Today's Venue . . .

[DonGuido]

Sorry folks, I should have picked another track. Multiple trainer entries and scratches???????

[Alli]

Looks like if you want to lead the track standings, you need at least 3 horses in each race.

[DonGuido]

Don't ever let anyone pick Thistledown again!!! Thank you.

[JolyB]

I don't think that you need to be so hard on yourself Don Guido. It's not as if there were any other good venue choices available.

Every so often I think that it is a good thing for our small band of handicappers to visit a track that we might not otherwise play. Prior to yesterday I didn't know JACK about Thistledown (pun intended, see track website). Now I know why it isn't on my regular rotation.

Not suggesting that we pass up Saratoga or Del Mar when they are in season, but on limited appeal Saturdays it could be an interesting change of pace to visit places like Ellis, Hawthorne or even Lone Star. As Daniel Webster famously said in the old Dartmouth College case, "It is a small place, but there are those who love it."

Besides, for our worst track ever, we'll always have Kamloops.

[cal828]

As Joly said, the pickens were slim, so what choice did you have and even though the feature race was cut down to a hand full, it was still a tricky little race to handicap and I don't blame anyone for putting Brad's horse on top. As we have all learned, can't leave anything trained by Chad or Brad or Todd out without regretting it, but didn't turn out that way this time. Still, lone speed wins an awful lot of races, but we are often taken aback by it. I don't know about you guys, but for myself, I miss a lot of races by being dazzled by trainer stats and big speed figures and not focusing on that old sage advice about "the pace is the race" and so this is just one more race that I read wrong.

[DonGuido]

Agree with you Joly and Cal I too am swayed wrongfully by the more succesful trainers along with speed figures. Frankly I put a lot emphasis, not always, on early and late pace and success at the track they are running on. Seldom do I look at sire/dame bloodlines unless I'm totally "Dazed and Confused" (Led Zeppelin) by my other criteria. But when you see Chad, Brad, Steve or Tod and Bob, it's hard not to give a first look . . . oh and then there's the jockeys and the . . . . . . I'll also dmit when I'm to lazy or it's oo late to run thu thr PP's I have won some contests just picking from the DRF entries.