ADDING PHYSICALITY TO YOUR DAILY HANDICAPPING VIA THE RACETRACK FEED-----Part 10

8---NEGATIVE EQUIPMENT

As with all our prior visual signals, you can also pick up just about every negative piece of equipment via your racetrack feed. And again, this can be easily accomplished even if all you are offered is that 5 second “glimpse” in the post parade.

Below are the big time “No-Nos” when it comes to negative equipment.

1----MARTINGALES

A “martingale” is another 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 those 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 very 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. Our suggestion to you is to throw them out with utmost confidence!

2---BLOWOUTS and STOPS

“Blowouts” and “Stops” are very negative pieces of equipment and the DAILY SCHTW is the only handicapping service in the entire country and most likely the entire world that keeps daily updated records on all users. These horses are instant throwouts!

A “blowout patch” is a small piece of white adhesive bandage that is placed on the inside of either or both rear knees that supposedly acts as a shock absorber. They are about the size of a softball and quite easy to see in the post parade

If a horse is fitted with this extremely negative piece of equipment, he’s hitting himself!

The “blowout patch” allegedly reduces the pain on impact, while attempting to protect the skin from getting cut and bleeding.

A “stop” serves much the same purpose as a “blowout patch” and are adhesive bandages that are white in color about the size of a silver dollar. Of late, a few West coast trainers have been cutting up old rubber inner tubes and using black electrical tape to keep them in place. These are tough to see on your racetrack feed, but not if you are on track in the paddock.

These “stops” are placed directly above either or both of the rear hooves.

This is done because a horse is hitting himself just above the rear hoof when he’s racing and fully extended. It is foolishly hoped that these adhesive patches will “stop” the horse from cutting himself while absorbing the never-ending impact.

Thus they were named “stops”.

The adhesive white “stop” is frequently knocked off with the first couple of repeated strikes.

While the black rubberized versions stay in place longer and usually for the entire race, the horse still slows himself down because cut or uncut, forcefully hitting yourself in the same exact spot over 100 times during a race has to hurt like hell!

While you might see a very occasional winner adorned with these negative pieces of equipment, take note that these winners come only in “bottom-feeding” low level claimers.

Needless to mention, stay off them!

3---RUN-OUT BITS

These very negative running bits have begun popping up with more regularity during 2001. They are worth tracking if for no other reason than to save you bad bets!

Perhaps we should define run-out bits, as they are called by different names in different parts of the country (bear-out bit, leverage bit).

A run-out bit is a special running bit used with problematic horses that can’t or won’t run straight 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 confirmation 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.

By now you’re surely aware that horses racing with these negative running bits are no-nos! Very, very, very few ever win races unless, of course, they are running against even more problematic horses on the bottom.

Stay off them!

PART 11-----WALKING SHORT

© Joe Takach 2007