Mar 20
2015
Beholder and Gary Stevens. Photo by Alicia Hamm
Continuing on the theme of a prior article on “Visual Handicapping” we’re going to get into more details on questions raised there. Click here to review the visual handicapping article, and learn more about the differences between visual handicapping and trip handicapping.
With visual handicapping, it’s always important to look beyond the raw numbers (i.e. Beyer Speed Figures, Pace Figures, Running Lines) in the Daily Racing Form and ask the question, “How did they do it?”
We raised some of these questions before, but we’ll ask them again:
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Mar 13
2015
UPDATE: Post-Race Recap Added.
The 7th race at Gulfstream Park on Thursday, March 12th is an interesting race to feature in our new “Get A Leg Up↑” series. A Starter Allowance and Optional Claiming Race with half the field eligible under the Starter Allowance condition of having started for $16,000 in a past claiming race and the other half entered for a Claiming Tag of $25,000.
One of the more interesting angles to this race is the presence of a horse trained by Todd Pletcher, who has a predictably low Morning Line (7-5 Odds) due to the very popular trainer and jockey combination. However, based purely on TFUS speed figures, he has no clear advantage over several of the competitors in the race.
If you’re unfamiliar with the meaning of “Claiming” or “Starter Allowance” races, here are a couple of articles that will explain them. Click on the links below to open the article in a new Tab.
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Mar 9
2015
Brendan Walsh
When he started training three years ago, Brendan Walsh bought enough equipment for a dozen horses. That wasn’t enough. It went to twenty and now it’s 32 horses in his stable. He expects to have between 40 and 45 horses over the summer. The day after we interviewed Brendan, he won his 3rd consecutive start at Gulfstream Park. In 2014, he cracked the $1 million mark for purses earned. So, the life of a horse trainer is a bed of roses, huh. Well, listen to Brendan’s story before you give up your day job to try it out.
Brendan Walsh grew up on a farm in County Cork, Ireland. That gave him plenty of exposure to animals, but not horses … until he got a pony. He had to teach himself how to ride, since no one in his family “had a clue.” Brendan described his relationship with the pony, “For about two years that pony would buck and kick and run off on me. My dad said anyone else would have just quit. But, I’d keep getting back on him, and eventually I got him going pretty good.”
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Mar 4
2015
UPDATE: Post-Race Recap Added.
The 7th race at Tampa Bay Downs on Wednesday, March 4th is an interesting race to feature in our new “Get A Leg Up↑” series. At first glance, a Starter Allowance Race. Upon closer inspection, really more of a Claiming Race.
Only three of the eleven horses entered in this race are eligible under the Starter Allowance condition of having started for $16,000 in a past claiming race. And one of them is on the Also Eligible (AE) list. The remaining eight horse are entered for a Claiming Tag of $25,000.
If you’re unfamiliar with the meaning of “Claiming” or “Starter Allowance” races, here are a couple of articles that will explain them. Click on the links below to open the article in a new Tab.
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Feb 27
2015
In the introductory article on the topic of Form, we explained the challenges and potential rewards for mastering the art of evaluating a horse’s current racing Form (aka Fitness, Condition, Sharpness, Readiness). Click here for a review of that article. Unlike Distance and Class, there is no singular column of data in the Racing Form or Program that identifies “Form.” But, possibly the most useful column is the Race Date column. Read More >>
Feb 22
2015
UPDATE: Post-Race Recap Added.
The 11th race at Gulfstream Park on Friday, February 20th is an interesting race to feature in our new “Get A Leg Up↑” series. A restricted Claiming Race that is made up predominantly of horses dropping into the claiming ranks after multiple tries against Allowance company.
If you’re unfamiliar with the meaning of “Claiming” or “Allowance” races, here are a couple of articles that will explain them. Click on the links below to open the article in a new Tab.
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Feb 17
2015
Julian Leparoux
Continuing with our popular “Meet The People” series, I recently sat down with Julian Leparoux in the jockey’s room at Gulfstream Park. Julian emigrated from France to the USA in 2003 and began riding thoroughbred horses as a jockey in 2005. He made a big splash in 2006 by setting records for an apprentice in terms of wins and earnings. As a result of these feats, he was awarded the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey that year.
Over the years he has been labeled as an excellent “turf rider,” “polytrack rider,” “gate rider” … and a few more that he mentions below. But in the end, as I discovered with many of Julian’s responses … it really all depends on the horses he’s riding.
How did you get started riding horses?
My dad was an assistant trainer in France. I grew up around horses all my life. I started riding at eleven and I did show jumping. I started riding racehorses around eighteen. I galloped horses one year in France, and then I came to the States in 2003 and started riding in 2005. Then 2006 was an amazing year, I won 403 races and was top apprentice.
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Feb 12
2015
In a prior article we introduced a new feature on our website, called “Get A Leg Up↑” – an ongoing series intended to give horseplayers “a leg up” on handicapping races. Click here to read the introduction.
In this article we explain in greater detail the terminology you will be seeing in “Get A Leg Up↑” articles yet to come. A link back to this article will be included in all future “Get A Leg Up↑” articles for easy reference in case you have any questions about the terminology used.
Over time, new terms will likely be added to the list. When that happens, we will update this page so that the list is complete.
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Feb 6
2015
Today we introduce a new feature on the website called “Get A Leg Up↑“. This is a term used in horse racing when someone gives a jockey a boost up onto the back of a horse.
In our series we hope to give horseplayers a boost up on a race. We will select individual races that provide opportunities to learn and maybe with a little luck, provide some financial rewards in the process. But, our main focus is education. We will not be providing any “picks,” and we will try to keep the analysis focused on … well, as Sergeant Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet, “Just the facts, ma’am.”
There will be multiple components to this new feature. The first three will be published prior to the race. The last two will be published after the race.
- Show a Pace Projector for the race, provided by TimeformUS.
- Provide a Summary Sheet that includes some information about every horse in the race, including horse number, post position, age, jockey, trainer, morning line, and a “Form Indicator” (explained below).
- Provide detailed handicapping comments for every horse in the race (explained below).
- Provide a post-race recap that summarizes the results of the race and relates them back to the handicapping comments. Also, a link to the official Equibase race chart will be provided.
- If a public video of the race replay is available (i.e. on YouTube), the video will be added to the article below the post-race recap.
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Feb 1
2015
Continuing with the example from a prior article, “There’s Gold In Them Thar Result Charts,” we are going to review the additional information that can be gleaned from these detailed charts. Click here for a review of that article. We looked at a standard result chart and the “Next Race” version that shows you the very next race for all of the horses following the race chart being viewed. That allows you to see exactly how well each horse did after the race. But, how were they doing before, or leading up to the race being reviewed? For that, there is an option to view the “Beyer Figures” (Click here to learn about the fundamentals of Beyer Figures) for up to ten preceding races. The following result chart view was generated from the same July 19 race as in the prior article: Read More >>
