When I clocked at DMR, I hung out on the 4th floor box seats. Good vantage point and not many distractions.
First thing to do is to get a list of all trainers in So Cal. Try and figure out who uses what on their horses in the morning (saddle towels, blinkers, shadow rolls, girth straps, even how they tape bandages can help seperate one trainer from another) Looking at blinkers of horses in the afternoon can help you I.D. horses of obscure trainers in the morning.
It's not like they have a million different sets of blinkers.
The work tab you can get off the Del Mar website matches up names to trainers.
heres the link.
http://www.dmtc.com/racinginfo/works/pdf/100824
Most important thing is getting markings and colors. For without the correct match up to the horses name, you'll be wasting your time.
Binocs, stop watch, voice recorder, clipboard are tools needed
Heres a link to Markings and color descriptions
http://www.deannesweb.com/horses/horsecolors/index.html
Focus more on the longer distance drills, 5/8s and up. and also gate drills.
The gate is set up at the 1/4 mile chute for morning drills so most of those drills will finish on the backstretch.
Dont go out on a Saturday until you've at least gone a couple of days during the week. Going on a Saturday will be very disheartening as many more horses work on this day and you'll be overwhelmed by the chaos.
When clocking, catch a horses work at the break off pole, then every 1/8th of a mile to the 1/4 then just the final 1/4 will do. I look for speed/ and or a good finish. However, many trainers train differently. Some trainers train horses to start fast and coast home, some train to relax early and fly home. You've got to learn the trainers tendencies before you can assess their runners drills.
Poles. Black and white are 1/16's (first pole to the left of the wire is the 1/16, the 2nd is Green and white (1/8s pole), 3rd is black white (3/16), 4th is red white (1/4 pole), 5th is b/w 5/16 and 6th is g/w 3/8s, and so on. Basically the 3 RED WHITE POLES are the 1/4,1/2 and 3/4s, the 4 GREEN WHITE POLES are the 1/8, 3/8,5/8 and 7/8s...the rest are 1/16's
Horses that drop down to the rail are working.. Horses are not allowed to jog or gallop on the rail,. That spot is reserved for workers. So if you see a horse go from the middle of the track down to the rail shortly before a pole, he'll be breaking off at that pole. That's when you start the watch.
Finally, don't overbet a good work. Some times horses show tons of ability in the morning (prior to their first race) but it takes them a couple of starts to finally break through. There is nothing like race experience.
My theory is a horse that works well can run well or bad. But a horse that works bad will almost never run well (unless he's already shown he's a bad worker that runs well). I use works as a way to toss out horses with little or no ability or horses that are just plain stupid (poor acting horses tend to due poorly in races)
Hope this helps.
