Was there a Closers bias this week at Aqu?

[Holland Hacker]

I'm the first to admit that I don't believe that the inner at Aqueduct is the merry - go - round that most people think it is. I think it usually plays fair, at least on most days.

I have not watched the replays for this week, having dvr issues, and time constraints. Anyway I handicaped today's (races 8 - 11) card assuming that it is playing fair. After I finish looking at the late pick 4 I pick up the sports page for the Star Ledger and look at Rippeys selections (mistake #1) to see how I compare, I'll also look at Andy's selections on Talkin' horses later before finalizing my pick 4 play.

Any way Rippey makes the following comment:

"Race 11: Thundering Roar (closing style fits track's bias this week.) Spicy Steve, Adirondack Warrior, Vlast"

After that I go to DRF and look at the charts for this week and to be honest I didn't really notice that there was a bias either way. It seemed at first glance that the logical horses were winning no matter what their running style is. In otehr words the track was playing fair.


Did I miss something when I looked at the charts, granted I did just scan them I didn't read each write up of the races?

Or alternatively if not all the winners are on the front end does the public immediately think that there is a closer's bias in effect? It seems that "they" want to automaticaly label the track as a merry-go-round and then when it doesn't actually play that way it is a closer's bias instead of actually being a fair race track.

Any comments?