The "Closer Look" Section in DRF
 

It boggles my mind that people actually get paid to turn in such terrible work. . . I'm sure it's probably tough to have to handicap a number of races at various tracks every day and write succinct blurbs about every horse, but sometimes it looks like they just throw a bunch of garbage together and publish it without any actual research, proofreading, or fact checking.

A couple from the last few days:

CD R11 on Saturday - John Garry said that the #1 Talkin and Singing, who was scratched when the race was taken off the turf, didn't have "the grassiest pedigree." Hmm. . . He's a 1/2 to Better Talk Now and GSP turf runner B.A. Way. Almost all of his sibs were better on grass.

WO R3 today - Bud Williams said that the #4 Middle River's sire, Shamardal (Giant's Causeway) - a 4 time G1SW in Europe and 2004 Ch. 2yo Colt in England, "has limited stats with debut grass runners (0/2)". Maybe that's because most of his runners aren't in North America - they're in Europe and Australia and include leading Euro 3yo colt Lope De Vega.

Perhaps PG1985 should apply :)

He's probably too busy kissing DrugS's butt.

Don't pollute my thread.

is it just me or arent the last few words of the blurbs something to the effect of "use this horse in your wagers" 90% of the time. They never seem to rule anyone out.

i always check out the sibling summary. Not only are obvious horses like Better Talk Now sometimes omitted but they will tell you "Dam was 0 for 3 on the green" yet she may have run itm 3 times.

where is that info located PCL ?

In formulator click on the Dam, or under analysis & stats click sibling summary.

thanks

Personally,I think Art(Many arrows point to the pick!) Gropper is the worst.These guys are just like weathermen.I do use the pedigree info for the maiden races though.That's about it.By the way,whatever happened to Lauren Stitch?

You mean you don't love Brian Pochman putting in the Trainer-Jockey stats for every horse?

NT

Drives me nuts. "Castellano is 1-for-9 for this barn" AND???

My favorite is "use only on deep exotic tickets"

Then you would see a "Best Bet of the Day" for at least one horse in each race on a card.

"cut backs" I believe. She used to come on Steve's show but not sure what happened as to why she doesn't any longer.

Yeah didn't she have "A Stitch In Time" segment? I vaguely remember getting douche chills.

That one annoys me too.Ususally he says that,and the horse wins.

Dennis Dodge once told me that they get $20 for a race in the closer look and its a pretty finite amount of time to look it over.

Thought I'd resurrect this and call attention to the 2nd tomorrow at Saratoga where Brian Mulligan handicapped the race for the turf. Just a minor detail I guess...

NT

You should be working for DRF or NYRA or something... You are EASILY THE BEST HANDICAPPER I KNOW, EASILY