GP Sat r10

[justwin]

I don\'t have time to give my analysis but here is my summary:
Key #2 Twigazuri Strait with 6,10,12 in exotics.

Hope to be able to give my complete thoughts by Saturday.

Anyone else like the #2 here.

Happy Holidays to all!

[covelj70]

Justwin,

The 2 looks the best on paper but he obviously has alot of gaps in his running line and the workout comments suggest be was switching leads back and forth in his last breeze which could suggest the physical issues which have caused the gaps in the running lines are still bugging him.

Take everything I say about this one with a grain of salt though as I have screenplay in this one who I claimed back before the last race. We got lucky with him last time after the claim as Terranova really has this horse figured out so after we claimed him back from Jacobson, John got him back in great form last time.

Johnny doesn\'t have a string in Florida this winter and so after we got excluded from the last turf race in New York, we sent him down south to Catalano. He\'s training well and despite the weight, I think he has a good shot based on TGs and race shape.

[justwin]

Jim
Thanks for your comments. Best of luck in the race.
George

[CHOWDERMAN]

good luck...one question...can you elaborate on what john getting the horse back into form, after it was with jacobson means....wink, wink..

[covelj70]

Screenplay is horse that needs to be hard held in his morning gallops and/or not train everyday. If allowed to go unrestrained and train everyday, his energy level falls off and he doesn\'t run his race in the afternoon.

The other issue is that he needed new shoes as his feet were bugging him a bit.

John made those changes and a few weeks after we got him back, he really picked his head up.

As you can see from the free sheets that JB is nice enough to give away for GP this week, John brought him back to his secondary top in the first race back after going the wrong way each race with Jacobson.

I know it\'s very popular on this board to always assume the guys who win at a high percentage are cheating and I obviously have no perfect knowledge on the matter but I can tell you that the horses Jacobson has claimed from John and I are a combined 0 for 14 running for him and Screenplay was in fine physical condition after we got him other than being tired. John is a very good horseman and its not easy to improve horses that come out of his barn. That\'s not the case in every barn.

As I have said on this board many many times, not all trainers are created equal and there are a whole bunch of legal things a trainer and vet and blacksmith can do to improve a horse as I hope the example above proves. Of course there are things that go on that we should all want out of the game but in my opinion those things aren\'t happening nearly as often as is suggested on this board or on the twitter feeds from the folks making race by race comments after they lose a bet.

[TGJB]

Very few move up guys do well on grass.

[covelj70]

That\'s a very interesting point.

Hadn\'t ever really considered that.

Any theories as to why?

[TGJB]

I\'ve spent a lot of time thinking and talking about that with people, lots of theories, none of which are very good. There have been a few (like in California a few years ago), but not many.

[Boscar Obarra]

That\'s been true forever.

 Gasper had some success.

[SoCalMan2]

I thought a guy in florida claimed a horse for $50k off Bill Mott at calder and won the Breeder\'s Cup Mile with the horse (this was on the grass before there was a dirt mile).  Something like that.  It was not Ziadie, but regular calder trainer that to my mind was a move up guy.  I can\'t remember the exact details (including the name of the horse) but I would put it up there with King\'s Swan and Shifty Sheik (but on grass)

[colt]

The horse in question is Miesque\'s Approval, who was running for a tag under Mott before the transfer to Marty Wolfson by Charlotte Weber\'s Live Oak Plantation.

[Marlin]

Wasn\'t John Henry claimed @ 50K or 80K prior to running in several Millions?

[SoCalMan2]

John Henry was definitely claimed.  However, I do not feel (could be wrong) that he was \"moved up\" by the new connections as much as he just matured.  For some reason (I could be wrong) I felt that Miesque\'s Approval was \"moved up\" after moving from Mott to Wolfson.  He was pretty well established and Wolfson just got him to a different level that Mott had not be able to attain (seeing the sheet would be interesting and perhaps confirm or contradict this notion).

There is a long history of claiming horses who went on to do good -- Charismatic comes to mind,,,,,,but there were definitely others (Seabiscuit, Stymie, et al.)

Now that I think about it, in the breeders cup that was run on Santa Anita\'s artificial surface, I think Ken and Sarah Ramsey won the \"dirt\" mile breeders cup with a horse they had claimed at Turfway not long earlier before the race.  That would be an interesting sheet to see.

I am curious, how do \"move up\" trainers do on artificial surfaces?  Am guessing Ramsey\'s trainers do pretty well at Keeneland.  Also, didn\'t Ramsey have an incredible move up horse earlier this year on the turf in Kentucky not sure which track)? I think that horse was the subject of a lot of discussion earlier this year on this site.

[Tavasco]

Dark Cove