Halory Leigh

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

My regards to whoever made you\'re selection service perfecta pick of Halory Leigh over Lady Tak.

I rated Halory Leigh very highly myself. Unfortunately my perfectas did not include Lady Tak.

I\'ve always held Craig Perret in high regard. His desire to spend days with his family and the inability to get the very best horses is in my opinion  the only thing that separates him from those held in higher regard.

Nice Straight pick.

CtC



Post Edited (11-08-04 10:12)

[jbelfior]

CTC---


Just wondering if Romans has a new vet this year.

I hear rumors and hope they are just that. Always liked this guy.



Good Luck,
Joe B.

[TGJB]

Del Mar Deb sent me info recently concerning a ruling against Roman\'s assistant trainer for getting caught with a syringe in the stall with one of Roman\'s horses, and against Allday, who prepared the syringe. The syringe was found to contain only vitamins, but use of the syringe itself was illegal, and the important part of the story is that his vet is Allday, who as pointed out here before is vet to lots of move-up trainers. And Halory Leigh sure has jumped up since she got to Kentucky for her last two.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Romans has always been a good trainer but his recent success is not lost on me. Didn\'t Roses in May just run a top attempting 10 marks for the first time?

I liked Hallory on her dirt form. It was buried under all those turf starts. The previous time she faced Lady Tak she was coming like gangbusters. Lady Tak is a nice horse, but my feeling is 8 marks is her absolute limit. Besides if Roman\'s found the secret he just evened it up with Asmussen.

[jbelfior]

CTC--

I did not play the race, but it brought back memories of when LTAK got late in  a one turn mile race at Belmont and was run down by a bomber named BUY THE SPORT.

TGJB--

Sorry to hear that.

This game gets tougher and tougher. A buddy of mine suggested that we would all be better off funneling our serious betting money towards the Triple Crown, the Saratoga meet, and Breeder\'s Cup day. Use the rest of the year to simply have fun, stay sharp and in touch, while avoiding throwing the bulk of your bankroll at those meets when shenanigans abound. Starting to sound like a good idea.


Good Luck,
Joe B.

[TGJB]

I have now heard from two completely independent sources that there was virtually no security at this years BC-- I held off saying anything after the first one until I had some degree of confirmation. A friend of mine got a call from a trainer who was there that morning (one of the ones who is fighting to clean things up) who said, \"bet as much on _____ as you want-- there is no security here\".

This was pretty important to know. If you believe that horses are being treated, as I and many other serious people in the game do, and believe that lots of treated horses ran well on BC day, the first conclusion (which John T Chance came to) is that they are not using a race day drug, or the horses would have run poorly. This would have dramatically altered the kind of steps that would be necessary to stop it-- raceday detention barns would have been a waste of time, and more to the point, money.

Stuff is happening on several fronts about this. It ain\'t happening fast, in part because the ones who are doing something don\'t have the leverage by themselves, and in part because the industry doesn\'t want to catch anyone, just to stop it. But there are things going on, and it\'s important to keep the heat on.

[Wire To Wire]

as far as the BC security issue goes...once i saw the \"move-up\" guys running well i started thinking...
stronach owns ghostzapper
stronach owns lonestar park
maybe frank put the word out to turn off those barn surveillance cameras before the classic!

>Didn\'t Roses in May just run a top attempting 10 marks for the first time?<

It may have been a top on final time speed figures, but the Belmont race where he put away some good speeds in fast fractions and was game as hell through the stretch was as good as anything he has ever run.  Maybe the BC final time figure was a peak, but it was actually just a return to that prior performance.

If you ignore the impact of pace either when making the track variant/speed figure or when interpreting the form cycle it is at your own peril.



Post Edited (11-10-04 16:40)

[Silver Charm]

>But there are things going on, and it\'s important to keep the heat on.

Its says something about the state of affairs when \"The Heat\" has to come from Chuckles the Clown, Jimbo69, Mall, OPM, Derby 1592, Silver Charm, Razzle, Indulto, Horsegoer, Mr. Logic, OJ, The Three Musketeers and Moe, Larry and Curly.

The Racing Officials out there are Total Jokes.



Post Edited (11-10-04 22:33)

[Michael D.]

i hear you SC...... the biggest loser here is a guy like pletcher. his family comes from the quarterhorse game, and todd had developed a brilliant eye for top class thoroughbreds. he finds well bred horses, winds them up, and finds one of the best young jocks in the history of the game (JR). the guy seems to have a great game plan. because of the lack of a solid industry wide drug testing policy, however, many in the game question whether he is a great trainer, or he wins because he has a great vet. i have no idea what goes on in the pletcher barn, and can\'t guarantee anybody why he has had so much success, but my guess is that the guy is a terrific trainer who hires a great jock. i will never know for sure, however, until the industry takes a stand.

[jbelfior]

Michael D.--


I once suspected Pletcher had a \"talented\" vet, especially after a couple of his horses mysteriously died on him last year.

I\'m not so sure now; I\'m leaning towards that he is a superior horseman who spots his horses well.

Good Luck,
Joe B.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Michael D. wrote:

> i hear you SC...... the biggest loser here is a guy like
> pletcher. his family comes from the quarterhorse game, and todd
> had developed a brilliant eye for top class thoroughbreds. he
> finds well bred horses, winds them up, and finds one of the
> best young jocks in the history of the game (JR). the guy seems
> to have a great game plan. because of the lack of a solid
> industry wide drug testing policy, however, many in the game
> question whether he is a great trainer, or he wins because he
> has a great vet. i have no idea what goes on in the pletcher
> barn, and can\'t guarantee anybody why he has had so much
> success, but my guess is that the guy is a terrific trainer who
> hires a great jock. i will never know for sure, however, until
> the industry takes a stand.

I\'m guessing BOTH. Pletcher is a good trainer, but he\'s gassing too. Remember Left Bank\'s huge efforts a couple years ago. Since then he\'s been gangbusters. Huge efforts and horses going south after them. He\'s one of the usual suspects. Its a competitive game with huge dollars at stake. It still takes a decent horseman and a decent horse to pull this off juice or no juice. (Not as many of the latter are winning big races though)

[JimP]

TGJB wrote: \"I have now heard from two completely independent sources that there was virtually no security at this years BC.\"

The question I have is what do you think the reason for the lack of security would be? Was it a conscious decision by someone? Was it incompetence by the security staff? Some other reason?

[TGJB]

Assuming the info about lack of security is correct, I don\'t have any way to know why it happened. I would think (and certainly hope) it wasn\'t intentional.

[TGJB]

Michael, you are not going to like this, but as of at least the 03 Saratoga meet, Pletcher\'s vet was... you guessed it, Steve Allday. Which doesn\'t mean he isn\'t also a good horseman.

I have pushed hard recently with two different racing bodies to have a vet of record listed on the program, and responsible and punishable to the same degree the trainer is. That, race day detention barns, and freezing of the blood samples of the winner and a random horse each race (according to my source costing about $18k annually in California) would go a long way to solving the problem.