Speaking of the Sword Dancer, is anyone else bothered by the number of runners that have been entered in this race by what amounts to the same ownership group? While there are small differences in some of the LLC's that are partners in the first tier of ownership, it appears that #1 Adhamo, #5 Rockemperor, #7 Tribhuvan and #8 Soldier Rising are essentially owned by the same group. The first three are trained by Chad Brown and the latter by Christophe Clement (who also has another entrant for another owner). I guess for stakes races there is no requirement that there must be coupled entries where common ownership is involved, but as a bettor it troubles me. How do you ascertain whether each of the entrants is equally well intended?
If you look at Race 7, there is an entry due to common ownership even though there are different trainers, so the exception appears to only apply to stakes races. Probably designed to increase the number of betting interests, which in turn increases the betting handle, but how is the wagering integrity protected?
I'll pass over my constant dislike of the huge number of NYRA stakes races, especially turf races, in which Chad Brown has multiple uncoupled entrants - having three of the five entrants in the Ballston Spa speaks for itself.
End of my rant - back to handicapping the Travers card.
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