Thursday’s (12-17-2015) Power Page for Aqueduct and Los Alamitos are ready for download…

Track Bias Report for Wednesday:

Aqueduct:  The inside was a distinct but small advantage — if you could get racing room – on Wednesday.  I would rate it a little “i”.

HANDICAPPING DISCUSSION:

My Race Day plays on Wednesday were Watch the Tie in the 7th and Take Issue in the 8th.  Both were good figure horse’s that had potentially decent trips lined up behind the speed.  Both are managed by top notch trainers, Gary Gullo for Watch the Tie and Steve Asmussen for Take Issue.  Both were well backed on the Tote Board at 5/2 or less through most of the wagering, ultimately Watch The Tie went off at 2/1, while Take Issue drifted up to 3/1.  My point is these were not crazy horses to wager upon, but good figure horses..   Watch the Tie ran terribly and Take Issue was boxed-in through the stretch and never got a chance to do her best.

I will leave you to do a little post-mortem on the handicapping, but there was nothing wrong with either selection that I can see.  It’s horse racing, and without a doubt I am going through a difficult period in my Race Day selections.  The Power Page is doing just fine, but if I select a horse for the Race Day show, I am being “B-slapped” with the result.  We all go through this, and we can’t wait for it to pass… and hopefully never encounter a period like this again…

How do we handle something like this… Well there are a number of basic things I do… check to make sure that my handicapping ideas are never based upon ONE SINGLE idea, but rather multiple ideas. A good example might be, a horse with a good looking form cycle, returning to their favorite track or distance. Or maybe a Blinker change to go with a move Up in company, to go with competitive numbers…  A selection should never be based upon a single idea or a single number, at least not in my opinion….

Here is what I will do…  I will continue to be diligent.  I will continue to look for the mix of handicapping ideas that have worked well over the past 35 years and hone in on the ones that seem to be working best right now… but most of all, make sure I am looking at ideas that have a decent PRICE… Because, as I have preached over the years, Price is always your best friend…!

so STAY WITH THE POWER PAGE!