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![]() On Saturday, Fabulous Strike had a 4-to-5 wide trip, carried 126lbs, and ran 118 on the Beyer scale. He ran a negative six on the Thoro-Graph's in his prior start....
I believe Ghostzapper is the fastest horse in Thoro-Graph sheet history, with back-to-back negative 6.5's he earned in his prior two starts coming into the Breeders Cup Classic...where he bounced to a negative 4.5 and won with ease. While I am a tremendously loyal Ghostzapper fan---I'd really love to see the all-time record, outright fastest, Jerry Brown figure ever achieved, have been earned in the five furlong Panhandle Stakes at Mountaineer. That would just warm my heart. Of course, if anyone remembers back a couple years, Mineshaft was marooned out in something like post positon 11 for the Stephen Foster at Chuchill Downs. He was also the highweight. He had a very wide trip on both turns, and was nipped in a very fast running of the Foster. It turned out, Mineshaft got something crazy fast like a negative 5 that day, meaning the all-time fastest figure in the history of the Thoro-Graph sheets (which I believe go back to the late-80's) was actually earned in a LOSING effort! I guess in defense of them, Mineshaft never lost another race again, and was eventually named horse of the year. Cannon Shell is right that it's often wise to be a little skeptical about some figures earned in West Virgina. Charles Town's commonly run 4.5 furlong races can sometimes yield some whacky numbers, and the Mountaineer dirt is a very peculiar surface. However, the Beyer's he's been running there seem pretty cut and dry. I'm sure he really has a fondness for that track. If anyone has a chance to watch film of this race (Saturday's 9th at Mountaineer) I'd recommend they do. The horse ran his final 1/8th in 12.08 seconds, inspite of the fact the rider was visibly restraining him for almost the entire stretch run. His ears were pricked and it looked more like a workout than a race. It may be a longshot, but I really hope this leads to Jerry Brown releasing 'Are Race Horses Getting Faster? - Pt. 6A' and doing another slide show presentation about track cushion, and clay versus sand..... Last edited by The Indomitable DrugS : 05-07-2007 at 07:52 AM. |