Determining "trainer intent" is one of the things we do as we handicap. When a top router returns off a layoff at 6f in good company, he might win but to me it looks like the trainer might be blowing the last of the cobwebs out with a race.
Somewhere on the Derby Trail each year, trainers ask speedy 3yo's to rate off the pace. It's a test. Usually they don't announce it up front, but sometimes you can read between the lines of comments or notice that the works lately are longer and slower etc. In many racing countries trainer must declare intent to change running style.
I do not mean to imply that trainers are sending horses out to lose races. No one wants to lose a race, especially with a top colt. The smart handicapper has to assume that all these races are preps for something bigger.
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