Winning with Workouts

WINNING WITH WORKOUTS

JULY 7, 2005

In this regular weekly feature, Handicapper's Report will present examples of

how to use workouts in your handicapping using actual results with horses

featured in our reports. To access the HR reports and to see the highlights of

our recent results,

click here.

Today's Topic: With first-time starters look for horses who the clockers

tell us are showing more ability than their competition in the mornings.

As we all know, final times of workouts are relatively meaningless for most

horses. However, how they work with other horses in the mornings definitely

gives us an insight as to their true ability. Trainers will often try to match

workmates with equal abilities in the morning to bring them along together and

not discourage them early on by being overmatched. These team works can tell us

something important about the potential talent of these babies.

In his last two works before his first start, the two-year-old CREEK BAY

(Storm Creek) had worked

with other horses while “…being a little better on the inside…" in his June 24

Grade B work and “…going easier along rail…" in his June 18 Grade B work. When

let out in his first start on July 2 in race 10, CREEK BAY won and paid

$134.20.

The next day, his workmate from the June 18 workout, AZEVEDO (Mr. Greeley), won

and paid $50.80. She is a two-year-old filly, so being slightly outworked by CREEK BAY

was not much of a knock. She had worked evenly with him prior to that drill. As

we have often said, “knowing the company" matters in the morning.