I think that you are underestimating them. They are the dominant factor in most pools.

I would agree. The Derby brings money from the kinds of people who can throw it away like normal people throw away paper towels. A few years back I had the distinction of meeting and hanging out with Kevin and Matt Dillon at the Saratoga racetrack. You should have seen the way these guys threw their money around. I dont even know how you can fit that much money in a wallet or pocket. These guys knew nothing about horse racing but were betting 4-5 K in every race. I told Kevin I liked a horse that happened to be the favorite, and he didnt care that the horse was 9/5. He went up and put 10 grand on him without blinking an eye.
That was Saratoga. Just imagine what Derby Day is like with the rich celebs trying to impress their girls by throwing down huge bets.

Operative word in my post is "solely".

For my purposes, I'd like to see all of them work at Churchill. The horses will either like it or not, and I agree that one work isn't paramount.

There are a lot of speed figure clones out there

cannon do you ever look at speed figures to help decide where to place your horses and if so which ones?

Sure. I look at formulator/ beyers and TG's mostly.

You don't make your own "Chuckles" figures?

according to an article on drf, col john will have one work over the track. not that it matters.

That was Andy Serling.

They were unreliable so i ditched them.

Beat me to it...I like the move. If he breezes at CD the same way he just did, consider him one of the prime contenders (as if he already wasn't).