Tip of the Week: True Grit

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
It’s not unusual for a horse to encounter trouble at some point in a race.
That, however, is not reason enough to back that horse when it returns to the races.
The important elements are assessing whether that problem prevented the horse from being closer at the finish and judging how it responded to obstacles placed in front of him.
On April 12 at Keeneland, Lemon Drop Title was entered in a maiden special weight race and was bet down to a 2-1 favorite. The Fair Grounds shipper raced along the rail, which allowed him to save valuable ground, yet it also put him a bind when the field turned into the stretch.
Lemon Drop Title had horses in front of him and nowhere to go in the stretch when jockey Brian Hernandez decided to create some running room between two tiring rivals.
Quoting the Equibase chart, Lemon Drop Title, “was bottled up entering the stretch, bulled between horses and was gaining ground.”
By the time he finally extricated himself from the traffic jam, the best Lemon Drop Title could do was grab third, just three quarters of a length behind the winner.
There was nothing anyone could do about the poor racing luck that plagued Lemon Drop Title in that race, but his effort was so impressive that he seemed certain to atone in his next start.
Why? The grit and determination Lemon Drop Title displayed when he bulled through horses and then launched a valiant, though belated, charge was highly unusual for a young, inexperienced horse making just his third career start.
Anything even close to that effort figured to be enough to handle fellow maidens, and he got that chance on April 30 in the sixth race at Churchill Downs when he ran in a MSW affair – this time with Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith on his back.
Again, he was well-supported at the betting windows, going off as the even-money favorite in a field of nine. The price was small but the results were real. Lemon Drop Title found much smoother sailing, moving three wide into the clear on the turn and then collaring the leader in the final sixteenth and drawing off to win by a length and a quarter.
THE LESSON: A troubled trip is not reason alone to back a horse in its next start. Judging how it handles that adversity and responds to it is much more telling.