7/23 (SAR): Coaching Club American Oaks (G1)
 

10th (5:45) TVG Coaching Club American Oaks (G1)

1 1/8 Miles | Fillies | 3 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $250,000

1 Buster's Ready Velazquez J R 121 L
2 Plum Pretty Garcia M 121 L
3 Joyful Victory Dominguez R A 121 L
4 Royal Delta Lezcano J 121 L
5 It's Tricky Castro E 121 L

Small, but terrific field.

Pretty much the field we were supposed to get for the Mother Goose.

Definitely some talented fillies lined up, but hard to endorse as a featured race on national TV (NBC 5pm-6pm).

I don't know why that is. It's got the Oaks and Black-Eyed Susan winners, both of which got national TV exposure in the spring. Would a matchup of Tizway and Morning Line really jazz up the audience more?

I really like the moving of this race to Saratoga. Small but select field... Hopefully they finish in a photo and they all go the Alabama.

I was mostly referring to the 5 horse field. No matter how you slice it, it's a tough race to get excited about from a wagering point of view. At least it's part of the late PK4.

In that leg of the pk4, it looks like an "all" spot...

Arguably the most famous race in modern US history was a 5 horse event.

2006 Pimlico Special, I presume? Er...

5 horses in the 73 belmont??

I don't know Gus, there's a reasonably good chance these 5 horses are between 2-1 and 6-1. Not the greatest betting race on the card by any means, but still not that bad.

Facts about field size and other interesting things that most people dont know

The average field size in 2010 was virtually the same as in 1995 (8.19 versus 8.20)

The average field size in 1965 was 8.59 and in 2009 was 8.24, hardly a major difference.

The average starts per horse per year has been in decline since 1960 and the rate of decline was greater from 1960 to 1980 than from 1990 to now

That racing has been steadily contracting since 1990 when there was 79971 races run to 2010's 50918

That there were 2397 registered TB's exported in 2003 and 3263 last year

Funny when you read stuff about the business that all these facts somehow are never brought up

yup

The Preakness was 6 that year, the Woodward 5 and the Whitney 5 as well

California has it all figured out, 5 horse fields are the way to go.

By the way, those were FOAKLEYs I was wearing on that facebook pic. LOL

They still looked sharp!

These are great stats, Cannon - where did you get them?

Jockey club fact book

It is online

Going with Plum Pretty over Royal Delta.

Before the race I turned to my brother and said to him they should check Busters Ready's lip tattoo b/c tht did NOT look like the same horse tht barreled home in her last two. Aesthetically just didnt look like she did in the past.

That stretch dual is as good as it gets.

But, because of all the great advances in exotic wagering - the need for larger field size has to become way more important now - than in the 1960's.

The early 60's - you're looking at win-place-show betting and just two Daily Doubles a day - with a 10-to-14% takeout depending on the track.

Now you're looking at W-P-S takeouts ranging from 15.5% in So. Cal to 20% at Turf Paradise. So - the exotic menu has to come through to make the race playable.

The trifecta at New York tracks is 26% takeout -- the daily double in Cal is 23% - so, bigger fields become so much more important now. I never read much about field size in the old days. Gamblers didn't seem to complain that much about it.

It was a good race.

Royal Delta looked pretty uncomfortable when she took a little dirt. She had a meltdown at Tampa the first time... they might want to keep her wide down the backstretch or something.