Deep 14-Horse Field Set in Big 'Cap: Past Performances

[Whirlaway]

Story:
http://racing.bloodhorse.com//viewstory.asp?id=43833


Past Performances:
http://www.brisnet.com/bris_link/pdfs/baffert_103629.pdf

[Mahubah]

And not one of these horses can handle scale weight of 126 pounds? As a competitive race, this should be very interesting; as a handicap, it's a bad joke. But then, most of them are these days. Personally, I think they should downgrade any handicap in which the highweight is not considered good enough to carry at least scale weight for an older male...in this one, the highweights are shouldering the same massive weight that juvenile fillies carry in the Breeders' Cup.

[wilf]

I will be rooting for improving Heatseeker, the strong pace will suit him and he is sure to get the distance strongly.

[Whirlaway]

This looks to be a good one. It'll be interesting to see if the track additives alter the fractional times, not only for this race but also for the Sham Stakes. Peculiar, as Mahuba noted, that none carry the 126lb impost. Maybe they don't want any bone shattering performances.

Anyway, just for the fun of it, I'll be rooting for the one horse here, he goes from the grass to the techno, good works, good post, good jockey, good trainer, and good luck.

[zinn21]

I like Tiago by several lengths.

[Tucumcari]

Vienna has been rather cagey lately. Maybe Medici Code will remember how much he loved the synthetics in Europe.

[Sam]

Vienna has been rather cagey lately. Maybe Medici Code will remember how much he loved the synthetics in Europe.

Okay, how the hell do you pronounce this colt's name? To me, that's "meh da CHEE" like Catherine de' Medici, but I keep hearing the race callers pronounce it "me DEE see."

[Mahubah]

Bone shattering? C'mon, 126 is the weight carried by 3yos in the Triple Crown events and the Travers and by older males in WFA races, and horses don't break down in those events any more often than in others. More like trainer crying -- if they don't get the weights they want, they keep the horse in the barn or go elsewhere, and too many tracks are struggling with short fields even for good stakes races to take a chance on a decent horse going someplace else.

Understand, I'm not blaming anyone in particular for the situation. The trainer's job is to win races with his charges, and trying to keep extra weight off the horse's back is part of the game and has been for a long time. And racing secretaries at a lot of tracks are under a lot of pressure to do what they can to draw decent fields. I'm also not of the opinion that racing should load the grandstand and a baby elephant or two on the backs of outstanding horses to give some mediocrity a chance to win; the one advantage of those types of setups was that those horses able to concede lumps of weight and still win proved their superiority over their contemporaries in no uncertain terms. But a handicap in which the best horse can't carry scale weight or even close to it and the weight spread is a measly six pounds is pretty much meaningless too as a test of superiority. Why not just run it at WFA, or under allowance conditions if you feel you must have some concessions made to the lesser horses to keep it interesting as a betting race, and be done with it?

One of you history buffs doubtless has the answer to this -- which one of the East Coast racing secretaries was it who used to keep a "crying towel" in his office for trainers who moaned about the assigned weights a little too freely?

[TJ]

Bone shattering? C'mon, 126 is the weight carried by 3yos in the Triple Crown events and the Travers and by older males in WFA races, and horses don't break down in those events any more often than in others. More like trainer crying -- if they don't get the weights they want, they keep the horse in the barn or go elsewhere, and too many tracks are struggling with short fields even for good stakes races to take a chance on a decent horse going someplace else.

Understand, I'm not blaming anyone in particular for the situation. The trainer's job is to win races with his charges, and trying to keep extra weight off the horse's back is part of the game and has been for a long time. And racing secretaries at a lot of tracks are under a lot of pressure to do what they can to draw decent fields. I'm also not of the opinion that racing should load the grandstand and a baby elephant or two on the backs of outstanding horses to give some mediocrity a chance to win; the one advantage of those types of setups was that those horses able to concede lumps of weight and still win proved their superiority over their contemporaries in no uncertain terms. But a handicap in which the best horse can't carry scale weight or even close to it and the weight spread is a measly six pounds is pretty much meaningless too as a test of superiority. Why not just run it at WFA, or under allowance conditions if you feel you must have some concessions made to the lesser horses to keep it interesting as a betting race, and be done with it?

One of you history buffs doubtless has the answer to this -- which one of the East Coast racing secretaries was it who used to keep a "crying towel" in his office for trainers who moaned about the assigned weights a little too freely?

Hi Mahubah,
I'm not certain, but Kenny Noe keeps coming to mind with "the crying towel" in his office?
What you said concerning the highweight in a Handicap race was the absolute norm prior to 1981. All handicap race highweights were assigned no less than 126 lbs. unless the highweight was a 3YO running against older or a filly or mare running against the boys. This weight assignment (126 lbs.) was a rule of NY Racing back then. Also, in that day, the racing secretary's would honor weights assigned to a horse by other racing secretary's to avoid an unfair weight advantage. In 1981 the 126lb. handicap highweight rule in NY was done away with and honoring weights assigned by other racing secretary's was no longer the practice. So the 126 lb. handicap race highweight dropped lower and lower. This was done in many instances to draw a good horse away from his home track because he was assigned a more favorable weight somewhere else. Eventually the home track would assign more favorable weights to their stars so they would run at their home track. So you can understand how eliminating that 126lb. highweight rule turned handicap races into what we see today...how low can you go. TJ