225/1, going home a winner…

In the finale at Santa Anita, after scratches we were left with 1 STAR horse, Encanta and 1 “V” horse, Courteous.  Encanta was also the Top Rated on my Contenders List on the PLUS… these two ran win & place making a marvelous exacta that paid $225/$1.00…  And this exacta should have sent all the JJPP player’s home a winner…

I say this, noting we did have a long tough day at Belmont, for those that were playing both tracks.  Belmont presented some difficult challenges yesterday, which are discussed in the article that follows.  But as our customer’s know, our handicapping ideas are sound and they work. That means they earn in the long run. But instead of having a nice win here and loser there, on Saturday, we got off to a tough start, at Belmont and through the opening 4 races at Santa Anita.  Then from the 5th through the 11th, we literally cleaned up winning the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th in succession and then taking down the 11th with gusto!

Keep the faith and stay with the Power Page…

Turf course at Belmont has strong Bias!

Going against a Strong bias can make you look as “dumb as a box of rocks”, unless you luck into favorable trips.  For those of you who are new to the game and not entirely sure of what I am talking about, we had such a bias today at Belmont – ON THE TURF. This is pretty unusual when the turf courses are drying out, but not that unusual in the summer when a Turf course can get burned out.

But we had one today, if you were not on the rail for at least the first 4 furlongs of each race, you were not getting your picture taken.  Closers who were snug to the rail did fine, but if you were two paths or more off the rail, fo-get-about-it!  And it was like that somewhat on Friday.  This is good and bad… if you make a sheet as I do, it is bad when it rears it’s ugly head, especially if all our interesting handicapping does not find it’s way to the rail…  but we see this as an opportunity in the future because horses that didn’t get to the rail, will look worse than they are and then pay better than they should when we catch them later on…

The we went to Santa Anita which played honestly on both Turf and Dirt and have had a fab day… with our Top Rated Contenders winning the 5th (EVEN),6th (9/2 odds), 7th (3/1 odds)  and 8th (5/1 odds)  and then losing the 9th with a 35/a long.

This was a nice run and it’s typical of the Karma of the Game, but if you use solid principles it all works out in the end… by the way, in this 4 race streak, 3 of the winners were STAR horses and the only STAR horses in the race…  It’s now time for the 10th and I will sign off for tonight….  I would love it if Aquila could get the job done!

22 fabulous races for Saturday…

Saturday is a prelude to the Breeders’ Cup with several important races for all classes of horse.  And I always have a special place in my heart for the Champagne Stakes at Belmont.  I remember well the excitement of my friends over the win by Seattle Slew in 1977, my first year being into Thoroughbred Racing.  Then in 1978, we got to see Alydar and Affirmed, in one of the few times that Alydar got the best of Affirmed. Affirmed and Alydar, still for me, are the greatest rivalry in our sport – to my experience.

Back in those days, most of the participants had raced many times, as much as 5 or 6 or even more races when they tacked-up for the Champagne…  Not so anymore, today we are lucky to see 2 races in any horses past performance, so the handicapping has to be somewhat more imaginative.  But from this race, we will start to get a picture of some of the better contenders in the division.

Another interesting race for me is the 7th, sprinting on the Turf, with some great names from the past including Pure Sensation and Disco Partner.  But we now have several new faces to this crowd and their might be a change in the guard…

Over at Santa Anita my favorite race might be the City of Hope, Race #9, and to be truthful, I do not expect to see any of these on BC day, but the race comes up very interesting from a handicapping point of view… and that’s always the most interesting for me.

As I said, we have 22 terrific races with plenty of handicapping puzzles and I would offer the opinion there are many great payoffs we can participate in….

Stay with the Power Page…