1-- The BC numbers can be found in ROTW.

2-- Racehorses are so much faster (and tracks so much slower) that comparison between generations is unfair. SJ was the best spring 3yo on figures ever, Sightseek the best mare, GZ the best horse. With no development, SJ's top would be 4 points slower than GZ's-- but that's about average development from spring 3yo to late 4yo. There is no way to know whether SJ would have developed that much, but in effect all 3 were about the same for what they were, meaning age and sex.

3-- I'm pretty sure we posted that Ashado Philly Park race on the board a week or two ago, you should be able to find it with a search. If you look at the whole race you will see that it is tight as a drum. By the way, BC is one of the few days of the year that I see Ragozin's figures, and he also had her running a big new top. Not that I would care if he didn't.

I used Ashado heavily, because of the weight and ground. The one I didn't use was Storm Flag Flying. I also used the two that got the best figures in the race (SJ and IF). Ground loss was a very big deal in this year's BC.

4-- The Wilko figure was very straightforward, both in how it fit with the day and within the race itself-- he was the only horse that ran a new top, and only AA even paired up. Ragozin actually had the race significantly FASTER than we did-- we average about 3 points faster than them on dirt, and they had that race only one point slower.

5-- Given the effect ground loss played, the comment about Velasquez is interesting. The BC figures are there along with their paths (rounded off), and if someone wants to break the trips/jockeys/results down they can. In the case of Ashado, the rail helped, and the track configuration combined with bad posts killed several horses. In all seriousness, they should hold the damn thing at Churchill every year-- neutral sight, long stretch, used to handling big crowds, in the center of the racing universe. The BC is not like other races throughout the year-- the fields are bigger. Imagine if they ran the Derby at Lone Star with a 20 horse field.



TGJB