One of my pet peeves in handicapping is dealing with morning lines that have been put together in a lackadaisical manner. While I don't rely on them that much, there are many horseplayers, particularly newcomers to the sport, for whom the ML is the starting point.
I don't play Thistledown very much so am not familiar with their linemaker, but in my opinion today's line has been put together in an extremely mechanical manner. The linemaker seems to have ranked the horses for each race and then assigned them odds in an orderly rank, moving from 3-1 to 7-2 to 4-1 to 9-2 to 5-1 with disturbing regularity. Perhaps he will be correct and the bettors will wager in that fashion - but I doubt it. I just don't think that every race will have a favorite that has odds no lower than 5-2, or in most cases 3-1 or 7-2. I would go so far as to suggest that in at least 5 of today's races the post time favorite will be 2-1 or less.
I thought that the job of the linemaker was to set forth odds that in his or her opinion would reflect what they would most likely be at post time. I don't think that today's line has come close to meeting that goal. Any thoughts on this or am I just being a curmudgeon?
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