Very cool that our boy Rothschild was the one to help @luissaezpty hit 4,000! Awesome effort from both horse and rider to fight off several challenges over almost a mile and a half. Congrats to team Saez and glad our silks were along for the ride!

One other note on Fair Hill. Whatever comes of the controversy here, the overwhelming majority of folks there are excellent horsemen who do things right and are there specifically because they want the best for their horses. Sucks that it seems it’s being taken advantage of now

Fun weekend ahead with Name It at Gulfstream today and Awesome Aaron defending his title in the Pimlico Special! Tomorrow Fulmine in the Chick Lang and Big Gain under the lights at Churchill at almost 11pm. Lotta action for our little stable!

For better or worse, the industry seemingly has left this kind of thinking to the free market. When I pick stallions, part of the thought process is the barn they came from and whether I feel their on-track performance was a genuine reflection. Not decisive, but a factor.

Big day for us tomorrow with Awesome Aaron in the Ben Ali at KEE and Fulmine in the Bay Shore at AQU! Both doing great in the AM, and we’ll get a better sense of where both belong at the moment after tomorrow’s races. Fingers firmly crossed we learn something good!

If it helps, as the person who bought the horse, I work mainly off of Thorograph and don’t use beyers for claiming/purchases. Certainly didn’t come into play for the sale and I think the change happened after we made the purchase (certainly the first I’d heard came after)

Handicap ratings don’t determine who the best horse is. Racing does that. They don’t determine who to bet. PPs and tote boards do. All they have to do is fill a starting gate with horses who can win on a given day. And we won’t have to guess as often if horse is in to win or sell

Reasonable to expect as more handicap races are run, the ratings will fall more into line. Clusters of similar horses (even if wrongly rated against each other but close enough to be in 10 pt range that puts them in same race) will sort themselves out on the racetrack.

Have been a proponent of a handicap system in racing for many years and not changing now. We need to promote keeping horses with owners who want them rather than forcing those horses to run for price tags just to compete. Kinks to work out but perfect can’t be enemy of good here

Seeing a lot of discussion about the Woodward’s short field and we are one of the owners that plan to run elsewhere with Awesome Aaron. Four stakes races in NY/KY/DE 8-9f on dirt this weekend. Don’t know that there’s one entity to blame but there aren’t enough horses for that.