A question for the handicappers

[NoChanceToDance]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

My parents both trained - and I've hotwalked them before and was around them a lot when I was younger.

I don't think it's any handicapping advantage to have worked around them or ridden them before ... other than with pre-race body language stuff.

Still, you have to know the horse you are looking at well to have any edge with the body langauge stuff.

Some horses look bad or do stuff like wash out bad before almost every race .. so them doing so on race day wouldn't be a disadvantage because the form has been established with them showing similarly discouraging signs in the pre-race.

Some horses will almost always look the part in the pre-race - have a quiet confident controlled energy to them and look well - what good is that if they've established their form that way?

Perhaps the ravest reviews any horse has ever got on TV in the pre-race this year came from Frank Lyons before the Blue Grass. "The way Pyro looks now - every horse in this race should be 99/1" was how it started - and it was followed with even more extreme hyperbole - comparing him with Muhammed Ali and everything else. He ran 10th at even money.

This is what I would have said. I don't think you need to have been around or worked with horses to become a good handicapper, but in some ways it can help you get started. Knowing what to look for can be a big part of it, especially as 2yo's or unraced 3yo's are concerned. Being around and working with horses certainly gets you to grips with conformation, what's desirable and undesirable for racehorses.

Riding certainly allows you to have a feel for a horse and allows you to understand the horse's movement but unless you have ridden the horses you are betting on (or against) it has very little to do with the handicapping side of this sport.

Understanding pedigrees can also be beneficial, but again it isn't a must.

Regarding the quarter crack, it all depends how bad it is/was. Quarter cracks can range from being a minor issue to quite a serious problem. Depending how big/deep the crack is. I'm guessing that the crack that Big Brown has suffered is only a small one. As long as he doesn't miss too much work, it should not cause a problem. I think the distance will cause more of a problem than the quarter crack will. This setback will give connections every opportunity to use that excuse, though.