Yes. Different game than T-bred racing where there is essentially no "slip-stream" effect.

As you are aware, Bob, there are very few completely one-dimensional front runners in the sport. Almost all leaving types have the ability to sit a pocket or close up. Only the very few rank and borderline-insane must have the front end in every race.

On the other hand, leaving hard into a fast first fraction and surviving to finish well is something of a specialized talent which accrues to the horses who do it frequently. That's why you'll very often see normally good-closing types curl up and die when they get involved in a high-speed bid for the front. They just aren't set up to handle the oxygen debt that hits them under these circumstances.

The Meadowlands is something of a specialized case in that horses leaving are very frequently given a hole in which to tuck. This is due to the fear that drivers have of a stalled horse outside of them who can prevent them from getting into the outer flow. They'd rather just let the hung animal in so as to get him out of the way. So leaving with a non-leaving type is far less risky there than at other venues.

But on 5/8 and 1/2 mile tracks, it's much more difficult to decide to just leave with your non-leaver. And when you do, the results are generally not very good. The infrequent leaver is much more effective from inner posts where he can use just enough early speed to protect a close-up position without hitting breaking-point early speed levels.

she's back and just beat a 1-5 shot at yonkers. i followed her in for $10-$10.

i just saw that and was laughing.

she just picked a 6-1 shot at mountaineer lets see how she does

she didnt do so well there but im sure she has hit enough picks tonight

she picked some other winner at yonkers, she is becoming an expert there. she claims her harness handicapping is effecting her thoroughbred selections.

she is getting all the help in the world. she claims that she had misplaced her forms and 2 seconds later she claims she found them and produced another winner!

this has just stepped up and picked a cold exacta at yonkers.

Lamboguy: Where exactly is she posting her picks?

She is the night Host on TVG I believe

Markgoldie and Pandy very good posts. Mark I absolutly believe speed is the name of the game now. On the other hand Pandy your comment with regards to just because the horse never left who's to say it won't tonight,so true. In 4 years of results just completed looking at pace shapes and speed I have found that in most cases where the horse was comfortable with the pace shape of a race enabled me to cut the contenders down to two or three which to key onto as a selection. Those who can make forward motion into a hot pace without a total collapse I would tend to look at closely as a contender where as a horse that runs late based on the collapse of the front end I might use to construct a ticket based on how much front end the race had. Up close against a hot pace generally is what I look at,closers never amount to a win or top exotic horse IMO. Great post guys. :ThmbUp:

"Up close against a hot pace generally is what I look"

Trotman,
Ainslie had a "term" for these types of horses in his T-Bred books.
Although I don't recall it exactly, it was something like "pace prompters".

I read the Ainslie T-Breds books before I read his harness book, and as a result (in them old days) carried over much of his T-Bred analogy into harness handicapping.
Ainslie's superb and extensive explanation of "driving finishes" in the T-breds is worth reading.