Originally Posted by
str
I think this is an inexact science. Why? Because of several things. A true 3 wide all three way around the turn is a straightforward trip that you can equate. But when is says 7 wide into the lane, exactly when did the horse fan outwards? Typically very late in the run around that far turn to be THAT wide. So if it was for only the last 50 yards, how do you figure that? And more importantly, saving ground, which if a horse is happy to run into that, is always the way to go, there are plenty of horses who will just not fire to the same effort inside horses as they will outside horses. And we as a handicapper, do not know who those horses are.
When I was a groom, waaaay back in the day, and always wanting to learn, I remember when I rubbed the king of the stable, Lucky Lord. It was an honor to be Luck's groom. Proud as I was, I never realized how much I would learn from being around that horse. One day I let him over to a race and after Dutrow saddled him, I walk him around a few times , the riders and coming out and I put him back in his spot for a riders up. I am listening to Dickie give the instructions to Chris McCarron as to how to ride him. Luck was a mid range type closing sprinter.
He says to Chris, "let him settle and get him behind a horse or two. That makes him mean and mad." (It's the spray of dirt hitting him in his face that he didn't like.) " Get him good and mad and swing him out of that spot past the 3/8ths pole, get him clear, and he will kick in." Dammed if that isn't exactly what Chris did and he won which he did very frequently.
I asked Chris (who had the 5 pound bug at the time) when I was with him a day or two later about that and he said that while he had understood what Dickie was saying he had never heard it put that way. Lol.
So what all that means is that while saving ground can be great, it can also hinder a horses effort if they don't like it down there. So there is a trade off with at least a third of all horses (guessing), as to the overall effort that they will give. That makes it really difficult to gauge if for instance a horse loses by a length while 2-3 wide would have won had it saved all the ground. On paper, and in mathematical theory yes. But in reality? Who knows because we just don't know that horse well enough to make a true judgement.
So the moral to all this that I came up with when I trained was that I will always consider ground loss as a tougher trip that saving ground, I cannot judge it with a number, add or subtract that number, and come up with an answer that will always be correct, which math usually does. This equation has too many subtleties IMO to be finite. So , I certainly consider it, but I don't go all in with it. I allow it to become another parameter that helps me try and solve the puzzle.
Just my opinion but it's what I learned talking to riders over the years and of course, when I was first introduced to it that day in the paddock.
Hope that helps JBEX.