Race Placement

[The Steward]

If I had one wish for y'all for Y53, it would be some serious adjustment of your race placement. This past year and a bit the one before I saw SO many allowance gallopers winning stakes, because there was race after race, week after week, with NO stakes level gallopers even entered. Cool for the allowance gallopers, but where did the stakes horses go? I'm taking all across the board, including dirt route races (you'll note fillies win against colts all the time because all the colts are over in one race beating each other), turf milers and sprinters it's a HUGE thing, and it's starting to creep into turf routers for the first time. This isn't like hey cool that allowance horse jumped up and was awesome, this is like, the stakes horses all went home for the whole year for some reason, and allowance gallopers reigned supreme.

I just had a nice chat with a player about other players who want to have top level G1 horses SO much, that sometimes people throw them in the biggest races (especially turf routers this is a problem) over and over and over and never get a win. But they can't figure out why. Not every horse is going to be Sidney/Dep Gov/flavor of the year. Pick a target, and work towards that target. If you win, go for another target. If you lose several times in a row, it might be time to reassess race placement.

Karl Smythe and Laura Ferguson are two masters of race placement. Laura drops fillies against colts in weak stakes ALLLL the time, because the filly races are actually harder. Sorry Laura for the sellout. Karl Smythe has a host of mares every year who have somehow magically earned half a million that no one has ever heard of, because he looks and looks and finds amazing empty spots for his horses. The 2yo route races Week 10 and 11 were silly - one race you have 2-3 freaks who all bust a 95, and the next race over is won by an allowance gallop. LOOK at what you are doing when you enter. Choose your spots wisely and boost your own stats without bashing your head into a wall.

That is my dream for Y53.

[Rochelle Bos]

Shhhhhhhh I like my allowance being able to win stakes

[Nena Olson]

And then there are us with stakes gallopers who can't win NW2/NW3 LOL thats where my stakes gallopers are at anyway.

[Gwayne's World]

I've had a number of stakes gallop types who couldn't win NW2 and NW3 races. And it had nothing to do with a lack of fitness?

[The Steward]

But I think that's just it... I think ALL the stakes gallopers are banging their heads against each other in the allowance/NW races, and the allowance horses are like * that, I'm going in the stakes.

[Gwayne's World]

But I think that's just it... I think ALL the stakes gallopers are banging their heads against each other in the allowance/NW races, and the allowance horses are like * that, I'm going in the stakes.

Duh!

[Rochelle Bos]

But I think that's just it... I think ALL the stakes gallopers are banging their heads against each other in the allowance/NW races, and the allowance horses are like * that, I'm going in the stakes.

Maybe that is contributing to this girl's struggle lol Or she just doesn't want to be an actual stakes-y stakes galloper

[Fanta Arcadia]

But I think that's just it... I think ALL the stakes gallopers are banging their heads against each other in the allowance/NW races, and the allowance horses are like * that, I'm going in the stakes.

Maybe that is contributing to this girl's struggle lol Or she just doesn't want to be an actual stakes-y stakes galloper

I'd say her ambitious schedule also doesn't help lol She also went to Japan and back in one of those 2 week periods.

10-12-14-16-1-3-5-7-9-12-14-16

[Rochelle Bos]

I'd say her ambitious schedule also doesn't help lol She also went to Japan and back in one of those 2 week periods.

10-12-14-16-1-3-5-7-9-12-14-16

I vet her all the time and she is very sound with a pet. For example she was ready to race on a little over 1 week's rest after her W14 race

Y52-Break Vet: Cheer This Way seems to be walking fine. This horse should be fine tomorrow, check back with me then if you'd like.
Y52-W16-D5 Moved to Aa Equine Eastern Us
[Y52-W16-D5 RACED WV]
Y52-W16-D3 Vet: There are currently no physical problems that I can see with Cheer This Way. You've got yourself a sharp horse here!
Y52-W16-D2 Moved to Virginia City Park
Y52-W16-D2 Vet: Cheer This Way is currently totally healthy! It's the perfect time for a race or some other exercise!
Y52-W16-D2 Moved to Paradise Downs
Y52-W15-D3 Walked the Shedrow [To keep her condition hopefully good for another week]
Y52-W15-D3 Vet: Cheer This Way seems A-okay to me. You've got yourself a sharp horse here!
Y52-W14-D1 Moved to Aa Equine Eastern Us
[Y52-W14-D1 RACED MI]
Y52-W13-D5 Moved to Midwest Raceway

