3/10 (SA): Big Cap, Kilroe, Triple Bend (G1's), San Felipe (G2), China Doll

[declansharbor]

They gave you the Cross Country P4 that consisted of all stakes. Play it?

They had 12 entries (11 after the scratch) in that 16k claimer you speak of.
The abysmal allowance race produced an $18 winner.

You clearly aren’t the only one complaining about it though bc i’ve Seen it mentioned multiple times since entries were released.

It’s not as if it was a $6250 5 furlong Sprint like Gulfstream sometimes does.

I personally don’t see the gripe with SA today other than how the track looked once their feature race was over. The surface switch in the P6 would be a bigger annoyance to me if I were betting today.

If SA ever turns you off again during the winter, you could always spend $100 and play Aqueduct’s Pick 5 for fifty cents and have every horse in those races on your ticket!

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by LITF

Now if only that could've been backed up by the Big Cap, as awful a race as it was this year, it still would've been awesome to go Kilroe-San Felipe-Big Cap. But I guess that's too much to ask.

Seriously, can we please work on this? It's so f#$%&$*$ stupid that we in So Cal can't figure this out on our biggest days of the year. I know there is a lot of fixing that needs to happen here in So Cal but I do believe the racing, when done right, is exceptional. This day could've been great. Even with the rain. But a 16K claimer and some whack ass allowance race! Come on. Let me play the big horses back to back and I'll wager much more. I promise.

Add it to the list Mr. Ritvo.

The races were staged where they were because of #1, the weather concerns and need to keep the Kilroe on turf no matter what and #2, to accommodate the X-C P4, the telecast and its' need for the 3yo races. And running the Kilroe as the 5th worked. And the Big Cap had to be placed where it was. The racing office would have loved to laid out an all stakes P4.

All in all, considering the way the forecast/radar looked at 6a this morning, the day was pretty miraculous.

[LITF]

I love the cross country Pick 4. Think it's a great idea. I also understand that it plays a part in where races are placed on a given card. My question is, why does it matter where the races are placed for a pick 4 at multiple tracks? Does it really matter if they run these races in sequential order? Why not run the two races at Aqueduct and then run the two races at Santa Anita later on? Maybe that keeps players at Aqueduct after the live racing is done. I don't know, maybe that's impractical.

I also get why the three stakes were placed earlier in the card due to weather concerns but I think that's silly. Control what you can control, which is the configuration of the card, not the weather. Weather is a variable all outside sports must endure.

My gripe with the configuration of the card is a selfish one. It's not that I think a 16K claimer is not a good betting race. In fact, in this case it was clearly the opposite. It was too good a betting race. I don't have time to wade through an eleven race card anymore. I don't have time to follow along all levels of the sport, especially low level claimers. I have to choose a group and stick to them. For obvious reasons I choose to follow stakes horses or horses thereabout that caliber. I look forward to days like these because I'm hopeful the Pick 4 (which is my favorite bet to play) will consist of at least three of these stakes races. Today was disappointing because the late Pick 4 basically consisted of one stake race. While the filly grass race was a fantastic betting race it was not one of the higher end races of the day. It makes it hard for me to bet confidently because I don't know these horses. I have way too much other stuff going on in my life to spend time following so many horses. I know that's my problem but, as a customer, I'd like to think it is also the tracks problem since I chose not to play the late Pick 4 today.

I apologize for my ramblings. I don't normally post here as I am very much a novice horse player but this has been bothering me for some time. I should probably be more frustrated that a race like the Triple Bend drew such a small field but field size has never really bothered me. I think it would have been great to see the Triple Bend-Kilroe-San Felipe-Big Cap. And I think that could've happened despite weather concerns and the cross country Pick 4. Or, maybe be a bit creative and have a non-sequential on track Pick 4. That'd be cool but maybe logistically difficult. I don't know.

Despite all that I did think it was a fun day and don't mean to be overly critical as I love Santa Anita and think it is the greatest place to watch races in the country. One of the best corned beef sandwiches around too.