Updates and Gallop Outs

By Dana Byerly, Hello Race Fans Co-founder

A few updates from last week’s races. We mentioned that Theyskens’ Theory, who ran second to Winter Memories in the Grade 1 Garden City (replay), would be staying in the U.S., and it was announced that she’ll go to trainer Shug McGaughey. He also trains Garden City forth place finisher Hungry Island. No definitive plans have been set for Theyskens’ Theory but Hungry Island will most likely target the Grade 3 Miss Revere at Churchill Downs on Nov 12.

Theyskens’ Theory is named after the fashion collection by same name, designed by Oliver Theysken for Theory, a company launched by owner/breeder Andrew Rosen in 1997. Rosen’s father, Carl, bred Chief’s Crown, the first ever Breeders’ Cup juvenile winner (replay) and Chris Evert who won the Triple Tiara in 1974.

Handigrappling…
HRF Contributor Ed DeRosa (@EJXD2) and all around smart guy Pete Fornatale (@loomsboldly) debate and discuss one area of visual handicapping that we haven’t touched on much (yet!): the gallop out. The gallop out happens after the horse crosses the finish line and sometimes can be topic of much discussion. Is it important? Can you gather any usable information from it? Like most everything else in handicapping, there’s much to consider and DeRosa and Fornatale cover a lot of ground, such as:

Fornatale: Specifically, “watch” horses in maiden races. When a horse has issues in a race, either via classic trouble (bad break, raced on wrong part of the track, checked, blocked) or is racing against a raceflow or bias not conducive to his running style, and he still has a lot of run past the wire, it pays to pay attention.

DeRosa: Evaluating a horse’s behavior beyond the scope of how the race is run (e.g. handicapping based on the gallop out) is as much a part of knowing the jockey as knowing the horse. Some jockeys have earned reputations for not riding through the wire. A key jockey change in that regard could make a horse appear to gallop out more strongly than as in the past, but that’s hardly a sign of form reversal.

Check out the entire discussion at the TwinSpires Blog.

And finally, here’s your 2011 Woodward winner, Havre de Grace, working at Delaware Park on Monday in preparation for the Oct 1 Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park:

Apparently the team was pleased with the move.