and i can assure rick porter that he need not worry about oaklawn packing the house. the crowds will be there, with or without him and his garish sports coat.


perhaps someone could prevail upon larry jones to actually retire, and take rick porter with him? i almost wish i had a facebook account so i could take him to task...but even this isn't worth that trouble! perhaps the next hoy winner can be someone without a douche for an owner? we've had our fill of them lately.

He immediately loses all credibility for mentioning Absinthe Minded as a contender in a G1 race...not that he had any.

A horse of the year is saddled with 123 pounds against Absinthe Minded nd it's termed a travesty...complaining about it, that would be the travesty. This is such bloviating drivel, I don't know where to start...oh yeah, except for maybe the fact that Hard Spun and Eight Belles never raced beyond their 3YO seasons, and were never possibly in this position to begin. That's a good place to start. Triple-digit Beyers = high handicap weights?

Say what you want about what HDG would have to carry, but props to Pope for assigning the COMPETITION legitimate weights, and maintaining some degree of sanity. It's useless to be held to some unattainable standard that may, or may not, be arbitrarily bashed by Porter, so Pope assigned a scrub like Absinthe Minded 9 pounds less than the reigning HOTY. Oh, the tragedy.

I bet D. Wayne was pumped that Porter mentioned Absinthe Minded in that ridiculous rant. Havre de Grace should have to give her 15 lbs minimum.

An absolute embarrassment to the sport by crying that the HOTY can't beat these others. I'm not saying they are mules, but they aren't CHAMPIONS as this mare is supposed to be. The fact they are trying to create public outcry is beyond my understanding. How DARE they try to make a handicap fair by adding lbs. I stand by my statement that the connections of this mare DID NOT deserve HOTY. I surely hope they ruin her reputation with this ducking enough for voters to remember this in ballots later.

:$:
:tro:

He also called the BCC the granddaddy of them all.

Welcome to horse racing 2012. Porter's attitude and thought process is not unique in the sport at the higher levels. Perhaps not necessarily always about weights but the effort to build creampuff filled resumes is what cheats the game from seeing great races and has weakened some of our traditionally top races. The idea that the best horses should be given some sort of advantage because they might draw a few more fans to the track to see another 5 horse coronation is incredibly stupid.

If they want a weight break so bad, there's an easy solution. Run against the boys.

exactly. she got 118 for the oaklawn 'cap. he never even mentioned that in his ricidulous diatribe. i think they were unhappy with her slower than expected work so they're skipping racing altogether in favor of making sure she's 100%. the weights are a bad but convenient excuse.

Heh. If someone posted that on her Facebook Page, I wonder how many seconds would elapse before the comment was deleted.

This is some stupid stuff out of Porter/Jones. They have last years Woodward winner. I guess they want Zenyatta her.

Curious what the purpose of a handicap is for racing. Is it to make all things even? Or is it like other sports, such as golf or bowling, only meant to make things more competitve? I've never given it much thought but I think the deck should still be stacked in favor of the better horses. They've earned it.

Bottom line is HDG isn't ready for the Apple Blossom, or at least isn't ready for her best. She'll be a big play against in the La Troienne

What sport gives the "better" athletes/teams an advantage? Handicaps are designed to give all participants an equal chance and if they choose not to accept the weight fine. But it is the attitude that they have been wronged somehow which is so laughable.

i disagree. handicaps are to try to get fuller fields; as a way to encourage those with horses that are at a disadvantage to run in races-otherwise we'd have more walk-overs and smaller fields. everyone one in a while you get folks who throw little temper tantrums like porter yesterday. it's an attempt to sway the racing secretaries to concern themselves more with getting a star horse than they are in weighting a race correctly. it's not a slap at porter, but to give a lesser gap would be a slap in the face to every other owner who might enter a horse. porter is completely in the wrong here. he wants the best of both worlds, to win awards and accolades but not necessarily earn them.
what they should have said is based on hds's work, they're going to give her a little more time. it's far more plausible, and would make him appear less a petty tyrant and moron.
the 118 she'd have gotten to face boys also proves it wasn't the weight. he wants to win trophies this year based on last years' body of work. wonder where he got that idea from?

:tro:

I'm not sure, but I think golf and bowling (local stuff, not professional) have handicap events. Your handicap allowance only gets you closer to even. you would still have to raise your game to win.

My point is I don't think a weight allowance should be applied to make all horses even, merely to close the gap. You're right, Porter's attitude is laughable. But hey, some say HDG is unworthy of horse of the year, then turn around and say they should carry so much more weight. Both can't be right, can they?

Based on what?

It's not going to make all things even; one horse is still going to win the race. But adjusting weight according to displayed ability is going to, theoretically, give any horse in the race a chance. And for a sport that depends on gambling, that's essential.

I like HdG and I was glad she won HoY. But so far they're campaigning like Rachel Alexandra's 4-year-old year. Yawn.

Weight allowances are used in non-handicap claiming, allowances and stakes races every day. I ran a 4 year old filly in a maiden special weight race yesterday that was giving 9 pounds to the 3 year olds in the race (most of which were better than her anyway). I wasnt thrilled about it (hell I wanted to run in a maiden 25k but those races never fill going long on the dirt) but the point is that ordinary horses give weight in races every day. There is no reason why the best horses shouldnt be held to the standard as well.

