What is the feeling of this group, how should we view this as it relates to preps? Should we view preps over the SA track as taking a lot out of the runners and that they might have trouble bouncing back or should we consider them fitter because they have raced and/or worked over the track?
Baffert generally makes pretty good choices around these sorts of things so I guess I'm going to give an edge to runners who have either shipped early to race or train or who call California home.
Of course the meet just started but there have been 47 races on the main track with 422 starters; 338 of them made their last start at either DMR, FPX or HOL. Of those starters 45 (12.4%) won, which is consistent with the percentage of starters. The other two winners came from GG and SAR (Love and Pride in the Zenyetta Grade 1 Stakes). Again for the same time period 217 starters had the most recent workout over the track and once again the results were consistent with expectations (27 won, 27 places and 27 showed; 12% each). We need to keep an eye on this for the next two weeks as runners ship in but right now it is not showing to be a big factor.
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