Back in the '70's, when I worked on the backstretch, all competent trainers were in agreement that: the idea was to find the ideal distance and surface for a horse and then to keep running it, as often as possible, over that distance and surface (with the exception of early season races intended as tighteners).
Now, I play a lot of tracks and while this is not followed as religiously as it once was, it can be argued that it still pretty much generally is. The lone exception is Southern California where there's no distinction in the minds of the trainers there between sprinters and routers and poly and turf horses. Thus, trying to handicap most of the races out there means 'different' methods need to be applied. I don't know about anyone else, but if the trainer can't figure out what a horse 'is', then maybe I should be handicapping elsewhere -- even if, maybe, I can properly categorize the horse. If you ask me, this points to LAZY training and over reliance on MEDICATION. Let's face it, sprinters stretching out and coming from OFF the pace to beat closing routers doesn't happen anywhere else. It happens in Southern CAL on a regular basis.
In other words, today's card at DMR is (for the most part) UNBETTABLE. Why would anyone bother when DEL and WO and even CNL and PID offer better options?
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