[mick]

The road trip continues and this week I'm in New York at Belmont. This is a BIG track. Horses running down the backstretch aren't much more than specks to the naked eye. The grandstand is huge, the biggest I've ever seen. With lots of comfortable seating, good coffee, food, and fine views, it all makes for a great experience. But the best part is that I'm here with our friend Tim (Lt1). He is an excellent player and a walking encyclopedia of Sartin Methodology knowledge. Here are a few nuggets from yesterday.

1. With maiden graduates, don't consider them likely win contenders unless they're 1st or 2nd in Turn Time. (I cashed two tickets with that piece of advice.)

2. A router shortening up isn't a likely win contender unless he's in the top 2 in LP. He won't be on the lead so he has to run big late. Of course, he'll need some pace to run into as well.

3. For longer races like the Belmont Stakes, when all horses don't have those long running lines, change the race distance to 9 furlongs and select pacelines for that distance.

Here are a few pics from yesterday. My little phone camera can't begin to capture the size of this place so I scaled back my attempts to a few smaller subjects. I really liked the decorative iron work at the seating area for the paddock.