The first time through a card I\'m looking with the intent of quickly identifying fast and slow horses, a getting acquainted process, before hunkering down to specifics--what figure or range of figures is needed to win, how do the conditions, weight and post, figure into the mix, current form, patterns, etc.
But on the initial scan, I\'m also looking for patterns to jump out at me. Most of the handicappers on this board are experienced sheet readers, but I haven\'t seen or read any comments about what I\'ll term \"click\" horses, that is, horses with patterns that just jump out. Something just clicks when you look at the line. Now this can\'t be forced. The pattern either jumps out or it doesn\'t. It\'s a subconscious reaction and something we can\'t necessarily explain, not initially anyway. It\'s a function of looking at lots and lots sheets. Over the course of years of ROTWs, JB pattern discussions, and board contributers\' pattern discussions as well, we\'ve picked up a lot of information which gets processed and refined and even if we\'re not aware, we intuitively look at patterns and adjudge quickly, at times.
Now these jump ups don\'t always run--I can have a bad read. And they won\'t necessarily win, especially if the talent level is too low and the conditions are not propitious. And frankly a lot of times in the past after a more extended analysis, I\'ve ended talking myself out of a play--not this time though.
The one horse that clicked when I first saw it was----Quick Little Miss.
Toss the first 2 races--look at the last three--bang, bang, bang. I went back to look at her last, the Oak Leaf BC, and while she got beat handily, she ran well. The jump ups are bite-size in quick succession and now she has 5 weeks into this. Dynamic is a word I use occasionally in the ROTW and this pattern, the last three races, epitomizes this. We put figures to paper, two dimensionally reckoning a horse\'s form, but obviously, these are mortal beings and form is fluid, something which at times the two dimensional verisimilitude can\'t accurately represent.
Halleluah--I put my hand over those last three and I can feel an invisible current pulsing health and vigor. Again this feel, this intuitive read, can\'t be forced. It\'s not Like Scorpion say, who could run, but looking at the line and other info, I\'m still not sure he will run.
Now as I said earlier JB and I disagree which is not to say he doesn\'t think it can\'t run--he does but it comes down to percentages and as he says in the seminar, QLM has developed a lot already and each successive new top decreases the likelihood of another. He thinks a bounce is much more likely. Moreover there are lots of others as fast or faster.
Anyway QLM is my key. JB is playing the race differently and he certainly could be right.
