yes, and steppenwolfer was the big bad wolf that just...blew!

I think the horse ran like most expected him to....he has never shipped and won away from Cali and there was no reason to believe he would all of the sudden start a new trend in what was against the hardest group of horses he had ever faced.

Frankly, he was simply too slow on the sheets anyway, and the two fastest horses in the race ran 1-2, and maybe the third fastest horse on the dirt in the race ran third even....

How Lava Man took more money than Invasor was a joke IMO...just shows you the influence of the heart over the knowledge of the casual bettor on the big race days.....

Ha, I should have figured that one would draw you out.

The fact is that they don't ship and try very often. I still say if it was that easy they would be in on Friday and out on Sunday.

I never said it was easy. My point is it's the surface, not the competition, that the East Coast trainers are leery of.

I have a feeling with the sythetic surfaces we will see more east coast horses going west for the big purse races. It just makes no sense to send them out to the dirt tracks now and risk injury.

Too many guys that I have too much respect for, guys like Mandella, Drysdale, McAnally....are based in California. If the tracks were really that unsafe and dangerous, I don't think they would be here.

for once the guy has a point and I have always tried to express that same point in this whole poly argument.

cali tracks are fast.
does not mean they are more dangerous than a track in say, Maryland or New Jersey.

maybe Im the only one, but I watch Hollypark every day in hopes that horses will break down so that this whole safety angle will go away in the debate.



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i'd imagine it's a very safe bet that you're the only one who'd want to win a debate that way.

well,
when horses start breaking down on that crap then thats one less thing the poly party can point to as a reason for the surface.

horses die.
its part of racing.
ask anyone who bet on Bayakoa if they were upset about Go For Wand breaking down.
from now on, if its going to happen, I hope it happens on polytrack.



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the debate is bigger than any one horse's life.
this is the future of American racing we are talking about.


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dont kid yourself.
the main argument, especially in CA, is the safety of the horses and rders.
in KY and the east coast, it has more to do with weather and racing days.
but in CA, they have fast tracks anyway.
so its really about some percieved level of safety.

so with that in mind, if we are going to win the state of CA, we have to beat them on the safety issue.
we need horses to start getting hurt and breaking down.
the sooner the better.
have you seen those TVG "cushion track" propaganda commercials.
they interview like 10 trainers about the new, "safe", surface.



and dont act like horse players are so freaking concerned about the safety of horses.
dont tell me that when your horse is in a dog fight in the stretch, that you are not hoping for something to go wrong with the other horse.


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i'd imagine that everyone is hoping for their horse to be in front at the wire, not that the other horse has something go wrong with it. leave it to you to come up with that type scenario.

and it would be nice if no more horses had to lose their life for our enjoyment. so, sorry, altho i'm not sold on poly, i'll be damned if i'd want to see another pine island to prove a point.

oh, and repent, not quite sure who your idea of 'we' is...but rest assured, i'm not part of that team.

I have so many problems with what you said I don't even know where to begin. Nothing personal because I don't know you at all, but why is safety for horses (and riders) a bad thing? Why do you want it to fail?

The "propaganda" is, most likely, actually the truth. I admit the jury's still out, but Santa Anita is a virtual ghost town because everyone's in Inglehood training their horses on a safer surface. Not all of these trainers can be wrong about how their horses are handling the polytrack, and that they're staying sounder. That can't just be a perception. I have no doubt that horses will be fatally injured racing over it, but I am also as convinced that it won't be even close to as many as have been for decades now.

And when my horse is battling down the stretch, I don't wish for his rival to snap a leg. I wish the rider drops the whip, or the bridle breaks or he just gets tired. I know a lot of hard-core handicappers, but not one who wishes injury to horse or rider just to cash a ticket.

no,
she died on dirt.
that was not a good thing for our argument.
fortunately I also had RPond on my late pick 4 ticket.
was alive until Bern f*cked it up.

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