The Ultimate Equipment Change

Nothing like losing what makes you a man to get your mind on business and one of the better things the powers that be in California have done is put a designation on the overnight of FTG, first-time gelding.

Horse bettors would be wise to no only look at the entries, but make sure that scour the overnights to identify runners that have been recently gelded.

How powerful is the effect of gelding a horse is something that I have witnessed first hand when I worked on a horse farm in New Jersey as a young man.

On this farm we had broodmares, stallions and yearlings and other assorted animals but cagey horse bettors should pay attention here.

One of the yearlings was acting up and never had his mind on business. He had a very limited attention span and was not picking up some of the easiest tasks a young horse needs to learn.

The decision was made to geld the horse and the veterinarian was called to the farm. My job was to stand outside of the stall and hold the horse’s tail up with a rope while the vet did his cutting.

Granted, I was young an only about 170 pounds or so at the time, but the horse lifted me entirely OFF the ground with only his tail.

He fought like a banshee but once he was cut, he quieted down like a little girl.

The lesson for horse bettors here is that when a runner leaves those childish things behind, like his need to fool around, he puts his mind on running.

There have been some famous and popular geldings in the sport over the years including John Henry, Kelso, Forego and Lava Man but since the FTG is now public knowledge horse bettors have to take advantage of the issue.

James Bond used to train a runner named Pleasant Breeze and he was a handful. He was always aggressive but listen to what happened when he went FTG.

Bond: “In his last start as a colt at Saratoga, he tried to savage the inside horse at the wire and missed winning by a head. I called the owner, said he had to be gelded if he was going to be a good horse. A million and change later it obviously worked.”

Pleasant Breeze was Graded stakes placed before he was retired and he banked over $1.2 million in his career.

Horse bettors have to understand that is not always a miracle cure but could take time for a recent gelding to perform at full force. In mid August a horse named Number One Edition raced as a gelding for the first time and showed career speed, leading the pack into the lane at a fat 20-1.

Major improvement was also shown by Color of Deception, who ran as a gelding for the first time on August 11. He also showed great speed and posted one of his better Beyers but also tired late.

Horse bettors should also follow Cajun Corredor, who ran as a gelding for the first time on August 9.

Despite going wide, this guy was getting to the winner late and may be best with more real estate.

Those horseracing bettors that want to get ahead MUST know all about the ultimate equipment change.