Pace and Cap - Sartin Methodology & The Match Up - View Single Post

clore1030 · 02-21-2009, 11:52 PM

I'm greatly saddened to hear about the circumstances behind Al Schweitzer's death. I figured that he had probably passed away by now, but it's distressing to hear that it had come to that.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I do think that as much as there are horses who are fighters, we have to look at them often in the context of the barns they are in.

Some trainers, such as Schweitzer, Marcus and Campo appeared to be able to work magic in the claiming box. Not necessarily trickery, but they were guys who could pick up a half-decent horse and find its hole card.

A couple of others were Phil Johnson and Joe Cantey. Both usually dealt with higher quality stock, but neither was adverse to picking up higher priced claimers either. I remember one day making three bets only, and all three happened to be P.G. Johnson horses ridden by Samyn. I believe Phil was the first one for whom Samyn rode steadily. All three won - the guy knew how to read a condition book and his horses were well-placed. Phil had a nice colt named Nasty and Bold who had the misfortune of coming the same year as Affirmed and Alydar, but who did manage to win the Brooklyn against older horses. I believe John Hertler got his break working for Johnson.

That same year, Joe Cantey had Cox's Ridge, a Forego-type runner who took the Met Mile once from about 15 lengths back. I think he won 6 or 7 straight races with that horse. Joe would use Eddie Maple regularly, and I've always thought that Eddie never got the credit he deserved. Cordero and Velasquez tended to get the high profile barns behind them,Vasquez too, but Maple was in my opinion as good as any of them.

I used to keep my own on-paper private barn of horses, and many of them came from the aforementioned trainers. What I did was keep an eye on their runners who won 30% or better, but because these guys would often be moving them up in class, I could still get a price. Fields tended to be bigger then also.

As I recall, the inner dirt opened the winter of 75-76.I may be wrong on that, but I know the first winner on the IDT was a claimer named Rare Joel - talk about fighters, this guy won or placed in most of his inner dirt routes.

Even more impressive was Sky Treaty, an early IDT legend who rattled off 7 straight victories, just about always going up from his initial 15K claiming price. As soon as we returned to the main track, he started descending back to that level.

What both horses had in common was that they weren't need-to-lead types, they could stalk also. If headed, they would draw away. But whether it was the cold or the surface, they thrived in the winter.

02-21-2009, 11:52 PM	#9
clore1030 Grade 1 Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 1,678	I'm greatly saddened to hear about the circumstances behind Al Schweitzer's death. I figured that he had probably passed away by now, but it's distressing to hear that it had come to that. I don't want to hijack this thread, but I do think that as much as there are horses who are fighters, we have to look at them often in the context of the barns they are in. Some trainers, such as Schweitzer, Marcus and Campo appeared to be able to work magic in the claiming box. Not necessarily trickery, but they were guys who could pick up a half-decent horse and find its hole card. A couple of others were Phil Johnson and Joe Cantey. Both usually dealt with higher quality stock, but neither was adverse to picking up higher priced claimers either. I remember one day making three bets only, and all three happened to be P.G. Johnson horses ridden by Samyn. I believe Phil was the first one for whom Samyn rode steadily. All three won - the guy knew how to read a condition book and his horses were well-placed. Phil had a nice colt named Nasty and Bold who had the misfortune of coming the same year as Affirmed and Alydar, but who did manage to win the Brooklyn against older horses. I believe John Hertler got his break working for Johnson. That same year, Joe Cantey had Cox's Ridge, a Forego-type runner who took the Met Mile once from about 15 lengths back. I think he won 6 or 7 straight races with that horse. Joe would use Eddie Maple regularly, and I've always thought that Eddie never got the credit he deserved. Cordero and Velasquez tended to get the high profile barns behind them,Vasquez too, but Maple was in my opinion as good as any of them. I used to keep my own on-paper private barn of horses, and many of them came from the aforementioned trainers. What I did was keep an eye on their runners who won 30% or better, but because these guys would often be moving them up in class, I could still get a price. Fields tended to be bigger then also. As I recall, the inner dirt opened the winter of 75-76.I may be wrong on that, but I know the first winner on the IDT was a claimer named Rare Joel - talk about fighters, this guy won or placed in most of his inner dirt routes. Even more impressive was Sky Treaty, an early IDT legend who rattled off 7 straight victories, just about always going up from his initial 15K claiming price. As soon as we returned to the main track, he started descending back to that level. What both horses had in common was that they weren't need-to-lead types, they could stalk also. If headed, they would draw away. But whether it was the cold or the surface, they thrived in the winter.