Originally Posted by
JBEX
I don't equate turf figures with dirt ..don't have it right in front of me now but believe it was his 4th or 5th career start..to me it's a positive that he put up pretty good dirt numbers relative to today but not a negative that his turf number was a little lower..in this case his running line in the sprint I thought was a nice set up for the route..I like even efforts in sprint races where the winning figure of the race he exits is at least 4 lengths faster than today's route par or the figure he would need in today's race to win..I think this type of effort legs them up nicely to stretch out..just think if you were going to use a sprint as a prep for a route wouldn't a mid-pack run in a faster paced race make sense as a primer ? I use to use this more freely than I do in recent years (realize didn't work or come close to working here) but feel it works best in cheap races where the form is very shaky (maiden clm,beaten claimers)..even in these situations i'll try to weigh how good the field is relative to this type of race and my horse's last race..I thought this was one of those times where it fit well but obviously no good..I like to use this running line angle now but applied differently and it actually will be part of the reason I like one of my belmont stakes picks..put that up thursday