Keep your chin up...some people only do post-race discussion.......and are still wrong 98% of the time.

You're an idiot, dude. I've been posting picks and plays on this site for over a decade. The next time I see you put a play in the Selections forum will be the first one. Internet yappers who know everything and refuse to admit when they're wrong are a dime a dozen. At least some of them are funny. You're a humorless scold who does nothing but slip on banana peels with every one of your snarky takes.

Yeah, I figured you'd ignore my response to your own post.

At least after I posted that list of Reddam wastage you dropped the BS "unfounded" accusation you leveled at me. Small victories...

You posted a bunch of mid-level allowance horses that you and only you would ever think could've been something great, as if that somehow mitigates the level of success Reddam has had that 99% of owners could never dream of. But sure, take that "small victory." God knows you need it.

Rollo is typically right, sure he has a slant but we all do. You will not find a person with better historical knowledge. He is extremely sharp and helpful if you listen. Probably not a great idea to discount him or his thoughts. I have been on the idiotic side of many a conversation with him trust me I know. That said while I can disagree with his opinions on horses I never doubt the facts, he doesnt provide false narratives. Just my 2 cents

Thanks for posting that letter of recommendation, really compelling stuff, but maybe you'd like to comment on the discussion at hand, whether or not Paul Reddam is a butcher worthy of derision for taking a shot in a $600,000 five-horse race with a talented 3-year-old?

The only time you seem to post is if someone post a critical thought about someone in the industry. Your the board apologist it seems.

The placement of the Reddam horses has been odd, and certainly were not the only ones to say that it may do more harm than good for the overall stock that they run.

No. I'm in favor of trainers running their horses and taking shots, and I thought this was a ridiculous spot to criticize, much less speculate that it would ruin the horse's career. And once again, I've been here for over a decade, but because I don't want to say Irad Ortiz is trying to injure people or Paul Reddam is a butcher, I'm a board apologist. OK.

My feeling has always been that the class and ability of the horses determines if it's a strong race or not. Not the grade. I've also learned that old rules aren't as important anymore. It used to be that if you had only two preps for the Derby, you couldn't win. If you never started as a 2yp, you couldn't win. Probably a few more I'm forgetting. While I understand where Rollo was going in saying that Pavel shouldn't have been in the Dandy, I think he's looking at it too traditionally. By that, I mean that we used to always be able to count on the bigger races having the best of the crop. The best of the crop were usually extremely battle tested and proven by this point in the year. But that's rarely the case these days. In my opinion, the only disadvantage Pavel had in that race was experience. It couldn't be said with great confidence that he was not on their talent level. So why not take a shot? I don't think it makes much sense to worry about long term effects. You get 12 races out of them these days and you're considered to have had a long career. So go for it. He lost. So what. It happens. He wasn't embarrassed and it didn't lessen his chances of winning this or being a major factor in the Penn Derby if they chose to go that route. It wasn't like he was facing Java Gold, Alysheba, Lost Code, Bet Twice, Gulch, and Cryptoclearance in the Dandy.

I dont like seeing horses ruined and rushed that said watching them train for 8 weeks and run by appointment is worse. The whole bounce crap is boorish I dont remotely understand its popularity among player and trainers. I do like when horses take shots, specifically as it refers to Reddam, his program is to run horses and if they fail get hurt or stink he gets new ones. On one hand I see Rollo's point, make more conservative decisions with the ones you have and you wont have to keep buying new stock. That's fair but Team ONiel is always on the hunt for new stock and this is Reddam's hobby, and ruining horses and being successful dont necessarily have to be independent of each other(unless you are a horse)

I don't think Pavel running in the Jim Dandy was some horrific idea, and it clearly did not do him any harm.

It's essential when analyzing his last two races to note that he raced against the grain of a very strong inside bias on July 29. The horses who enjoyed inside trips on that card have come back to flop including Coal Front, Rectify, Mojovation, Lionite, Good Samaritan and Always Dreaming.

I think Pavel is a nice horse and prefer, in this day and age, connections trying something ambitious.

every day was inside pretty much at saratoga....and because they did not want the turf horses to feel left out they juiced up those races as well inside.