The last four SA Breeders Cups with Dirt races (Not Synthetic) totaled 29 Dirt Races from '03, '12, '13, '14.

Where did they run last? And how did California trainers do with the home court advantage? Certainly a home court advantage is to be expected but after the Mandella massacre in'03, it is not as exaggerated as one would think. It certainly is not as pronounced as the Euro angle in Turf Routes at SA but still worth thinking about.

The Archives are just invaluable if you are into researching these issues. I'm almost ready to start looking at this year's pre-entries.


29 Dirt Races, Track of the winner's previous race:

Santa Anita, 12/29
Del Mar, 2/29
Bel, 5/29
Kee, 4/29
Parx, 3/29
Turfway, 1/29
Europe, 1/29
South America, 1/29

CALIFORNIA as a whole including SA and Del Mar was 14/29 PLUS She's A Tiger (SA prev race) was DQ'ed (and Bel Rio Antonio was put up) so crossing the wire first, the maximum percentage to be considered would be:

[b]15/29=51.7%[/b]

Removing the 2003 results from this CA stat and removing the DQ, the percentage is:
[b]
10/24=41.7%[/b]

So, the home field advantage of a previous race in California (such as East Coast trainer Ritvo used for the Classic in '13) is still a noteworthy consideration.

______________________

Trainers of the Dirt BC Races at SA since '03, California Based Trainers vs. All Others (Only 5 California Trainers have won BC Dirt races out there which is a bit surprising).

Mandella, 5
Baffert, 3
O'Neill, 2
Hofmans, 1
Desormeaux, 1

[b]12/29=41.4%

ALL OTHERS 17/29=58.6%[/b]

This stat is tough for me to interpret anything meaningful from for use in this year's BC. Maybe an ever so slight nod to Cali trainers but not really something that will necessarily sway me. Curious Rocky's thoughts on this and if this would matter to him whatsoever.

Best of luck!