Re: Back to Variants-- Part Three (465 Views)
Date: September 21, 2004 04:41PM
Truly accurate figures for Europe would be very welcomed. If you feel they are holding up well, maybe I need to revist this. I don't use them yet.
I prefer to use "class" when evaluating the Europeans vs. the USA - partly because IMO the complexities of making turf figures in general are even more extreme in Europe.
In general, I find that equal grade stakes races in Europe (from France and Great Britain) are better than those in the US.
I have had a great deal of success (for a limited sample though) by classing the horses, looking at the purses for races (even from other European countries), and only casually following the scene there.
Three things seem apparent.
1. If there are several European shippers in the same race, the public tends to focus on the one that looks best on paper and bets that one. However, the 2nd or 3rd best on paper often go off at a very big price even though they are only sightly worse. IMO, there's value in that.
2. More than I would expect run huge races first time out and then run quite poorly 2nd time in the US. (bounce?)
3. There are some huge bargains in Breeder's Cup races.