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[NorCalGreg]

Welcome to the forum, kbatch57. I know Mike bets Delta regularly--he even got me following the action. Most of the spot plays on Trainer Moves work best on the lower level tracks, and Delta fits that description nicely. I did see big winners at Gulfstream and Santa Anita, so winners can pop up anywhere.

One spot play is a little-known, but classic trainer maneuver: WORST RACE LAST. This situation (that's what spot-plays are--simply a "situation") occurs when a trainer has a horse he thinks is improving and ready to win. To insure a good price, he may enter the horse ...with a brand-x rider (usually-not always) aboard to hide his improvement by making no effort this race.
Some of the tricks they use is to run very wide, stay behind a wall of horses, never pass any horses, etc.

Now here's the key...if this is in fact a betting coup attempt--the trainer will enter his horse right back in 12 days or less off this dismal performance. It takes a skilled trainer to pull this off...you can look through past perf's any day and see what surely appear to be failed attempts at this maneuver.

To make this play completely mechanical, is difficult. The whole enterprise depends on the trainer's motives on this day. You won't see this play show up every day...but when it does it would behoove you to take a good look and get inside that trainer's head. Is this what you think it is? Or is he just an incompetent horseman. If the horse has been all over the place--different distances, surfaces, riders, way up in class, way down, etc...he is probably not a good bet. That's where your handicapping instincts come in.

These are the "WRL" plays from Delta this past week. Only 5 plays total--and personally I don't wager on this play at less than 6-1 ML.
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