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HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS NOVEMBER 21, 2008 by Dick Powell The stewards at Hollywood Park had a tough call in the last race on Sunday. In the six furlong maiden claimer for two-year-olds, Chantal Sutherland gunned LEEDSTHEWAY (Cape Canaveral) to the front and kept him far off the rail. The Jeff Mullins-trained first time starter opened a clear lead with a first quarter in :21.90 and a half in :44.63. Turning for home, Leedstheway still had a clear lead but every time Chantal went to a left-hand whip he drifted to the outside. She hit him left handed, he drifted out, she straightened him out, she hit him left handed again, he drifted out again, she straightened him out again and she hit him left handed again nearing the wire and he drifted out even farther. Victor Espinoza had Uncle Jeep (Marquetry) in a strong drive in the stretch but when Leedstheway drifted out into his path for the third time, he had to snatch him up to keep from clipping heels. Soon after Leedstheway crossed the finish line almost two lengths in front, the stewards posted the inquiry sign and began to look at the stretch run. What made their job so tough was the distance between Leedstheway and Uncle Jeep when the foul happened. Clearly, Sutherland’s horse drifted out from left-hand urging. Could Uncle Jeep have made up the distance when the foul happened? Did Sutherland have enough of a lead to drift out without interfering with Uncle Jeep? After a lengthy deliberation, the stewards let the result stand and they ruled, according to the chart of the race, the "incident did not alter the original order of finish." This is similar to the NFL ruling where the zebras decide that pass interference did not occur since the pass was un-catchable. The receiver might not have been able to catch the pass since the defensive back was draped all over him, and Espinoza could not have won the race since he had to snatch up him mount to avoid a catastrophe that was caused by Sutherland drifting out. If Leedstheway did not drift out, there is no way that Uncle Jeep would have gone by him. But drifting out, under left-hand urging, into the path of an oncoming horse is a dangerous maneuver that the stewards at Hollywood Park rewarded in Sunday's last race. It just doesn't sit right with me. In keeping with my focus on the Fair Grounds, I wanted to update everyone on how I gather and maintain information on the meet. First, you have to download the latest version of RealPlayer from www.real.com which right now is version 11. By having the latest version of RealPlayer, you can then save and archive replays of every race. Here's how. Go to any web site that has replays. Fair Grounds opened last Friday, November 14. When I replayed the 1ST race, I placed the cursor in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, a message displays that says, "Download This Video." By clicking on the blue text, the race will begin to record on the RealPlayer Download & Recording Manager. When the recording is finished, I go on to the 2ND race until I have all 10 races at the Fair Grounds on November 14 recorded in the Recording Manager. Once you have downloaded and recorded all 10 races, click on the "view my library" button on the lower left-hand part of the Recording Manager. This will take you to RealPlayer and all your recordings. Click once on the 1ST race that you recorded and then click on the "Edit Clip Info" button on the left side of RealPlayer. This will highlight the name of the file which I changed to FG111408Race01. Repeat for the recording below for the 2ND race and so on. Be sure to be methodical in your approach because it is very easy to get your races out of sequence. It might take a little practice, but you should then have all 10 races from Fair Grounds that were run on November 14 as 10 individual files that are uniquely named. Yes, you could always click on your favorite web site that has race replays on it and watch the races again, but by having them saved properly you can view them even when you are not online. Next, I go to www.brisnet.com and click on "Results and Charts." As long as you do this each week you will not have to go to the archives, so click on "Instant Charts (Free)." Click on the blue text for "14" next to Fair Grounds and you will then go to a page that has all 10 races from November 14. Right click on "All" and go down to "Save Target As." You will have to name these races and I chose “FG111408charts.” I now have all 10 races from opening day saved as a .pdf file. Repeat each sequence for Saturday's and Sunday's replays and charts and you now have all three days of the first weekend of Fair Grounds racing electronically stored for quick referral. Coupled with the BRIS Ultimate Past Performances that are also saved, I now have all the raw data that I need. When I watch the replays of the races again, I print out the day's charts and take notes on the charts page to remind me of certain things. Some bad trips show up on video and some show up on paper. When you read a chart of a race where the two speed horses hang on to the end and only one other horse makes a rally, the rallying horse might be worth noting next time out. When horses win later in the meet, I'll go back and note it on the chart of their previous race As long as you are willing to take the time to do this on a consistent basis, you can develop a tremendous knowledge base for any meet. If you wait a few weeks and then decide to catch up, it will take too much time and you'll probably stop doing it. But if you discipline yourself to do it on a daily or regular basis, it's well worth doing. Boutique meets like the Fair Grounds are perfect for this kind of effort.
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