SoCalMan2 Wrote:
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> First, why would this guy have any credibility?
> His lines speak volumes already. We know enough
> already to know that anything he says on the topic
> cannot be trusted. The big problem is that his
> employer is an even bigger idiot than he is and
> doesn't understand this.
>
> However, I would not focus on races filled with
> first time starters. Those races should be hard
> for any linemaker and you would expect a field of
> first time starters to vary quite a bit from the
> line. You may well be right that he botched the
> line in the race you are talking about, but that
> race should be more difficult than a simple race
> with obvious horses with well established form.
>
> The real problem is that he is missing the chip
> shots and he is not just missing them, he is not
> even remotely in the ballpark.....he is not even
> in the furthest auxiliary parking lot from the
> ballpark.
>
> The only good news is that he revealed how bad he
> was very fast, so that astute players rapidly
> understood not to trust him and to adjust.
> Unfortunately, to get newcomers and novices into
> our sport, we are supposed to make it less
> bewildering not more bewildering. This is a
> problem for people who want this support to be
> sustainable -- it does not appear that the NYRA
> even considers that question.

I grow rather weary of Travis Stone's bad morning lines -- and there have been
some rather inexplicable ones -- being blamed for everything from global
warming to the Palestinian problem.

SoCalMan, I will concede the following:

(1)[i]Some[/i] horseplayers/handicappers rely on an accurate morning line;
2) Chris Kay is not a horseplayer/handicapper, so he is probably not aware of
(1);
3) NYRA (and race tracks and administrators all over the U.S) marginalize the
importance of horseplayers to the industry;
4) Travis Stone is already on the payroll as a backup race caller (he is a
very good race caller, by the way) as insurance for when Larry "the Screamer"
Collmus[sup]1[/sup] finally blows out a lung or tears a vocal chord. NYRA, in
an attempt to balance the legit (no slot revenue) books, got one of their
employees to multi-task. The timing (Saratoga) was bad; the training of Mr.
Stone was probably non existent.

These are all problems, and yes, representative of larger problems in the
racing industry,

HOWEVER, this is one of the longest threads of the Saratoga meet, and while
there is some anecdotal evidence (specific races with bad morning lines), some
name calling, some hand wringing, threats to play elsewhere, etc, what I
suggest is the following:

1) For a day, a week, the entire meet, or even ONE race, someone take Travis
Stone's morning line for a particular race (available in many places) and
then, after the race is run, get the chart for that race and compare Stone's
ML to the off odds. You might even end up with some empirical evidence which
could be presented to NYRA to drive home the point that Stone's MLs are not
accurate (might be a harder sell convincing someone at NYRA that this bad
morning line making is hurting business).

2)Anyone feel free to answer this, although I suspect Rocky is going to hit me
with 10 or 12 articles to read: How can a crafty horseplayer take ADVANTAGE of
a consistently bad morning line?

------------
Best and worse of Larry at the Spa this summer: Best: His call that Songbird
was "whistling past the graveyard of champions" in the CCA Oaks was very
inventive. Worst: when Flintshire dropped to last in the four horse field, LC
got a little overwrought, as if he were covering a natural disaster (I almost
expected him to utter "Oh, the humanity!"). The truth was that Flintshire was
never in danger of losing this race, and LC went for drama over an accurate
race call.