Posted on
12/13/2007 9:40:04 AM
Off Track Horse Betting Trends – The Interloper
By Brian Mulligan
Jimmy Buffett has it right. ‘It’s these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same, with all our running and all of our cunning, if we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.’
Cagey horse bettors that dabble at Mountaineer in West Virginia have a little secret they had been keeping to themselves until know and that is that there is gold in them there hills when horse bettors play interlopers to the track.
This is an angle at the popular track that has been going on for a long time and it’s time the genie came out of the bottle.
The best part about the live interloper or shipper that clever horse bettors can be happy about is that it can transfer from track to track.
In this day and age of racinos and video machines at tracks, the purses are inflated and fueled by the influx from the slots. Therefore, the horsemen that have been plying their trade at those tracks for years, now have outside competition and the stables that are shipping into places like Mountaineer, Delaware, Zia and others are all live barns.
On a recent weekend at Mountaineer, there were 20 races run in the two nights of action and the types of runners that astute horse bettors can look for are runners that are making their first start at the track or had one race over the surface.
Of the 20 races run, 3 were won by runners that got a feel of the strip, improved immensely and paid 7-1, 3-1 and 2-1.
Five other races, making it 8 for the 20 run for our purposes, were won by runners making their first start after shipping to Mountaineer.
The best part about the new faces is that they came in sharp and were very well intentioned. Three paid 2-1 or lower, one paid a decent 7-2, and clever players that followed this angle got an early Christmas present as one runner invading from Beulah Park paid a fat 28-1.
Horses are creatures of habit. If they get into a rut, they can stay in that rut for a long time.
That is why good horsemen are always tinkering with things like blinkers, on or off, or rider changes or distance switches.
The invading horse at Mountaineer has a few natural things in his favor. He is in all likelihood coming from a more powerful circuit, gets to do something new most of the time in running at night, and most important for the astute bettor is that they are sometimes ignored.
One stable that cagey horse bettors have to pay special attention to when they ship to Mountaineer is the barn of Tom Amoss.
This is one of the better trainers in the game and he is heads above most of those stationed locally.
Other invading barns to beware aware of are outfits headed by Paula Capestro, Nick Canani and Donald MacRae.
Just like when humans need to shake things up and break a routine, horses can be the same way. When a runner ships into a new area, he can become egocentric and try to prove he is the new king of the hill.
This is the physiological angle and the inside reason astute horse bettors pay attention to interlopers
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