In the second race, What A Rush earned a naked 113 in winning by half a length, after missing by half a length and a neck with 60's figures. He was credited with a 73 figure Monday, in keeping with the "fast by about 40 pts." variant.

To accuse Gomez or Baffert of willingly risking a jockey or horse's life is calumnious.

[Golf and Horses]

calumnious.
Excellent word! I had to look it up. :lol: Oh sure like I was the only one!

[Tom]

Using Dave Schwartz's part times, I came up with Quirrin numbers for the Malibu of 105-110, par being 110. Slow/Average race shape.

[PhantomOnTour]

Using Dave Schwartz's part times, I came up with Quirrin numbers for the Malibu of 105-110, par being 110. Slow/Average race shape.
I have it at 104-109 Quirin style figs, your basic slow-average race.
The Factor got away with murder in the first 1/4, the slowest of six sprints on the day. His 1/2m time was second slowest on the day.
I am not impressed.

[Valuist]

18 lengths. The Factor would have been beaten no more than 10 lengths in the BC Sprint.

And probably a lot less than 10 lengths. There was no world beaters in the BC Sprint.

[Spalding No!]

And probably a lot less than 10 lengths. There was no world beaters in the BC Sprint.

There was a hot pace, something The Factor couldn't cope with at Santa Anita in the Ancient Title, when losing to the same horse that ultimately won the BC Sprint.

Plus, Bob Baffert claims that his horse didn't handle the track at Churchill, so taking that for granted, it's dubious he would have shown his best stuff regardless of what race he was in.

[5k-claim]

I agree!

And he should also learn to call the horseplayers..."our customers", instead of..."the gamblers".

The man is a genius...until he opens his mouth.Why? Aren't the people who wager on a gambling game called gamblers?

.