I didn't say there shouldn't be any weight given, just that it didn't have to make all horses even. Obviously, the amount is up to debate, but fair and even aren't necessarily the same thing.

Why else would you have weight differences?
In a handicap race that is the goal regardless of your interpretation of fairness. Why do you think weight is given under allowance conditions? The same reason, recent winners or older horses usually carry more weight. Why you believe this would be considered unfair for handicap stakes but not allowance races is beyond me.

So if weight is assigned to make all horses even, it should make the morning line simple enough, about 10-1 for each entrant. I guess It's just never been my interpretation that a handicap race seemed so even across the board.

it's not an exact science, they still have to run the race. theoretically, if weighted correctly, the horses would be in a blanket finish.
surely you've heard of some of the more famous races out there, such as citation and noor? people wouldn't still talk about matches like that had citation not been carrying a lot of weight, giving a lot of weight, and still gutting it out to the finish.
you can bet your behind no one will be talking about HDG in that fashion.

As has been mentioned, making all horses even is kinda the whole point of the weighting system in a handicap race. The reason Man O' War didn't run at age 4 is that a racing secretary basically told Riddle that he'd be topping 140 regularly, and they didn't want to risk Man O' War by loading him up the way he'd need to be to make him equal with other horses. He was already having a hard time coming up with opponents. He carried 130 as a 2yo several times and 138 as a 3yo.

I know Havre de Grace isn't Man O' War but c'mon. If Porter thinks giving up 5-10 lbs is a travesty, I guess he wouldn't do like Mr. Riddle and send his horse to post giving up as much as 32 lbs. Why race this mare if they won't let her run under the weights a HOY should against lesser competition? I thought Porter calling out Pope was inappropriate. He didn't pull that number or the number for any other horse out of his arse. Bravo to Oaklawn for having integrity and calling their bluff. If this is how it's gonna be all year, it'd have been better for everyone to retire her. I can't bring myself to give them a pat on the back for keeping her in under these circumstances. Race her against boys, you'll get your precious weight break, and it'll be more entertaining for everyone.

But isn't there a chance, that his hissy fit will pay off in the long run? Isn't it almost like a supply and demand type deal, where tracks will cave in to Porter's demand so HVG runs at their track? I'm not saying that she has the drawing power of Rachael or Zenyatta (West of the Rockies :rolleyes:), but you would think that it would be benificial to the track to have one todays stars run at their track. So while Oaklawn is being applauded for standing up to him, aren't they just cutting their nose to spite their face?

I think that the supposed benefit of having this particular filly run at your track would easily be off set by having a 4 horse field with her a 2-5 fav. The money they will lose in handle as opposed to a larger, more competitive field will probably be greater than the added attendance and extra hot dogs sold. IMO Oaklawn didn't stand up to him as much as Pope simply weighted the race fairly. If Mr Porter feels that the weights are unfair than he can just keep her in weight for age races and stakes run under allowance conditions however to act as though thse weights weren't accurately made is a joke. If anything she may have been assigned too little weight especially considering that many of the lower weighted horses would probably wind up with jocks who are a few pounds over anyway.

The problem is that they usually are already underweighting the top horses in order to get them to run. HDG should give some of the lightweights that may run against her 15-18 pounds but they rarely will do it. Plus it is hard to find a jockey that can do 105. So Porter is complaining about a process which probably already skewed in his favor because his horse is probably not being assigned enough weight and the lower weights are being given too much.

Best explanation I've heard yet. Of course, how much weight is what is up for debate. Clearly HDG connections will fight for all they can get in their favor. Thanks.

Great article...really miss Gary West on ATR.

loved it, glad you posted the link.

what caught my eye most the other day in porters ridiculous rant was his assertion that the racing secretary shouldn't be the one producing the winner...but isn't that exactly what porter is trying to make happen? that his horse not carry enough that would give someone else a chance.
but, as was said the in the article, the few pounds she's giving aren't enough to make a difference between victory and defeat.

maybe steve could get porter on the show, and call him out!

On the NZ racing thread ed pointed out that Mufhasa is carrying 61 kg in the Easter H. this coming weekend.

140 pounds.

Just sayin.

But how much would Absinthe Minded carry if she was cross entered?

Well, the majority of the Easter Handicap field (including multiple stakes winner Alegrio) will be carrying 54kg (119 pounds).

And the bottom five runners will carry 52kg (114 pounds).

Amen. You know 123 is ridiculous for a HOY and 5yo mare. What weight should she be carrying? They deflate them so much these days. If she carried what's fair against her own sex in the Apple Blossom for instance, what does she go to post with? There needs to be a term for throwing your weight around over what they assign your horse. Name it after Bobby Frankel.

oh, but that was just an arbitrary voter decision. :rolleyes:

Synchronised is carrying 164lbs 4.5miles and jumping over 30 fences this Saturday.

Porter basically goes 'oh that was based on a voting contest, and doesn't account for what happened on the track.' Wha-huh? If we were voting for the horse we liked the most, and it didn't matter what their racetrack accomplishments were, heck, let's start taking nominations and do a re-vote. I think we'd get a pretty fun group of HOY finalists from that. Come one, come all. Optional claimers with a great personality, a pretty blaze, whatever, you're eligible!...let's do this!