Re: How Fast Was It? (455 Views)
Posted by: (IP Logged)
Date: September 29, 2005 08:57AM
TGJB,
>CH-- not only do we keep track of how much mud is on each horse and jockey, we have a guy go out, scrape it off, put it in a separate pail for each horse, and weigh it. But only at the major tracks. You've never noticed that after a race? <
The point wasn't that these things can be measured perfectly. The point was that when the margins double or triple relative to the norm on CERTAIN extremely sloppy tracks, one of several things that could account for it is the amount of mud that's getting kicked up onto the horses. So when that kind of thing distorts the figure making process, it may not always mean that certain horses hated the mud just because they finished 3rd beaten 20 lengths. Nor does it mean the 10 length winner loved it and ran a brand new top. I remember you bringing up mud kicked up as an issue in the past. However, I make special note of the sloppy days where the margins were huge vs. the sloppy tracks that produced more typical results. I'm not sure it helps a lot, but I think it helps occasionally in the interpetation.
>Unrelated-- you will probably be surprised to learn that a guy who is in the running for best active professional horseplayer (and an occasional poster here) asked me yesterday why I go so easy on you.<
I wouldn't be surprised at all, though I'd love to know which poster it is because I'd like to re-read any insights he had to offer.
I understand I take the discussion of horses, races and performances off TG
and you've asked me not to do that. I think you understand that I can't discuss a horse's performance within the confines of a TG figure. I need to bring up subjective areas outside the TG scope. I also understand that most of the people "here" don't agree with me on these subjective things, but I can't see how they conflict with the need for high quality figures.