There is a cool featue on your APPLE technology, Ipad, macbook, mac desktops and iphones, you can mirror whatever is on your technology onto your smart TV, in living room, bedroom etc. It's wonderful, who needs cable.
In handicapping, mirroring takes a whole new meaning but the same type technology seems to be at play within our thoughts and practices.
The past performances are reflected and mirrored on the tote board.
Everybody sees the same past performances just maybe a touch different format, but the running lines, stats, trainers, jockeys are all the same.
It's safe to say most everybody can read the past performances. I hear people tell me how well they can read the past performances, I almost tempted to ask if they graduated from high school, me being a smart arse.
Of course, you can read the past performances, you have to be an illiterate idiot to not know the difference between a restricted race, little R in a square box, next to the class of the race, and a State bred race, an S in a contained box next to the class level.
You must be therefore a genius if you read that an F in a circle is designated for Fillies, or Fillies or mares. Yes, Johnny, you are a genius. reading the past performances.
"The only thing you need is the past performances,'' I have heard more times than I can count, ''all the winners are right here ''. That's like te punch line to a joke.
The last statement, grinds my gears, and like Peter Griffith states, as a matter of fact, mirrors my thinking, no, not about Lindsey Lohan, or no new preist and a rabbi jokes, its the arrogance of handicappers who think that because they open the pages of past performances, are instant genuises as soon as they pick one winner.
Handicappers can be obnoxious with their angles made up right of myths and fables, oops, thats talking heads, however, talking heads have become smarter, they just use other peoples info and take it as their own, that grinds my gears for another time and blog.
I think, overall, most handicappers that only read past performances assume.
They assume because a horse won on the lead last out, he will be on the lead again today, or a horse that only raced on the dirt and now entered on the turf, is discarded immediately, and most of them will refer to a 19th century book that said "never trust a horse that is doing something he has never done before.'' That grinds my gears.
I'll give you a quote from an older book I believe in:
John 8:32 - ....Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The truth seems to be farthest thing in the mind of a player, the past performances say it, so it must be the truth. Thus, the past performances mirror right on the tote board.
30% trainer with reputation of winning at Saratoga, with leading rider, the logical horse, all right there on the past performances. Three to five on the board, his name was SAVE TIME, in person, short legged, small thoroughbred with a good pedigree, suckered the public and finishing 2nd beaten 3 lengths, he was ordinary but 3/5 because the past performances spopke to people.
Everbody sees the same thing, its like the burning bush or the false prophets, it shows up on the board like Save Time. Boom, the favorite, aaargh, that grinds my gears. Like a flock of sheep being controlled by a herding dog.
The past performances are herding you in the masses.
I know what you are doing right now, you got your hands up in the air. No, not praising me, but like 'what the Furk am I supposed to use, if not the past performances?'
The man, the legend, no not Peter Griffith, but close enough, Andy Beyer, said it himself in one of his books and I have to paraphrase 'what an handicapper needs to win at the races is NOT within the pages of Daily Racing Form'.
Now I know, things have really changed in the last 30 odd years Beyer wrote that quote, but he was 150% right.
The masses read the form and those word salad clocker reports, its the same literature and it all shows up, lumped together, on the board.
We are taught, high % stats, with high % trainers with bullet works and highest figures.
Well, the public and their mirroring is always a race behind, they are shaking out the past, without scoping out the present, and definitely NOT keeping an eye out for the future.
Projecting to today by using the past history is part of the puzzle, but X+Y doesn't reflect Today.
There are some many variables, and I will tell you what else 'grinds my gears' is people treat horses like they are machines.
Horses' form is not constant, pressure is what makes a thoroughbred succeed and fail.
Pressure, Willis, pressure is and equalizer. I was looking at videos of a maiden, who had one start in career, broke slow, ran on well, looks sexy on past performances, but when i got thru with the video of his works and race, felt he wouldn't handle pressure.
Most handicappers play, Barry Meadow and I favorite game, except we weren't serious. 'The logical horse' Barry and I would play a game and take the longest shots on the board, and make the case, figuratively, as the logical horse.
Below is. great example of the game:
The object is NOT to pick the winner but makit it sound good enough to believe.
"So, War Terminatrix, first of all has a very strong name for a filly, she must have been an amazon for the connections, two sprints to a route, last two races had numbers improving from two dirt starts. Was bet a little first out at 6f. Trouble on the turf in last two, here is the popper, bullet work within 60 days back on May 19 (althought there had been two races since), rider change whom has not won on the turf in 46 starts, barn is 5% in 1st routes, [with the spin, they can win with this move] The logical longshot."
Barry was really good at this, as he is not only a very funny man, but his voice calibration made you a believer.
Handicappers can read whatever they want from past performances, and talk themselves into it, and therefore their beliefs show up on the toteboard.
You know what else shows up on the toteboard?
Gate Works!
Clockers are not meagerly cashing their association checks to clock for the public and the horseman, even though they will tell you, out loud, they are not there for the public, they are there for the horsemen, but they won't say it out loud, they are there for themselves.
So, fast gate works are touted to their people, in exchange for a bet or simply moola. This is one reason I don't believe bullet gate works, when I myself clocked those gates and the faster gate works were buried, but those works they tout translate into dollars and cents on the board.
As an handicappers, its a beautiful up hill battle, because you have to be Ulysses [homer's odyssey] and drown out the sounds of the sirens, and keep sailing, as your men dive into the waters to their demise because they couldn't withstand the calling.
The sirens in this case is all the mainstream media, the information that all points to one horse is usually a false path, a false flag planted in your mind.
You would be shocked to find out I don't mirror others thoughts, and beliefs, i have my own, right or wrong. If my thoughts mirror someone else's I take the alernate road, which reminds me of the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga in June.
I like to hear what some TV evangelical handicappers whom seem to swear on the Madonna on their brilliance, on the lead up to the Belmont Stakes, one of their disciples was blasting the virtues of Mindframe, and propping up the likes of Resilience.
I liked Mindframe, and their bullish gospel on the lack of virtues of Mindframe made me believe I was on the right path, while Resilience, whom I had entertained as a possibility, was relegated to my junk drawer.
I was right they were wrong, but all I could was a close 2nd. [should have won]
I watch for keywords and body language from handicappers. The words can be as simple as 'here is the problem', or my favorite "I like that horse too, but....." it is all a delay tactic to tell you what is wrong with the horse, while you think of some bullshite to throw out out of your pie hole.
How many people you know, that you have an idea, and the person starts off their sentence "I like that horse too, but...." while they think wildly on how to tell you you are wrong.
We all know them. If its not their idea its dead in the water.
When I hear those words I know how to categorize those individuals.
Society mirrors what they hear, and if they hear something long enough, whether its right or wrong they tend to believe it to be true and that grinds my gears.