Quote:
Originally Posted by thaskalos
IMO...the "sharp and profitable handicappers" remain "sharp and profitable" because they don't do ANYTHING "historically". Every race has a unique nature...and has to be looked at as a solitary event -- with unique characteristics. The same "perfect trip" argument against Always Dreaming was proposed after his Florida Derby victory...but this didn't prevent the "perfect trip" from materializing again in the Derby.
The most important determination to make ISN'T in criticizing the "perfect trip" that a particular horse enjoyed in a given race. It's in determining whether or not substantial factors exist which could prevent this "perfect trip" from occurring again NEXT TIME.
|
Sharp Post. At what point did clean, victorious trips earned by virtue of tactical speed, tractability, and finishing kick become suspect??? It's somehow become fashionable among "experts" to dismiss stalking scores as some inevitable (and undeserved) consequence of sitting close to the speed(s), while getting first run on the closers. News flash: Thats what good horses DO. And VERY good ones do it REPEATEDLY.
Running styles, trips, race-flow, and bias are all big parts of my handicapping, but the contest nowadays to see who can burrow more deeply into the minutiae of thoroughbred voyages has, in some cases, become an illusionary, self-created world conducive to arcane, irrelevant observations inapplicable to a horse's subsequent starts.