Dead Rail

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Kasept

Yes, and I believe it was more pronounced Friday. Caracortado was flying until Talamo brought him inside and he began to immediately bog. And St. John's River only burst forward once Napravnik got her off the rail.

The problem with this thinking is that most horses are apprehensive about rallying inside in the stretch, despite what a former poster here thinks, and will hesitate inside, but rally strongly once taking outside their rival(s) as St. John's River did. Take a look at the stretch of Saturday's Ft. Marcy at Belmont, for a good example of this, and one on turf so as to take away any possible dirt bias misunderstanding.

I'm not saying the rail was necessarily the best place to be Friday or Saturday, but with racing generally having an outside flow if the racetrack is even, and the races are run fairly, tracks can often appear to have an anti-rail bias when, in fact, one doesn't exist at all.