Judging by a replay that doesn't show precisely when or how Sellers moved his horse for the inside, what you can see is TCE behind Friends Lake, but to a great extent catching him with the ground saved by the inside move without any significant looking loss of momentum.

Its hard to say that Sellers used his whip in the stretch. If he did, the replay available is not clear on whip use. (I looked again I think he did use the whip. Computer replays are grainy) Its altogether possible that the bump with Tapit in the stretch jarred the whip loose, either that or TCE may be as Horatio Luro said of Northern Dancer:

"He is not a "stick horse" if you whip him he will sulk."

TCE showed something in that race. He showed nimbleness. Actually he showed a great degree of nimbleness. So much in fact that when Sellers asked him to move outside of Friends Lake at the very end of the race that he changed leads in the last two strides effortlessly, like the old reliable G.M. transmissions that shifted gears without the least bit of hesitation. That same nimbleness existed in the inside move. It appeared the horse hardly broke stride and that his ears stayed flat as he pressed on. If Sellers can be faulted for that ride, the fault might come for bumping Tapit, finding reason to fault him for taking the inside route is pretty hard from the perspective of the race replay available, unless Haskin has a different film that shows more momentum loss.

On the basis of the available replay, one might guess that Mr. Haskin had a significant wager on TCE and that John Chance probably wished TCE had taken the "non momentum loss" "Haskin Route". If he had it appears Mr. Chance would have been in pizza for the rest of his life.

CtC

On another point, nothing beats a trip to the track. I don't like to travel much, but when you are there to see the horses and take in the atmosphere its the greatest kick. Especially at a historic facility on a big day. When you live outside of Chicago the winter weather makes attendance less fun and thats especially so on claiming cards. So the winters for a weather dissuaded Northerner involve handicapping Gulfstream for the most part. Although Calder is a favorite also. However, they'd both be traded in a New York Minute for Hialeah, but thats wishing.

These days however, you don't even have to go OTB anymore. Now, you can sit in the comfort of your home and wager from your computer. Many (like CtC) are computer dummies, but if you stick to it you can eventually pick up the things that you need to make wagering by puter the very best bets you can make. At the touch of a button you can refer to previous charts, You can scrutinze pedigree and progeny, You can view past races at some tracks when you see a trouble line, (The day will come when you will be able to pull any race from a meet and view it via puter as I use to do with Calders Viewing Station.) You can save the charts and forms from the various days and create folders by track, year and date. All you need is a decent sized hard drive and digital data doesn't take much space. I use to save Racing Forms and the Racing Times. I still have the first and last issue of the latter. But referring to them was tedious. Now I do it in mere seconds.

Nothing beats the comraderie of the Track on a good card however and one has to be careful one doesn't turn into a computer geek. But information is the essence of winning. It why T-graph exists and when I am pulled out of my element I feel like I've made myself an easy mark for the sharpos. I much prefer the track hotdogs and though hotdogs are within my cooking ability I really don't like to cook. But, you can grab a cup of coffee anytime you want or a non 7.00 beer if you've won. In fact you can buy the best beer out there (Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout), stock your fridge for 3.50 a pint and each time you reach for one save yourself 12.00 dollars. (Its the best rebate of all) But seriously, its really not about being cheap. Its about being convenient. And the best thing is, as Alzheimers sets in, you can go to the john and not forget where you're seat is at.

:)



Post Edited (03-18-04 07:31)