My comments on Track Safety and Obligation:

Tracks should be  designed and prepared each day to safeguard all the race horses.

This principle should come before the perceived notion of the “SHOW”.  I understand that fast times tend to excite the viewing audience and the telecasters can talk up the fast times. While if the times are slower, they have to advise on “equivalencies” that the viewing public might not get.  However, selling the game should never exceed safety.

I have no knowledge, nor do I in anyway know the correct hardness or comparative depth of the surface the track  should be on a day to day basis.  What I can tell you, is that immediately after the first race yesterday, I sent an e-mail to Ralph Siraco, stating that I thought the RAIL was super fast and there was a strong INSIDE BIAS.  That was clearly confirmed throughout the racing day.  Later on,  on Ralph’s show on Sunday, Jon Lindo – who owns horses stabled at Santa Anita and is an astute observer of our great game  — commented that the track had “tighhtend” up and become very hard.

Let’s add in this concept.  That SPEED x Mass = Force.  This is simple, the faster a horse runs, the more Forces he is exerting!  This is simple…  A SLOW horse and a FAST horse actually weigh the same for the most part, the only difference is the speeds they travel at.  While the fast horse is likely to be a better made animal, the fast horse is still exerting more FORCE and thereby more likely to hurt him/herself than the SLOW horse.  This is not rocket science – this is the basis for understanding literally everything connected to SPEED SPORTS, especially our SPEED SPORT.

And so, to my mind, it would be most important if the tracks were prepared to protect the well-being of our fastest horses – FIRST!

One more comment, horses have a unique, suspensory type of system, and they do not absorb the same kinds of impact that we might believe they encounter.  With that understanding, I do not suggest that I know the right depths or preparations that a track should actually have.  I have heard from some quarters that deep tracks are hard on horses and I have heard that tight tracks can be hard on horses… So there is an optimum balance that should be the province of the Track supers…

My main idea is… that the track should be designed and prepped to protect all the equine athletes, with a special eye to protecting our fastest participants…

I am not suggesting  the Santa Anita strip was safe or not safe for the equine athletes on Saturday 3/11/2017. What I am saying is,  it should be prepared to the same safety standards everyday, the very highest safety standard there is!

So, IF the track super had the track “souped-up” to put on a show, resulting in a lower safety standard horses, then I that case – I think that would be wrong.  I’ just saying…. and of course this is just my opinion …

3 year olds this weekend…

Tapwrit was very strong in the Tampa Bay Derby, but still has only traveled up to 1 1/6th mile and has not carried much weigh so far…  We shall have to see the next step… but stays near the top of our ratings… 

Mastery is done now, apparently suffering a condylar crack in his back hind leg.  He looked beautiful in winning.  Apparently the injury fully expressed itself after the wire, during the pull up.  It’s always hard to say when it actually happened, can anyone really know for sure…

Iliad is a sprinter and Gormley doesn’t appear to be much…Normally after the San Felipe, I personally am excited but the race and deeply interested in getting into the nuts and bolts of it.  Concerned with what the splits were and how much ground loss this one had and so on and so forth.  But this year, I just have a big sigh.  There is now no horse that comes out of California with much upside directed at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.  Gormley really tells the sad story of the balance of the West Coasters at this point.  (Of course, Bob Baffert might unveil a monster at any moment).

So the biggest story of the day might well be the Santa Anita track – itself —  which was prepped to favor the inside to a fault – at least in my opinion…and I wonder out loud if it was so hard, that it participated in the unfortunate injury to Mastery. 

Shaman Ghost showed real class!

I will update my betting totals and Bias information tomorrow… but your JJPPs are ready…