Let It Ride, Bad Advice

In between switching the remote from Clinton to Obama to the horse racing movies of all time, Let It Ride, and it had a line in the script that no horse bettor should ever use.

Richard Dryfuss is at Hialeah Park and was rooting for his horse as he took the lead in the stretch and he said to himself, ‘I’ve got it’, which in reality is the kiss of death for horse bettors.

This was a movie and the horse won but the point is you can never be overconfident in this sport and you should not put down your guard until you are walking AWAY from the cashier window.

Another kind of Ride will become the focus of horse-racing in the new few weeks and that’s Pro-Ride, the company that is installing the new again surface at Breeders’ Cup on October 24 and 25.

Face it, it’s hard enough making money in this game even for the few horse bettors that possess the attributes needed to succeed but factor in the best horses in the world, all of which are trying to put in a peak performance, and a racing surface that is totally untested, and the BC this year will be like a puzzle wrapped in an enigma.

For the record, the Pro-Ride group is the company that stepped in to help Santa Anita earlier this year after they had all the drainage problems with the Cushion Track Footing, who the track is suing for $5.2 million.

According to their web-site Pro-Ride is comprised of carefully graded sands, a patented polymeric binder, engineered to exacting standards combined with a cushioning agent producing the world’s first 2-phase cushioning technology.

The site brags that the surface requires no watering, but that has proven to be false in the hot weather of California.

For horse bettors, this means they will have to be on a fast learning curve in order to get a handle on the surface.

The good news is that the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting begins on September 24 so players will have a few weeks of form to scrutinize but to try to get ahead of the masses, let’s look at the last few weeks of the Santa Anita winter meeting and see how the influence of the Pro-Ride people affected the track.

During the last week of the meet it was not easy to go wire to wire on the surface. Runners were much better off tracking the pace and making the one rally wide run.

Of all the main surface races run in the last week, a total of 31 in all, only 4 went flag fall to that’s all and 2 of those races were 2-furlong events.

Another thing that horse bettors can look to on this new surface is what kind of rider has the right style to win races on the surface.

The old name that comes to mind is Alex Solis, who has always been patient. The new name that has adapted very well is strongman Rafael Bejarano.

Key on those guys this fall, and things will be all right.