[boswd]

Originally Posted by redransom

Wait, why did they bring him to the Big Dance? Why wouldn't they?

Well, he won four grade 1s, three million-dollar races and is currently the all-time leading Cal-bred. Shipping out aside, it wasn't like anyone wanted to come in to California and face him over his home track. You'd think a million bucks would be enough incentive, but the truth is nobody wanted to face him here. And not to make excuses, but I gave him every benefit of the doubt for his three previous clunkers outside of California. Not so much now, but before it was definitely debatable.

My take? California horses spend a lot of time shipping East yet Eastern horses rarely come West. Why is that? And no lame excuses like the tracks are faster here. Plenty of speedy types race on the Right Coast and Cali-based horses still beat them straight up. If anything you'd think that when Cali horses ship they'd find the "deeper" tracks a hurdle.

But that's just me...

Basically the main reason in the past you would see more horses ship East than ship West is that 1. There are more graded stakes to choose form out East and 2. Those races carry much more weight in terms of Prestige. It just doesn't make much sense to go out West and run in the San Whatever Stakes when you can stay home and run in either The Pim Special The Whitney etc. Races that have a storied history. These races carry much more weight when it comes to voting and breeding. Wheather its fair or not is to be debated but it's the fact.