We always go to Belmont when there is a TC on the line but today I decided a Belmont at Saratoga is historic too! Looks like it’s going to be a great field as well so what the heck, we are going! Hotel rooms are insanely high priced so we are taking the camper and staying at a friend’s farm instead.
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Please send us some pictures, if you can.
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I am currently (temporarily) only a few hours from Saratoga. I’ve debated spending the coin to go for the day but haven’t bit the bullet yet.
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I am following, and playing, the racecards at Epsom all weekend, What a beautiful racecourse that is, and I am a sucker for classic distance turf racing, so kinda in heaven at the moment. I just don’t get to see enough 11-12F type races carded in the U.S. unfortunately.
As for the KY Derby, I have rarely seen a horse as affable and professinal as Forever Young, watching his works where he walks right along the rail where his fan are, and seems to enjoy humans, just got to me. I was not real happy about him not getting 2nd place though, but overall it is what it is. I admire and like pretty much all of these horses and since not a huge gambler type I enjoy watching them express their great talents.
SL not being able to run in a straight line is problematic. For those who have no heard, they are not only changing his rider, but I believe they are putting him into some kind of new “bit” for the Belmont. I am not a horse trainer so I really cannot speak to all of these things but I used to listen to Art Sherman talking about horses who bore in or out repeatedly in the stretch, he seemed very knowledgeable on the subject at the time and stated there was either a physical problem or it happened around time horses changed leads. I can’t say from memory everything he noted but I think he is a good horseman.
I am not a fan of making so many equipment changes, in addition to jockey changes, on a horse in such a short period of time, and feel that he has been not running in a straight line for long enough now that maybe it was something better addressed earlier.
If anyone can tell me more about the new bit and what it does I’d love to learn more.
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Speaking of the new bit, Paulick Report ran a piece talking about the new bit and said it was a cage bit but it had a picture of a Houghton bit on top. My guess is they just posted the wrong bit because although I do love a Houghton bit that is very unlikely to make any difference in this instance. I would definitely try the cage bit if he were mine. It’s not pretty to look at so I am sure they are hoping to avoid the blowback that is sure to follow switching to that bit but it’s better than someone getting killed.
A cage bit has prongs inside it on one side that stay inside a disc unless that rein is applied. Once the rein is applied the prongs push in to the outside of the horse’s mouth. They go back in as soon as you let go of the rein so you can apply a steady poke or more or less a half halt poke repeatedly as necessary. I only ever used it on one horse in my entire career and after using it for several races we cured him of his lugging out and he ran in a Houghton for the rest of his career. He raced through 13 years old.
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The article also referred to the cage bit as another name for the Houghton/Haughton bit–which sounds like is incorrect.
Funnycide ran in the Houghton bit (Barclay Tagg’s good horse…) But Barclay explained it was because the horse was so tough–not for steering.
http://paulickreport.com/horse-care-category/thats-a-mouthful-racing-bits-explained
I think we use to refer to the bit with the disc as …a runout bit (simple maybe not accurate but descriptive!)
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I’ve heard about that kind of bit before but didn’t know its name. I can’t remember the horse it was used on though.
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That sounds familiar to me.
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Run out bit is a nickname for a cage bit, I wouldn’t call that incorrect.
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Did you have the winner? The loose horse in the field had me holding my breath throughout.
Very exciting Derby this year, and Justify gets an Epsom Derby winner in City Of Troy for Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien. This is O’Brien’s 10th Derby win.
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Fierceness is out of the Belmont.
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Even if a bit and/or blinker combo successfully stops the horse from lugging in or getting out, which is a big if for a horse who does it as severely as Sierra Leone did in the Derby, the correction sometimes stops them from running. It’ll be interesting for sure to see what happens at the Belmont.
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I’m curious why they haven’t done the blinker hood full cup on the outside, minimal to no cup on the inside, thing like they did with…Whirlaway was it? Some horse of old who had a habit of bolting to the far outside fence. Cutting away the inside blinker cup did the trick of straightening him up.
Not at ALL being a keyboard trainer–I know this much about training racehorses. Sierra Leone had me thinking about that historical horse and his customized blinker hood and so it made me wonder.
Edited to add it WAS Whirlaway! Found this fun article detailing the blinker hood thing as well as other training tricks they had to employ for this incredibly speedy, and incredibly erratic, horse. Racing legend: Eddie Arcaro’s strong hand helped Whirlaway surge into history (examiner-enterprise.com)
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Sometime more is way worse meaning sometimes when you close a horse up significantly on one side they don’t know if there is anything over on that side and they will just keep going that way until they hit something.
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I read this article on horses’ vision and tools trainers can use. I figured a shadow roll was for a horse that was a bit spooky but this article says it also helps a horse with a high head carriage to lower it’s head and focus on what’s in front. So interesting, I’d love to see a film from the horses perspective when wearing the different hoods, blinkers, etc. https://www.twinspires.com/edge/racing/the-science-of-racing-vision-and-blinkers/
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That second article reminded me of why I’m just not interested in who wins this year’s Belmont. It will be too short. It is supposed to show that a colt can win at the classic distance of a mile and a half. I liked that the three races were at different distances over different tracks with different turns.
Now, I admit I know nothing about Saratoga’s turns but I can learn. So maybe that in itself will be a test for the runners. The turns.
Anyway I’m sorry Fierceness is out. He was my Derby pick.
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Ah, makes sense.
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A mile and a quarter is still a ways to go and is testing. I wonder if the Saratoga track surface will factor into it. It seemed to get many champions beat as it did not always suit some horses.
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The Belmont has been run at this distance before 
With no Triple Crown on the line, it doesn’t bother me.
1 1/4 mile is still a good test & Saratoga is one of those tracks that horses seem to really like or really hate.
Regardless, looks like it should be a good race, with some nice horses.
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The first Triple Crown of my life took 25 years to take place from the previous one, so I got used to there not being one for my first 11 years of race viewing.
And then I missed all of that year’s races except for the stretch run in the Belmont. I don’t remember why I missed the Preakness but on Derby Day I’d chosen to go trail riding over TV viewing.
