The Freshened Repeater Angle

By: Ray Taulbot

Fall racing provides many more opportunities for the angle player than any other season of

 the year. We suppose this is because many trainers get the feeling that they are running out of time

and can't afford to wait.

We have personal classifications for angles. Some we call "hidden form" and

others we call "obvious but overlooked." The first term is self-explanatory. The second categorizes a horse that is in obvious

 winning form but which will nonetheless generally be overlooked by the betting public. Most players

are well aware that the trainer who is interested in turf speculation dislikes nothing more than to have

 one of his fit charges go to post at a short price. From his point of view, such a situation represents

 nothing more or less than a waste of time and work; it deprives him of the opportunity to collect what

he considers his just profit. Once the player grasps an understanding of the conditioner's attitude

regarding price, it is not difficult for him to understand why so many trainers spend much of their time

devising ways to deceive the public regarding the true condition of their horses. They want a price, and in

order to get it they must go after it in amanner which is apt to mislead those players who are students of form.

Fortunately for the players, however, the devices available to the trainer are few, and any experienced

racing fan can soon learn to spot the little moves which are made to deceive him. Virtually every month

 this magazine calls your attention to one or more of these angles. The reader who studies each angle

presented will soon become highly proficient at spotting these odds-enhancing devices. The angle we are

 explaining this month is a common one. Nevertheless, thousands of racing fans know nothing about it, and

 their lack of knowledge costs them many dollars each year. To begin with, the best bet in racing is a

fresh, fit horse. You may have heard your family physician remark that rest is the best medicine known to

medical science. This applies to the horse as well as to man. Constant racing wears down a horse's physical

 condition, and eventually its reserve strength drops to a level where the horse is no longer fit to compete.

 When this occurs, the horse must be given the "rest cure." How much rest it will need depends upon

several factors.

If its reservestrength has been wholly depleted, then it may require several months of rest to restore the

animal to normal. However, if the trainer has used sound judgment and returned the horse before it is entirely

 exhausted, then four or five weeks of idleness is sufficient to restore it to normal. The trainer understands

these points, so we can leave the length of the rest period to him. Remember, however, that a horse eats and

it must be cared for during these idle periods, and that costs money. So the trainer is anxious to overcome

the overhead involved and at the earliest possible moment the horse is returned to training. For this reason,

horses that have been taking the rest cure are carefully prepared for their return to competition. As a result

of the rest and the extracare, many such horses turn in a winning race first time out. Now we come to the

angle itself. We can just hear many readers saying to themselves, "He's not going to tell us to play these horses

after the big build-up he's giving us about betting trainers not wanting to take a short price. The trainer has

gotten his with the winning race, why should he try right back at short odds?"

This is exactly the kind of thinking that puts the"overlooked" part into this obvious angle. The horse has

 been rested. The trainer has brought him back fresh and fit. The horse has won at first asking. All these points

are obvious. They are so obvious that too many fans skip right by such an entry, especially if the horse is being

moved up in class today. We have conducted extensive research on repeaters, especially onhorses that have

 been freshened. It developed that many of them failed the next time out except in cases where the trainer

moved his horse up in class or when some astute horseman reached in and claimed the horse, in which case

 the mandatory 25 percent boost in claiming price took effect.

There is sound logic to bolster our findings. If a trainer wins with a fresh horse and moves it up, it is because

 he knows the horse has improved to suchan extent that it can defeat superior company and also has less

 risk of being claimed. In addition, when a horse is claimed first out after a freshening period, you can bet

your last dollar that the claiming trainer has seen something in the morning workouts which was good enough

 to cause him to lay his money onthe line. So our angle is reduced to very simple terms: Look for a horse

that has been rested one month or more, wins first out after the rest and is moved up inclass the next time

 out. For horses up to the $5,000 claiming level, we require a minimum increase of $1,500; up to $10,000,

 an increase of $2,500; up to $20,000 an increase of$5,000. Claimers valued at more than $20,000 should

move $10,000 higher or into allowance company next out.

First-time two-year-olds subsequently moving up can also be included for play, since their true ability is

generally unknown to the public. However,be sure that they are moving up in claiming price the same way

 as the older horses.Winners of maiden special weight races or maiden claimers must move up into allowance

company. While we said at the start that there are more angle plays during autumn racing, we did not mean

 that this angle should be restricted solely to that season. As a matter of fact, this is an excellent all-season

angle and for the purposes ofillustration we consulted a recent issue of the Daily Racing Form and had no

trouble coming up with a perfect play. Once in a while, you will find a horse of this type whose post-time odds

 are on the short side. When you do, simply pass the race. It never pays to back a fresh, fit horse at less than

 4-1 odds. The trainer might set that as his minimum.