On my way out the door last night I noticed Friedman had taken another weak slap at me, and my first reaction was to do a detailed point by point-- pointing out they charge trainer "clients" about 5% of what we do, that we have had far more success than the Ragozin operation in buying and managing horses for our clients, that our guys also win handicapping contests and hit pick sixes and that I don't always know about it or point it out, that if we were a "knockoff" I wouldn't be spending so much time pointing out the differences between the two products, that as became clear recently Ragozin had, ummm, created the false impression that he had invented things he had not...

But I'll just say this--

Those of you who were around a year ago probably remember that after Friedman posted their BC sheets after the races, with the numbers they ran that day, I reviewed them, and pointed out (among other things) that they got the ground (and therefore the figure) on Touch Of The Blues way wrong-- they had him on the rail on the second turn, when he was in fact 4-5 wide. Friedman could have said we'll check it, we were wrong, we'll fix it. Instead he came back and posted that they had reviewed it again, they had made absolutely no mistake, and there was no reason to change the number.

I pretty much only see Ragozin sheets during the Derby preps and Triple Crown, and the BC, so I hadn't seen TOTB's sheet again until now. And what do I find-- they quietly changed the ground (there is no longer a "y"), and changed the number.

Len, shame on you. Not for getting it wrong-- anyone can do that. Shame on you for lying to your customers. And shame on your customers if they take your word for it after this on anything you say about TG, or anything else that is self serving.

Anyway, last year's BC was held at Arlington, and the TOTB ground was only one of several errors the Ragozin operation made. By coincidence (not), they have a problem with the three horses coming out of this year's Arlington Million into the BC Turf-- they have all three running within 1/2 point of each other in the race, partly because they have Storming Home in the same path as The Tin Man on the final turn (Storming Home was actually 2 paths wider), but beyond that the relationships between all 3 horse's figures are screwed up.

But don't worry, guys. They'll quietly fix the problem before next year's Breeder's Cup.

Meanwhile, I noticed Marc stuck his head out from under a rock and took a couple of shots at us. When things calm down in a couple of weeks I'll tell a story so that everyone can judge your credibility, Marc. Okay?



TGJB