Posted on 4/18/2008 4:12:58 PM

Bet On Horses – Texas Tea

By Brian Mulligan

In the second largest state in America Black Gold is known as Texas Tea and horse bettors that want to get an edge this meet at Lone Star Park should start mining the result charts to see what happened last season to get a clue.

Action will be available on most days through July 27 and one of the first thing horse bettors should evaluate is the Beyer Pars for each racing class.

The Pars range from 71 in a conditioned claimer, to a 90 Beyer in the $35,000 to $50,000 claiming level. As far as allowance horses are concerned, bettors can gauge performances by expecting N2L allowance horses to post an 87 figure, N3L runners to be average about a 90 figure and from the non winners of 3 to 5 other than runners capable of running a 92 Beyer.

These, of course, are just guidelines but if an astute player sees a Beyer considerably higher in any of these levels, the winner of that race and more importantly, some runners-up, deserved long and hard scrutiny next time they go to the post.

The main surface at Lone Star can play very fast at times but it was much quicker back in the day. The only track record set last year was at the abbreviated distance of 4 and a half furlongs and is hardly a place to start as far as making a profile for the track.

The 6-furlong track record of 1:07.82 was set way back in 2004 while the mile record of 1:34.44 was sent 11 years ago.

Basically, on the whole, the main track played fair last year except for a few freak days. On the turf course, the sprinters excelled last season with three track records being set at the 4, 5, and 7 and a half furlong distances. The premium times were :43.87, :55.13 and 1.27.90 respectively and if any runner early in the meet runs close to those times, that race must be circled for the possibility it will be a key heat.

As far as the human element, Steve Asmussen, who else, is the main man. He popped at nearly 26% for the meet but his average winning price of just over $6 pales in comparison to the value trainers at the meeting.

Leading the league with top average mutuel payoffs last year was Val Forster Sr., who hit at over 15% but more impressively averaged nearly $33. Two trainers that didn’t hit with that big a percentage, but cracked the bank, are Mindy Willis and Jim Bausch. Bausch only had 10 winners for the meet but they paid $32 consistently.

Willis, who’s father Barney, was one of the best horsemen ever in Northern California, cashed with 5 of 63 starters but the mutuel there came back nearly $40 on the average.

As the spring evolves and first time starters become the order of the day expect trainers Randy Mayfield, Milo Davidson and Cheryl Asmussen to once again excel with the babies.

Clifton Berry, Luis Quinonez and Quincy Hamilton will again vie for the jockey title but there are a couple of value riders that horse bettors should look to.

Eddie Martin Jr. had a super meet last year popping at 17% and C. V. Gonzalez was dominant in his 33 mounts and both will offer the opportunity to get paid.

Astute bettors will watch where the winners come from early in the meet, try to project what races will come back live and key, and then jump on that projection before the masses catch on.

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