SUCKER BETS---(part 19)
29---BETTING “PROTECTED” HORSES WHEN THEY APPEAR TO BE AT THEIR WINNING LEVELS. by Joe Takach

Have you ever wondered how some trainers stay in business?
You know who these trainers are on your own circuit if not the same as my Southern California loop. And since I don’t know your circuit as well as my own, we’ll use Southern California for our backdrop.
Many low percentage trainers in Southern California “protect” their horses just about every time they run them. And by “protecting” them I mean that these low percentage trainers always run their horses way over their heads where they can’t possibly win and where they won’t get claimed.
If they don’t get claimed, these trainers can continue to collect “day money” and live very nicely from that generated income. And with “day money” sometimes over $100/day, it isn’t hard to see how they do it.
How else could these low percentage trainers possibly pay their feed bills and stable help? They positively aren’t driving a new Mercedes Benz on the purse money they occasionally win.
Yet these same trainers tell their gullible owners that they aren’t making any money while charging $100/day for every horse under their care regardless of how those horses perform!
Sure and “God didn’t make little green apples and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime”!
Simply do the math.
Most of these trainer “protectionists” have at least 20 horses under their care and sometimes many more. But let’s keep it simple. At $100 per day for 30 days, their 20 horses produce $60,000 per month from the owners.
To keep 20 horses on the backside, it costs the trainer nothing in rent. They are allotted those stalls by the track absolutely free! In fact, the trainer faces only 2 costs every day. The first is feeding their horses and the second is paying their help.
The owner pays all veterinarian bills should the horse need a doctor’s attention. If the trainer can’t get a jockey to gallop or work their horses in the morning for nothing, an exercise rider must be hired. The owner also pays for that. In fact, the owner pays for every thing else in addition to the day money.
Is the picture getting clearer?
If so, we’re ready to discuss the “sucker bet”.
Here’s how it might set up and our example will be one that is readily recognizable by seasoned handicappers regardless of what circuit they play.
A horse starts off his career in Maiden Special Weight company and shows little if anything. Okay you say to yourself, a lot of horses show nothing in their debut efforts for a myriad of reasons ranging from not being totally “cranked” for a top effort to merely getting dirt kicked into their faces during the running of the race. No big deal!
The same horse comes back in a reasonable period of time with the needed morning drills in tow and runs another total “dud”. The protectionist trainer then adds blinkers, but again nothing happens. Then he tells the owner that he’s going to change the bit or somehow alter the blinkers or remove them altogether. Still nothing!
Then the trainer tells the owner he’s going to change the horse’s shoeing. And, of course, this isn’t the problem either.
Then the trainer moves to the “jockey” angle and tells the owner that he’s changing riders as he believes a stronger rider will get more out of him. This doesn’t work and the horse is once more “lifeless” from gate to wire.
By now the protectionist trainer is beginning to run out of options to tell the owner. But there’s always the old “distance switch” and that will surely work for an excuse----at least once. Once again the runner strikes out and is far back at the wire.
Running out of plausible stories to relate to the now “questioning and soured” owner, the protectionist trainer goes to his ace in the hole with the old “surface change” move. And just as in all his prior starts, he’s nowhere to be found when the dust settles.
The glib trainer not wanting to drop his unimpressive Special Weight runner into the maiden claiming ranks risking a takeaway, then pleads his case one more time to the owner saying that shipping him to a minor league track is likely the answer. The owner pays for the “ship” as well. In Southern California, this move would be accomplished by shipping from Santa Anita, Hollywood, or Del Mar to race in Northern California at Bay Meadows or Golden Gates. While some improvement might be noted because he’s running against lesser, he stills fails to produce.
By now this horse has 9 or 10 races under his belt and has yet to show any promise or any ability to beat Maiden Special Weight company----even in the MINOR leagues!
A non-protectionist trainer would have dropped this horse into the maiden claiming ranks after his 3rd miscue and wouldn’t have run him 10 times where he couldn’t possibly win.
At this point the owner might demand that the horse is dropped into the maiden claiming ranks, as he wouldn’t be the least bit upset to lose this “pet” via the claim box.
And after 9 or 10 races of discouragement not to mention any “physical” problems the horse could have acquired early on in his career, he loses when dropped against other maiden claiming losers.
Obviously this horse was a “sucker bet” when dropping in against maiden claimers even though dropping from Special Weight company into a maiden claiming race is said to be the biggest drop in all of “horseydom”.
This “sucker bet” is found at just about every racing level. A horse might be running for some time at 50K for “protection”, but is nothing more than a 25K claimer on the very best day of his life. But after continually looking at horse’s rears in 50K claiming affairs, he fails to win if dropped to 40K, 32K and most likely even 25K.
Don’t be a “sucker”.
When you spy a “protected” horse in any field, just throw him out!

PART 20----MORE “SUCKER” BETS

© Joe Takach 2006