Handy Nutzapper
I’m looking over the PPs for Wednesday’s Pick 6 carryover at Santa Anita, I had no idea the workout style was so different… there’s barely a breezing work out to be seen! It’s mostly handy works with a stray breeze here and there. A very different approach than the east coast trainers. I’d love to hear any insight anyone has on the difference in approaches, the upshots and drawbacks of each, etc.
Guts, nee Nutzapper, is running in the 5th! The best part is that after his first race (the best of his races and at the distance) it says “Formerly Raced as Nutzapper” where it would normally say “Formerly Trained by”.
Posted by dana on Oct 15 2007
Filed Under: Carryover, Santa Anita, Workouts, Pick 6, 2007, Handicapping
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Loading ...
In california breezing means the horse was worked, handily means he did it himself, it’s completely backwards than the notation for eastern tracks. took me years to figure this out.
Ah ha, thanks! I woulda never figured that out.
Hey Dana,
Actually there is not a national difference for workouts. Many people have this confused, that goes for front and backside. Basically due to the terminology of a workout. Here is the official origination from the DRF.
“B” stands for breezing, which means the horse was NOT under strong urging.
“H” stands for handily, which indicates the horse WAS under strong urging from its rider.
See the form tool DRF as a source.
The problem with this is nomenclature used. Breeze could be mistaken for moving fast, (ie. breeze on by). Or handily could be aligned with “in hand”, used to describe with ease.
A little insight, the people who set the split times in the morning “clockers” have complete control over whats published. Times and classification. They state the “b” or “h” along with establishing the official time for the work. Further insight to this, the often “collaborate” what times are published with a discussion with the trainer ;)
The Chalk
Thanks Jeff!
It had been awhile since I looked at the fab ‘how to read the Form’ tutorial… I just checked it out again and it answered my one remaining question regarding works - (d) or working the the “dogs”.
It’s interesting that there are different interpretations of Handy and Breezed, when I was reading the west coast PPs I was reading them under the assumptions you listed.
And yeah, I always assumed there was a pre-publishing “collaboration”… :)
Thanks again.
No problem!
In theory there is only one interpretation, or should I say accurate way to read them. If a horse is working “handily” or “h” they are being ridden throughout some course of the work. Now whether thats a good or bad thing when handicapping, its truly the players choice. Thats why your going to see 90% of “h” works bullets or faster times. Yes of course we see “b” works which are just as fast or bullets, however those horses are not running at Finger Lakes or Beulah Park :)
In today’s world of technology you would think the “clocking” system in the morning would be more formal for publication, instead of a reporting flow.
To anyone stumbling upon this conversation, I found another good bit of info on the cali handy vs. breezing confusion:
From Dan Illman’s formblog