New Handicapping Angle
 

I pulled out my old Courier Journal (local paper here in Louisville) and a person picked Mine That Bird to win. And here is the reason....CRUTCHES. I guess the last trainer in a Triple Crown race on crutches was Elliott Walden and he won the Belmont with Victory Gallop. So this person used the crutches handicapping angle.

i heard another besides third race off a layoff. moving a horse from high altitude,Sunland, to much lower, Churchill.

Don't laugh at this one. I have a very old betting magazine that mentioned the horses coming down from Pikes Peak to run at Cahokia Downs would often run better than the bare form would have indicated. The effect had a limited lifetime but was, apparently, well known.

Gabby's Golden Gal won the Sunland Oaks in a romp in impressive final time on the Sunland Derby day card ... I guess the high altitude bologna didn't work so well for her.

She wasnt stabled there was she? Did she train on the track?

If only she had been I'm sure she'd have beaten Rachel Alexandra with the same ease in which she beat the high altitude stabled runners in the Sunland Oaks.

who knows