posted May 2, 2008 at 14:35 in Triple Crown Articles

The world of the Cushion Track continues another online betting saga starting April 23 as Hollywood Park kicks off its meet, which runs till July 13 and clever horse bettors should look to the past to try to figure out the future.

Make no mistakes about it, Hollywood Park is not Santa Anita and cagey horse bettors have to resist the temptation to bet off the Anita form. It’s easier said than done because that form is looking you right in the face but the best horse bettors will give an edge to the runner’s that have performed well on the Inglewood Cushion or have been working well there.

Even the novice horse bettor knows that Santa Anita had a problem with their surface this season but expect a much more consistent and faster Cushion at Hollypark.

As the meet went on there last year, the main track played fair more often than not and the concept this year is that it will play a bit quicker than Santa Anita.

Consider the Beyer Par Times for three-year-olds and up for a subtle comparison.

Claimers running for a $10,000 tag at Anita this year boasted an average Beyer Par of 82 compared to 84 and that kind of difference is pretty much seen across the board.

Sellers running for $20K were popped at 87 at Anita and 2 digits higher at Hollypark. Moving on to non-winners of three lifetime allowance runners and the difference remains as Anita runners posted average Beyers at 98 for that level and 100 at Hollywood.

No matter exactly how the track plays or how fast the runners go on a daily basis, cagey horse bettors know that the human element will be one of the more important aspects of the meeting.

Expect the rider situation this season to be quite different than last year.

In 2007, Mike Baze had his coming out party but he’s come back to earth. He’s a top ten rider at Anita but about 30 winners off the leader.

Joe Talamo chased Baze for the title at Hollywood last year but he’s also retreated hitting at only about 12% at Anita this year.

The top rider, barring injury, WILL be Rafael Bejarano. With Garrett Gomez back East with the more potent stables, Bejarano should dominate.

The usual suspects, David Flores, Victor Espinoza and Corey Nakatani will try to knock Bejarano off the perch but it won’t be easy.

Two long shot riders that horse bettors should look to are Joel Rosario, who is gaining confidence and clients hourly and bug boy Jose Campos, who only hit at 10% at Anita but has shown signs of brilliance.

As to the mentors of the game, horse bettors should try to find the specialties of each trainer and zero in on those specialties at exactly the right time.

Prime betting opportunities can occur when a sprinter tries to go long and Mike Mitchell, Ron Ellis and Darrell Vienna excel with this move.

For the last 3 years Mitchell is about 23% with this ploy, Ellis at 20% and through last year’s meet, Vienna was 7 for 33 with that kind of distance switch.

Another area where bettors can get value is first-time starters. One of the kings of the first timers is Wesley Ward, who has hit with 25% of his debuters the last 3 years. Craig Dollase and Neil Drysdale are at 18% and 17% respectively with ‘new’ runners but a big part winning in this game is elimination.

Cagey horse bettors look to eliminate firsters from barns of John Sadler, Steve Knapp and Bob Hess Jr. who are 5.6%, 0 for 21 and 2 for 63 respectively with debuters in the last three seasons.

The horse bettors that win know that history repeats itself.

Keep checking the Locker Room all through the Triple Crown season, as we will cover the trainers, horses and jockeys in each race. You can get your early Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs bets in now in the BetUS sportsbook in the Future / props section, under Horse Futures: 2008 Kentucky Derby.