I have been aware of the KY factor for several years. The late Henry Kuck and I had many discussions regarding this issue and
he was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that horses who races in KY were running
faster and further than ever before in
their careers. When analyzing a horses race record it was apparent that they never approached the speed with which they ran
outside of KY either before or after.

He had recommended to me that when handicapping a race featuring a KY shipper with superior figures to simply draw a line through them if they were racing outside KY.
After putting this to practice (especially at SAR) I was amazed at what I was seeing.

Horses who shipped into Kentucky BUT were rated soley off off their form OUTSIDE
Kentucky now did not appear as strong
and in fact were almost ALWAYS underlays.
from a betting standpoint, this is a HUGE edge.

My personal beleif is that KY fancy's itself
God's Country when it comes to thoroughbred racing (and rightly so) but their flipant
attitude and qurstionable medication rules
will inevitably cause their demise.

Since I follow NY racing clser than most
circuits, I pay close attention to the KY
shippers. My guess is that only 10% of them
actually run to their KY figures in NY.

Good article.

Nunzio