Racebook Tips - The True Meaning

“You can’t handle the truth.” Jack Nicholson said it when playing Colonel Nathan R Jessep in the movie A Few Good Men and horse players that bet the Breeders’ Cup this year that can’t handle the truth will be in for a rude awakening if they don’t pay attention to quotes of connections of the race.

Granted, all words do not emanate from a truthful source, but some long-time trainers have toiled too long to mince words and some new school guys are like politicians hiding lobbyist sources.

Hard-working horse bettors should try to read in between the lines and make reasonable evaluations on what these connections were REALLY saying about their BC horses this year.

In a piece by Larry Stumes of the San Francisco Chronicle about Indyanne and her candidacy to the BC Filly and Mare Sprint, check out her trainer’s Greg Gilchrist’s lines:

Gilchrist: "It's 20 days between races, and I just wanted to wait and see how she was going to come out of her last race. I wasn't really worried about soundness, but the travel and the tough race she had. Mentally, was she all right to run back?"

What was Gilchrist really saying? The answer lies in the fact that Indyanne had to scratch because of a fever, often the sign of overexertion.

In quotes in the Thoroughbred Times about Shug McGaughey’s trainee Carriage Trail, there were hints before the Ladies Classic that the mare may have already peaked as she was coming off a career best 107 Beyer when winning the Spinster. She eventually went third choice in the Classic.

McGaughey about the Spinster: “She will drift out in her races a little bit. I talked to Desormeaux about that in the paddock. Sometimes it might have cost her, but she was in front and there wasn’t any sense in fooling with her.”

What happened in the Ladies Classic? Carriage Trail was sitting perfectly about 5 off the pace but drifted out in the drive to be all out completing the superfecta.

Horse bettors have to be very wary of runners that bear in or bear out. It’s a bad sign and think of it like if a human who was not in the best of shape was running hard but just was not in the condition to finish a race.

Fatigue makes cowards out of us all.

How a horse is coming to the race and where he would draw post position wise was in full view in this year’s BC Turf Sprint.

I’ve never been a fan of the rail post position down the tricky hillside course at Santa Anita and that is where California Flag had to start.

She went 4th choice and had to be hard used to avoid getting shuffled but what happened in her previous race could have been taken to heart by horse bettors.

Her rider Joe Talamo about her previous win: Talamo: “We had an absolutely perfect trip. “[Trainer] Brian [Koriner] talked to me beforehand and we were glad Craig Dollase’s horse [Tropic Storm] scratched because we thought that would make it easier on us up front. As it turned out, Desert Code pushed us pretty good, but my horse was fresh and he ran great.”