[Real Quiet]

Originally Posted by JolyB

I want to take a minute and express a concern that I've had for some time, but that has been placed into clear relief by this week's contest card. That has to do with the way in which the points contest format tends to push most of us into selecting lots and lots of the same horses and tends to stifle handicapping creativity. In this week's group of races, the small fields and relative lack of bad favorites (you know, those horses for which you would say, "I wouldn't bet on that horse with YOUR money") has left us with picking many of the same horses on top (well, why in the world wouldn't you put Imperial Hint on top?) and often putting many of the same picks in the second slot. That means that there is a high likelihood that the winner will be the player who does the best job of picking a some third place finishers out of a few equally matched candidates. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but to me it is sort of disappointing.

Of course, I could be all wrong in this. The Turf Classic has the potential of having real surprises and when you are dealing with 2 year olds stretching to two turns for the first time, just about anything can happen. But it seems that most of us are looking at a lot of these races the same way, and that our experience in trying to win a contest with the points contest format has driven us in that direction.

I wish I had some proposal that might be a solution to this concern, especially if anyone else might happen to share this concern. Unfortunately I don't. This post is designed to provoke reaction and perhaps ask whether we ought to think about any other format that we would find more to everyone's liking. There may be a majority who say, "I like the format exactly as it is", in which case I'll try to keep my concerns to myself.

Thank you for listening, my friends.

I don't know how other players handicap the points but I play the horses that my style tells me to pick. As a result I infrequently win the points contest. My only hope (and I've never delved into it) is that our points players don't strictly play morning line odds. I have to disagree with you Joly that picking a "third" place horse is disappointing. My bread and butter is finding the value in the 2 or 3 slots or even going 8 deep in a superfecta. I believe in the chaos factor and that anything can happen. Of course even when I go 8 deep I am picking horses I think have a chance. As for Ruffs reply I find it disappointing to pick 4 or 5 winners on a card and get beat by one improbable horse. To sum it up I have no solutions or suggestions at the moment but like JB I am open for new idea's.