And here is her Japan trip W5 where a little over a week and she was g2g

Y52-W7-D5 Moved to Aa Equine Eastern Us
[Y52-W7-D5 RACED IN FL]
Y52-W7-D2 Moved to Flamingo Park
Y52-W6-D7 Vet: Cheer This Way seems to be pretty healthy. This horse isn't even a little bit tired.
Y52-W6-D3 Vet: Cheer This Way seems A-okay to me. This horse can run in a few days but I don't think it's at its peak, you know?
Y52-W5-D7 Vet: Cheer This Way seems to be pretty healthy. This horse will be tired for the next few days, okay? Have you ever noticed that Cheer This Way is sore in the morning? Maybe try some bandages.
Y52-W5-D4 Moved to Aa Equine Eastern Us
[Y52-W5-D4 RACED IN JPN]
Y52-W5-D1 Moved to Kanashi Wau Park
Y52-W4-D7 Vet: Cheer This Way is walking soundly. This horse isn't even tired!
Y52-W3-D7 Moved to Magic Raven Japan
[Y52-W3-D5 RACED IN KY]

[Laura Smith]

Vetting isn't everything, though. Even "very unsound" horses might vet okay W12 after running 2-4-6-8-10, but in my experience, the performance of a majority of horses (even sound and very sound) often starts to tail off after four to six starts on a two-week schedule...

Also yes SHHHHH. My alws like winning stakes.

[Rochelle Bos]

Vetting isn't everything, though. Even "very unsound" horses might vet okay W12 after running 2-4-6-8-10, but in my experience, the performance of a majority of horses (even sound and very sound) often starts to tail off after four to six starts on a two-week schedule...

Also yes SHHHHH. My alws like winning stakes.

Interesting! I’ll play with it next year!

[Carole Hanson]

Vetting isn't everything, though. Even "very unsound" horses might vet okay W12 after running 2-4-6-8-10, but in my experience, the performance of a majority of horses (even sound and very sound) often starts to tail off after four to six starts on a two-week schedule...

Also yes SHHHHH. My alws like winning stakes.

Interesting! I’ll play with it next year!

I learnt this lesson the hard way in year 51 with Moon Faced and Lilibet. I don't trust the vet one bit now.

As for race placement, as much as I can agree with the sentiment, its harder for us to assess a field and it takes a lot more time. We can't just see the gallops of our competitors, we have to research past performances, see how they stack up on workouts and maybe do a bit of pedigree research (cause a maiden might be looking like a dud based on workout times but mommy and daddy say otherwise). I can agree that if we are frustrated with our good horses, we need to focus on better race placement for them but not everyone in the stable can get the same treatment, it's just too time consuming. Which means that in some of the elite barns, some of the horses that would be A grade to us but are B grade to them just aren't placed quite as well and that's probably where Em's frustration comes from which is fair enough but there are two sides to this I think. Just my opinion though, not trying to bash this sentiment!

[Tammy Stawicki]

This is all lies. Keep running your best horses where they are. If you aren't winning in Europe or North America it doesn't count. (My opinion on this is in no way influenced by the fact that 10 of my 13 thoroughbred Simmy Awards were in divisions outside of Europe and NA or that I once won 3 graded stakes races with a productive galloper, I'm actually kind of hurt I'm not one of the race placement exemplars).

[Lisa Bennert]

I feel like if people really start to follow this next year I'm going to have half as many Tb stakes wins (if I'm lucky). Come on, making their allowance horses stakes winners is all people like me have with their crappy homebred Tbs, lol

[Rochelle Bos]

I feel like if people really start to follow this next year I'm going to have half as many Tb stakes wins (if I'm lucky). Come on, making their allowance horses stakes winners is all people like me have with their crappy homebred Tbs, lol

What she said lol