Honor Code staying home for ALW; Wood to follow

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

What do you mean negatives of the points system? How is what's happened so far supported the notion the points system is a bad thing? If anything, it's exposed the risk of the recent trend of less preps for 3yo's looking to make the gate. If you get squeezed at the start in the last round of preps and finish 5th, you could be in some serious trouble without the prior points to help you make the race.

i agree.

but i do wish they would make a minimum number of points necessary to get in the gate. if you have a horse win a prep worth enough points, they can skip further races and still glide into the gate on derby day.

[Thunder Gulch]

Originally Posted by Danzig

i agree.

but i do wish they would make a minimum number of points necessary to get in the gate. if you have a horse win a prep worth enough points, they can skip further races and still glide into the gate on derby day.

I don't believe they would do it, but in a points system, I'd lower the number of points awarded for any one race, thereby almost requiring you to WIN a traditional March/April G1 route or hit the board in multiple events.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Thunder Gulch

I don't believe they would do it, but in a points system, I'd lower the number of points awarded for any one race, thereby almost requiring you to WIN a traditional March/April G1 route or hit the board in multiple events.

whether by demanding a threshold, or a number of starts, or changing the awarded points, i just wish they'd find a way to get them to race these horses more. of course, a rise in purses might help...

[Cannon Shell]

The Derby points system "fixed" an issue that didnt exist.
Fact is with all the big point races the last 60 or so days the trend of lighter campaigns will not change. Horses will start later and later because winning the traditional 2 year old and early season preps are pretty meaningless.

You have to remember that each potential horse is owned for the most part by different people, all following the same script often laid out by trainers who are up to their eyes in contenders.

Just wait till some unraced at 2 horse wins

[Cannon Shell]

Dont forget that many of the power trainers subscribe to the theory that horses shouldnt run that often and they only have so many races in them. Of course a primary reason they feel this way is it helps them get their vast amount of horses in the same conditions raced as opposed to actually believing that horses cant race every month or 9 times a year.

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Dont forget that many of the power trainers subscribe to the theory that horses shouldnt run that often and they only have so many races in them. Of course a primary reason they feel this way is it helps them get their vast amount of horses in the same conditions raced as opposed to actually believing that horses cant race every month or 9 times a year.

you've hit it right on with this. too few trainers with the top horses, and they have to find a way to not tick off an owner by having one of the other horses in the barn beat their horse and knock him out of contention. there's something wrong when one trainer is saddling 1/4th of the derby field.