Zoom Tonite
Well, the invitation for tonight’s Zoom is out, and it ought to be sitting there in your mailbox right now. We got room for y’all, so come on in! Pull up a chair, grab you something to drink, and let’s talk some horse racing.
First, go take a look at the workout videos Amy Kearns and the crew at Churchill Downs have put together. You can find ’em right here:
We added Forever Young this morning, looking good and putting in a nice breeze, along with a number of other high-profile gallopers. There’s plenty to see, and that’s what I love about having these videos available. You ain’t got to take somebody’s word for it. You can watch these horses with your own two eyes and decide what you think.
Now, I’m getting close to putting a bow on Friday’s sheet. I’ve done a pile of work on the Europeans because, as usual, Friday’s card is loaded up with European runners and young horses. That means our Workout Report is fixing to be a downright massive undertaking. But here’s the thing I love about it: the visual representation of these works. You get to see what we see. You ain’t just reading somebody’s opinion or swallowing some trainer’s latest serving of horse-racing word salad. You get to look for yourself.
And tonight’s Zoom is going to include something I think is mighty important: breaking down the European horses by their respective races overseas and explaining how we assess their chances over here.
See, European racing can be foreign territory to the American horseplayer. We’re accustomed to our figures, our numbers, our percentages, and our neatly packaged little stats. We like something we can plug into a formula and spit out an answer.
Well, the Europeans don’t always cooperate with that arrangement.
You’ve got to understand the trip, the going, and the company they’ve been keeping. Who did they run against? What kind of ground did they encounter? How did the race unfold? What did they actually accomplish, and how does that translate to what they’re fixing to face here?
You can’t just look at a number and declare yourself the smartest person in the room. Well, you can, I reckon, but that don’t mean you are.
If you signed up for tonight’s Zoom, your invitation has been sent. If you haven’t received it, get ahold of me. That invitation ain’t going to sprout wings and magically land in your inbox five minutes before we start.
And if you sign up between now and then, you’ll receive an invitation and a welcome email from me.
Now, I know this next part may come as a disappointment to some of y’all, but as of this afternoon, I have yet to develop the ability to read minds. So please, be aware of the email address you used when you registered. That’s where your invitation is going.
I understand the confusion. When I send an email from my phone, sometimes the contraption decides to attach a different address, like my Me.com account, and the whole thing gets more confusing than a three-horse photo finish. Technology is wonderful right up until it starts making decisions for you.
As for Friday, I’ve found some prices I like. There may be a few opportunities to get paid without having to mortgage the farm. There might also be only one truly logical horse on the entire card, depending on how you look at it.
But that’s why we do the work.
We don’t have to manufacture an opinion on every horse. We don’t have to fall in love with a favorite just because the public has decided it’s the second coming of Secretariat. And we sure as heck don’t have to bet every race to prove we showed up.
We handicap one race at a time, one horse at a time.
That’s the Process. We do the work, study the horses, evaluate the opportunities, and let the races tell us what they’re worth.
So, check your email, get yourself signed up, and join us tonight. We’ve got plenty to cover, a whole lot of horses to look at, and some Europeans to figure out.
Y’all come on in. We’ll leave the crystal ball at home. Mine’s still in the shop.
