"Loose on the lead" is NOT pace handicapping. As Tom Brohamer, Jerry and anyone who goes through the process of evaluating each horse in a race based on the "pace" factors, it is the ability to withstand the early pace and finish within a stamina context that exceeds the other contenders.

That may be the result of a loose on the lead horse, but many more of my "pace" plays (which I presented at Expo 2000 with Tom Brohamer and Brad Free in the audience) have been situations where the horse stalked well within his ability to sustain the early pace of the frontrunners and had the capacity to then finish faster than the others.

The cradle stakes appealed to pace players not because the winner would be on the lead, but because the favorite had come home so slowly in his maiden win that even with improvement leaving the gate, he figured to be slower than at least 2 others in the race - the ones who beat him!



Delmar Deb