Getting blinks.  Stumbled out of the gate.  Plus he was favorite in that race.   Johnny v -- Jockey over routes 31% win.    Mike Smith on Bourbon War gets 33% BW also removes blinks.   Blinkers on/off is a good angle.  I'm feeling pretty good on my Tapit theory.  Extra bonus -- had some success in this race cashing tickets.   Only other speed horse is Spinoff and Joevia.  Spinoff is Pletcher horse and I can't see a Shanghai Bobby offspring winning the Belmont or doing well.  

I worked up the jockey thing,  Interestingly JV wins has a stellar record on most BEL races he rides in,  but in the Belmont Stakes he only has a 9% win rate in the Belmont Stakes, compared to other rides who have anywhere from 25% to 14% win rate in the Belmont stakes.......as a matter of fact, when he entered the 2007 Belmont stakes he was  0-for-21 in TC races. 

.Leparoux has ridden Bel stakes 4 times, not in top % but he is "hot" right now.......I always have to look at jocks and trainers who get hot. 

That race might have put some bottom into him with how JR had him run so much farther than everyone else, might have actually been the plan.  

As for the jockeys, the only one that got a real upgrade imo is Spinoff.  That wasn’t a factor in why I like him but it sure doesn’t hurt.

There's this thing I've noticed where often Rosario & Castellano end up "following each other".   Thus, I will play a 6/7 7/6 somewhere . . .

Oldbettowin said...

I’ve got Everfast down for a pretty significant regression in this race,

Hunch bet for me, but Calumet.  
Due dilligence requires doing the research on horses they bring to the BELMONT STAKES and how many run ITM.  

That is why I like him, unless you think a 71% ITM figure is *bad*.  

But yes, he could regresss for sure.   And Calumet has new owners since I took that stat

P.S.  That said, not sure I'll be using him as there are better in this race.  We'll see after I check my bankroll! 

Does it matter if they bred him or if they just bought him at the yearling auction?

I did a big edit on message 92 and filled the angles in.. 

Oldbettowin said...

Does it matter if they bred him or if they just bought him at the yearling auction?

Yes, that's why I said Calumet doesn't have the same owners since I took that stat.  ;)  And I didn't list Everfast as a homebred in the preakness or the derby.  Of course it matters, but they still have good bloodstock people who know what they're doing there.  
Lukas gets a lot of horses from them, and he has a pretty good eye for good horses, despite that he is no longer the force to be reckoned with that he once was, I trust his *eye* for horseflesh.  

A few years ago I made a list of every horse who ran ITM in the TC races and their auction prices.   Usually cheap horses don't win this race, but then you have some who do like Palace Malice, Victory Gallop, etc.   I'll be glad to PM the document to you sometime.  I have one for this year too, but I can't find it under all the paper on my desk  LOL    From memory, intrepid, bourbon and WoW were pricey.   
Tax (gelding), spinoff, master fencer and tacitus are homebreds.......any horse outside of all those were *pretty cheap*. 

BTW, Tax is running with plastic shoes.  

I read thru all the veterinary reports. 
 

Very solid.

I guess something like whether a horse was cheap or not would mostly be in the eye of the beholder.  Take PalMal for instance...I can’t tell if he was sold as a yearling or not but pedigree query says he was sold as a two year old in training for $200,000.  That is decidedly not cheap.  

I have several things I look at that aren’t strictly quantified (and some that aren’t quantifiable at all) and therefore have to stay mindful that some of my impressions are inevitably going to be subjective.  But without subjectivism we would all be betting on the same horse and where’s the fun in that? ;)