Last of a Dying Breed?

Saw this guy in the paddock at Belmont on Sunday, and I did a double take. On his clipboard, he had constructed a makeshift matrix and was charting the exacta prices. A "chartist" as we used to refer to those who would follow the exacta prices to determine the horses which, in their view, were taking the real smart money. Man, I hadn't seen one of these guys in years, if not decades. There was a whole crew of them, who I can still picture now with their trusty clipboards (some even eschewing the programs altogether) that I recall mostly from Roosevelt and Yonkers. But I'd see them at the flats too.

In fact, I have a fairly clear memory of the last time I spotted a couple of them, at the old 'Aquetoga' in the early days of simulcasting, hanging out in the Big A backyard which was built in the 70's in one of NYRA's most ridiculed moves. Thinking they could attract music fans on the subway, they actually moved racing back to the Aqueduct for a month in July prior to the Saratoga meet. Don't remember if they did it for one or two years before abandoning the experiment. But the backyard was actually a nice residual from the fiasco, and a place to lounge in the grass and bet races from Saratoga in August.

But I digress. I recall seeing the chartists there because I remember thinking at the time that it had been a long time since I'd last seen them even then! And that was quite some time ago.

Always presumed that the methodology didn't live on because it didn't really work. I did it for awhile, though more informally, scribbling the numbers on my program, and remember having the odd success. But over the years, I came to depend more on the good old win pool to ID my hot horses. And, in fact, the ones that I really like...the ones who get slammed squarely on the nose in relation to its percentage of wagers in the show pool....tend to not get bet in the exacta pools. So I think you can find some tremendous value with combinations involving extremely live horses that the chartists might actually consider to be dead on the board. Makes more sense from a value standpoint anyway, especially. But apparently there's still at least one guy who still sees it differently.

- Well Kept ($13) won the second on Sunday for trainer Leah Gyarmarti. Two-year old filly is a granddaughter of the great racemare (and just decent broodmare) Safely Kept. First-time starter Chippewa Charlie, the 7-2 second choice in the morning line, was bet off the board for trainer John Terranova. NYRA paddock analyst Maggie Wolfendale was unimpressed with that daughter of Indian Charlie, remarking that she was surprised that she didn't look more fit. Didn't stop the bettors from slamming that one back down to even money at the end, after she had drifted up in price just slightly. Filly was fractious before the start, got off a bit slow and faded to last after a wide middle move. The winner is by Henny Hughes, still yet to really distinguish himself as a sire; just a couple of G3 winners to his credit, one of those in Japan.