I think it is possible to take the opposite view: that the Florida horses are underrated as a group. While much has been made of the California shippers, quite a few of the Florida horses also seem to be jumping way forward when they go elsewhere. Examples include West Side Bernie, Atomic Rain, Musket Man, and His Greatness.
My general view is that it\'s unlikely that the horses in one region are, as a group, significantly better than the rest of the crop. After all, they all come from the same bloodstock and are owned by the same deep pockets. As has been discussed at length here, the slow California figures seem to me to reflect scale differences between dirt and synthetic figures, rather than the quality of the California horses.
My problem with the California horses is that you are selecting the best of that group based on performance over synthetic tracks. It\'s just not the best way to find superior dirt horses. I\'d rather take long odds on one who might jump up moving to dirt than short odds on another to reproduce his superiority moving to a different surface. That said, I wasn\'t smart enough to bet I Want Revenge in futures pool 1.
