I watched a race tonight, where the horse come out of a 25k Alw at MNR win today at CDX in an 80k OClaimer NW4. The conditions were almost like a crossword to decipher, race 3, but still I was surprised.
Then later in the feature a horse that came from an optional claiming 20k NW3 race at Penn National (he was the winner) win the 67k Morluc stakes on the turf after a detour to Indiana downs (OC 40k winner) and a stop off at PID in a 62k OClaimer (winner again)
The sad part is my software loved the feature winner who won at 12-1 but I just couldn't see it...... Jcapper loved the horse.. I sat on my hands.
Maybe I can't read the conditions or whatever...........but since when do those MNR, Indiana Downs, Pen and PID horses come over and run like this?
Have I missed something along the way........? Is the line getting blurred because nobody has any decent horses anymore? just shaking my head a little over here.............
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With exception of a few Saturdays and the Derby weekend, Churchill has became a minor league track. Some good 2 yo run there, but that is about it. It is easy pickings for Indiana horses who ship there. It is very sad, but Kentucky racing has some big problems. There not a lot of easy options for them. They are not very likely to get slots the way things are in the legislature.
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Some day in the not too distant future, horse players will betting on computer generated races over the net. Race tracks will become casinos and shopping centers. And some crooner will be belting out "there used to be a race track here".
With exception of a few Saturdays and the Derby weekend, Churchill has became a minor league track. Some good 2 yo run there, but that is about it. It is easy pickings for Indiana horses who ship there. It is very sad, but Kentucky racing has some big problems. There not a lot of easy options for them. They are not very likely to get slots the way things are in the legislature.
The Twilight cards usually don't attract the better horses, either at Churchill or, like tonight at Hollywood Park. The attractive purses lure horses away from Churchill and then when they return they tend to look cheap, you have to dig a bit to unearth their abilities on the local strip.
ps theres a Big Jim horse I neglected to scratch, sorry about that.
I have played mountaineer a bit. The thing peculiar to there is the elevation. The air is a little thinner. That's why horses from Finger Lakes fair better than Horses from the NYRA circuit when going there. I have seen horses from Belmont that outclassed the field and did nothing there.
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I have played mountaineer a bit. The thing peculiar to there is the elevation. The air is a little thinner. That's why horses from Finger Lakes fair better than Horses from the NYRA circuit when going there. I have seen horses from Belmont that outclassed the field and did nothing there.
I think if you saw some horses coming in from Saratoga based training to either Belmont, Aqueduct, you might notice a slight edge...Belmont is only 45-55 ft above sea level the way I read it. Saratoga is over 550 ft above sea level. Maybe Finger Lakes is too, I didn't check. Those differences though, are slight and should not affect the animals too badly shipping it to Mountaineer..its in approx the same sea level as Saratoga, etc.
Where you might notice a real difference, however, is if a decent sort shipped in from Colorado. Arapoe Park is 6,106 ft above sea level. These horses would have an edge if shipped in and raced quickly, perhaps. All things being equal of course there's not too much quality racing there.
With exception of a few Saturdays and the Derby weekend, Churchill has became a minor league track. Some good 2 yo run there, but that is about it. It is easy pickings for Indiana horses who ship there. It is very sad, but Kentucky racing has some big problems. There not a lot of easy options for them. They are not very likely to get slots the way things are in the legislature.
A NW4L at 80K is a lot less of a race than a 24K Alw as long as the Alw is not conditioned. You don't know what you are going to catch in a 24K Alw nonconditioned at a track that has boosted purses because of slots. You could have a horse that has won 10 races in there.
