A Horse to Watch For?

Let me begin by writing how pleased I am to be accepted into the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance. The TBA consists of a group of bloggers all of whom share a great passion for the sport of racing. I urge you to use the drop-down menu to the left and explore the many fine blogs listed there. You will find this great sport covered from many different perspectives from historical, wagering, issue oriented (and we all have our issues) and personal.



Now, if you've been reading my posts, you have probably noted that I tend to write more about my own personal experiences at the races. Today I just have a brief note on something I observed yesterday from the Gulfstream Park grandstand.



The first race on Jan. 7 was a 6 furlong MCL 40k for 4 year olds and up. Many of the participants in this race were lightly raced 4yo's. One of the obvious contenders in this race was a Patrick Reynolds trainee named Touch Too Much ridden today by Eibar Coa. Touch Too Much finished a game 2nd in a Maiden race at Aqueduct on Nov 26 and was then put on the shelf to wait for Gulfstream Park. On paper she appeared to be a top contender in this race.



Touch Too Much stood out immediately to me in the Post Parade, but for all the wrong reasons. Any racing fan knows that as the horses pass the grandstand their pace will quicken and the horses as they move along will gradually move from walking to trotting to a slow gallop to warm up and stretch out before a race, just as any athlete does. Touch to Much never did any thing more than walk to the gate, nothing. I watched her all the way because I thought this was very unusual. I remarked to a patron sitting next to me that this was very suspicious, and as it turned out, I was correct.



Now there are legitimate reasons for a horse not to vigorously warm up prior to racing. Perhaps the horse is a little sore and they don't want to stress the horse too much before the real effort is needed. But Touch to Much has only raced twice prior to now, and if she was so sore she couldn't warm up at all, then why wasn't she scratched?



Once the race began, Touch Too Much chased the pace for the first two calls and then faded to last. "then had nothing left.", is how the chart commentator charitably put it.



I'm not usually one to cry that a race is fixed or that some chicanery is afoot. I fully understand that sometimes horses are entered into races with better intentions than others. But this just doesn't make sense to me. It looked to me more like a glorified workout than an true effort to actually win the race.



We all know that in the case of 2 year olds some trainers are good to go first time out and others tend to use the first race as part of their training regimen. But those stats are out there for all of us to see and, at least those of us who pay enough attention, know which trainers are out for a win and which are looking to the future.



I don't really know much about Pat Reynolds because I don't follow NY racing that closely. If anyone can shed some light on this for me, I'd really appreciate the heads up. Is this a pattern he usually employs? Inquiring minds want to know. Should I be looking for Touch To Much at a long price next out based on this effort, or is she just too sore to be considered?


Please leave a comment or send me an E-Mail if you can help me out with this.