Deep closers

[Fred Mertz]

Originally Posted by ultracapper

From an entertainment standpoint, however, there is nothing more exciting to the casual fan than a horse that comes from outer space to gobble them up.

That's what I told my buddy about Zenyatta when we watched her race on TV. The rookies don't get why the 3/5 fave is usually last going into the clubhouse turn. Yes, very exciting to watch.

[classhandicapper]

One of the things that makes it so tough for deep closers to win is how inefficiently they distribute their energy. They often go so slow early, whatever they are gaining by relaxing off the real action is less than they are losing in position. Then when they make that huge middle move to get back into contention they are spent in the stretch and hang. Of course, if the rider chooses to wait longer he can finish better, but he'll never make up all the ground. It'd kind of hopeless unless the race falls apart or the horse is really special and has 2 big moves.