HOW DO YOU ELIMINATE HORSES WHEN HANDICAPPING?
(Part 6) NEGATIVE EQUIPMENT CHANGES by Joe Takach

There are many negative equipment changes that can turn my race selection for this afternoon into an instant throwout. Below are these negative equipment changes.
A---MARTINGALES
A “martingale” is an extremely negative piece of equipment.
Typically, it is used to stop a horse from carrying his head too high or continually throwing it about and/or to keep the saddle from slipping.
There are a couple of varieties, but the one that concerns the handicapper is the martingale with a breastplate. This leather strap passes around the breast and back across the shoulders, fastening to the saddle cinch about level with the rider’s knees.
It’s sole purpose is to keep the saddle from slipping backwards on horses that are abnormally skinny, or runners with “flat ribs” (a conformation defect).
The last thing any jockey needs to worry about is his saddle slipping as he goes to the whip turning for home. It is not at all uncommon to see the “martingale” horses weakly ridden thruout their entire races, especially in the drive to the wire.
They very rarely win races unless running against the absolute bottom rungs of the claiming ranks. My suggestion to you is to throw them out with utmost confidence!
B---RUN-OUT BITS
A run-out bit is a special running bit used with problematic horses that can’t or won’t run in a straight line for any number of reasons. The bit itself is extended out on either and/or both sides of the mouth. These extended bits can protrude as far as 4 inches or more and allegedly offer additional leverage.
These very negative bits are employed with the hope that any increased jockey leverage will help to prevent the horse from either “getting out” on a turn, or “lugging in or out”.
These bits sometimes help, but most often they do not!
Horses “get out” on a turn because they are moving too fast to properly negotiate the surface, or more likely because they are sore and/or problematic in some other way. Once in a while, their natural conformation could be defective and the cause. But whatever the reason, they have a very difficult time “grabbing” the track on turns. While a run-out bit certainly can’t hurt the horse, it is merely a “stab” in the dark at correcting a problem that is sometimes uncorrectable. Conformation “faults” are rarely rectified by running bit changes.
If the run-out bit is used to attempt to prevent lugging in or out, its actual benefit comes into play as the horse starts to tire. As he begins to slow down after an all-out effort, his natural tendency might be to either lug in or to lug out. This frequently causes fouls and takedowns if the horse in question hits the board.
The “theory” that the run-out bit’s increased leverage will somehow get the horse to run in a perfectly straight line or at least in a straighter line is more fiction that actual fact. If a horse is really that tired or that sore, NO running bit on earth will keep him running in a perfectly straight line.
Very few horses with run-out bits win races unless, of course, they are running against even more problematic horses than themselves.
Stay off them!
C---BARSHOES, COVERED FROGS
Barshoes are always a major no-no!
So are covered frogs!
Barshoes are used to prevent a weak hoof (or hooves) from spreading or cracking to the point where it is extremely painful for a horse to so much as walk, let alone race!
A frog is the fleshy underneath of a hoof. When a frog gets covered, a metal plate is inserted in between the frog itself and the horseshoe. This plate allegedly serves to protect a frog that is tender, bruised, cut or swollen.
Horses wearing barshoes and/or “covered frogs” need ample recovery time, not some half-assed, Mickey Mouse quick fix!
On the major Southern California circuit, the DAILY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HORSES TO WATCH is the only source of this critical information!
If you don’t believe this, we defy you to find so much as one single horse listed in anyone’s past performances from the Equibase supplied past performances of Trackmaster to the past performances of the Daily Racing Form (electronic or printed newspapers), or to any other computer generated past performances, or from any other publication of any kind.
The only handicappers who know which horses run with bad feet are the current subscribers to the DAILY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HORSES TO WATCH!
Why?
Simply because we are the only publication to gather this essential proprietary information! We are in the paddock every single day, for every single race, looking at every single horse, while taking copious notes and upgrading your own personal “shoeboard” every single racing day.
The staff of the DAILY SCHTW has been doing this for over 13 years!
THERE ARE NO SHOEBOARDS at Hollywood, at Santa Anita, or at Del Mar.
Do barshod horses ever win?
Sure they do in the MINOR LEAGUES where problematic horses are forced to race for “chump change” purses against other misfits! But at the major ovals in Southern California consisting of Del Mar, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, at year’s end you could count all the combined barshod winners at all 3 ovals with only 1 hand and still have room left over!
And when they do win on this major circuit, most often it is at the very bottom of the claiming ranks when facing horses that have no legs, let alone bad hooves!
Yet, it‘s not at all uncommon to see barshod horses run in allowance races, high-priced claiming events and even Stakes races in S.Cal.!
If you want to stay financially solvent on our circuit, you must stay off these barshod horses-----period!

(NEGATIVE EQUIPMENT continued in Part 7)

© Joe Takach 2005