Helping blue hen mare Case Closed itch her scratch! |
In
the early days of PF when entries were submitted by email, stables were allowed
to put pretty much anything down as a scratch condition - ranging from SCRATCH
IF NO to SCRATCH IF MORE THAN
4 RUNNERS so Laurie would have a nightmare running races trying to keep
up with all the various requests.
So
after a little debate and an executive decision, we went down to two options -
SCRATCH IF NO or SCRATCH IF OK. On the surface (pardon the pun!) that
doesnt look like that much difference but that small nuance has scuppered many
a potential champion.
If
you start with each horse’s AR you can immediately see that choosing either OK
or NO for a surface fussy horse could end up with a lightly raced animal taking
up a stall that could be used for a sturdier beast. Some horses also have
extremes - disliking hard dirt but loving soft turf or vice versa which can
make entries a nightmare.
On
the other hand you could simply ignore the scratch conditions and let the horse
run no matter what - which could lead to major injury downtime. Its a much
riskier option but can pay off if you are clever and play the entry system
well by checking back at the last minute to see the other entries - if there
are two entries and one has a scratch condition it could pay to enter another
runner as worst case scenario you would finish 3rd for a potentially large
purse (esp in French turf races which have a tendency to come up soft!)
What
stables may not realise is that the track dislike can also refer to the track
itself, so for example they run like donkeys at Churchill downs but set track
records at Shendandoah Downs! Nice on the CV but not so good if you want
to aim for Triple Crowns or Breeders Cup.
Speaking
personally, I have a horse called Baker Street and whilst he is no world
beater he is a nice reliable runner. This year for example he has had 5
runs and for 4 he rated as “OK” for Likes Track but posted PSRs of 100/89/98/98
for these with 1 win, 1 2nd and 2 4ths so if I had put in SCRATCH IF OK he
would have been pulled out. Three tracks were Fast with one Slow. In his
most recent start though he rated “YES” to the track and came 2nd with a 104
PSR.
Going
back further, one of my best mares Case Closed had terrible
surface preferences but did set WR/TR with a NO! for tracks so its just a
matter of being brave and taking the chance. Some stables have automatic pilot
when it comes to entries and ALL their runners have scratch conditions but
others just run regardless - its a personal choice!
The moral here is to not only take into account
whether a horse likes to splash through the mud or give the jockey a bone
rattling ride on concrete, but check their records on particular tracks and
leave off the scratch conditions for a few runs to test them out.
4 comments:
I have never knowingly run a horse with a NO rating. A filly name Influential was run on NO, contrary to my orders, way back in my first season and that remains to this day, the only error Laurie has ever committed at Photo Finish.
I still would like a "main track only" scratch instruction option ;-)
Oh, I nearly forgot the time Laurie mistakenly scratched the single horse I had entered in an oversubscribed race, yet let 2-3 owners run two horses each.
Even with these one-off errors, her success rate is off the charts.
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