Gotham Stakes

[Handicappy]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

I'm tired of all this status quo BS. I worked on the backstretch and I have a pretty good idea what can and what can't be done. I'm sick and tired of hearing bettors REPEATING what LAZY/INCOMPETENT horsemen have been spewing for years. Yes, I realize that horses can be difficult but I'm tired of hearing that horses can ONLY do this or that: needs the lead; is headstrong; doesn't want to run behind horses; won't run on the inside. BULL ****. Each horse should be treated as an individual (case). Spend enough time with a horse and 'strange' things happen.

Tell you an interesting story about a cheap old out-of-town claimer that eventually won a nice allowance race in NYC, at BEL, running 1:09 and change. Had a nice run for a while. It's funny that this was a need the lead type in all of his previous races. In fact, he was so aggressive, that you couldn't even WALK HIM BEHIND horses in the barn; he had to in front of them. YET, the trainer was able to get him to rate and win. Wonder why that was? Yeah, the horse has to 'cooperate' and the jock needs to have a clue BUT the trainer also needs to TEACH the horse. Can't be that difficult to do because I don't see too many INTELLECTUALS on the backstretch. Seems that even OLD GELDINGS can learn to do new things.

To get a sense of where this game is in terms of technology, compare the teams involved in other forms of racing, auto and bike, for example, the work involved in getting ready for a race, with the 'teams' (laughable) in horse racing. Time to really catch up with the times.

I don't disagree but you are getting into a different area here. We are talking about 3 yr olds on the trail. Trainers don't tend to take the time or have the time to turn a horses' natural tendencies around. Owners press to see what kind of horse they have. An old gelding is an entirely different category of horse in this sense. Heck, I am not gelded but I'll be darned if I ain't more compliant with doing things a bit differently these days. More so than when I was younger and thought I knew everything.