after the belmont,,tgs drop the ball

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

taking a stand against curlin and backing hard spun..tisk tisk...

[docicu3]

I could not agree more Hooves ......It was obvious that Rags's Oaks was under valued by the sheets. Most of the time these guys are on the money but they blew this one.....

[pba1817]

Sometimes just watching a race with your own eyes is the best handicapping you can do. Besides Street Sense, I thought Rags ran the most visually impressive race of Oaks or Derby runners.

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

to their credit they do provide a nice product...but we believe we dropped the ball this time..

[ateamstupid]

I actually introduced my boys at the track to Thoro-Graph sheets this Saturday. They were intrigued.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by hoovesupsideyourhead

taking a stand against curlin and backing hard spun..tisk tisk...

Well Curlin was the one with the BIG last-race fig, so Curlin's "bounce" was inevitable, right?

Now I'll probably hear that Curlin did bounce.

;>)

--Dunbar

[cmorioles]

I find it very funny that I, a pace guy, really hated Hard Spun, while those guys that don't use pace liked him.

[byalip]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

I find it very funny that I, a pace guy, really hated Hard Spun, while those guys that don't use pace liked him.

I got pace figs from HTRF.com and Curlin was on top, only slightly ahead of RTR, then Tiago, then Hard Spun.

And all you had to do was summon up the image of Curliin blowin by Hard Spun in the Preakness. I'd say that your assessment was spot on.

[Thunder Gulch]

Jerry just didn't want to give any credit to anything with the "Rags" name as a part of it.

[golfer]

Just to set the record stright, TG did like Rags to Riches. Their exact quote was:

"This is not a great betting race, but it's worth taking a position against Curlin. Hard Spun and Rags to Riches are the obvious ones to use, and Tiago can be thrown into the mix."

TG definitely blew the read on Hard Spun.

[Scav]

TG didn't blow the read whatsoever on Spun, it is up to the horse and conditioner to continue the pattern, and the horse didn't perform. Bad ride or not, I have no idea what happened, but the right pattern read was there IMO

[golfer]

Scav, the key to the race was beating Curlin, who had just run a 3 pt top off 2 weeks rest, and they had to pick someone... but Hard Spun had reacted from a neg 1.25 to a zero. Since he already reacted to his Derby top, why would 3 weeks rest and a 3rd start in 5 weeks make him a logical play to go forward again?
They called it a tricky read, and it turned out to be incorrect.

[golfer]

And, in the interest of fairness, he also said Wildandcrazyguy was his key horse, although, further in the interest of fairness, probably not at the odds he went off.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by Cardus

He gets a little crazy (no pun intended) about keying long odds horses. I suspect that Len felt Imawildandcrazyguy would be 15-1 or thereabouts. I swear to you, I go to his Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup seminars and he NEVER keys a horse beneath 6- or 8-1.

Then shouldn't he be specific about the odds he needs? Posting almost any pick without an odds threshold is reckless, IMO.

--Dunbar

[Bobby Fischer]

Because of the pace, the Belmont turned out to be a race where it was very difficult to say that ground-loss and form-cycle were important factors.