"BLINKERS are on" "Court Vision" He the UPSETTER in the DERBY?

Question

http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2008/contenders/court-vision

Answer 1

blinkers are on to keep the horse calm in a 20 horse field! yes he will be a UPSETTER if he wins...i pick him 2nd in a photo with 9,1,4,10,16...good racing

Answer 2

With twenty horses in the race it would seem like a good thing to do. But blinkers alone will not win a race.

Blinkers help a horse to concentrate if there is a head to head type duel, but this racewith all the horses would seem to be a wait and see type race, with the frontrunner(Monba?) tiring and the drafting pack making a race of it in the final furlongs.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dulacsteep...

search for Beginner's Guide to Horseracing

Answer 3

I love Court Vision in this race and the blinkers aren't a concern for me at all.

As for the comment about No Biz-he was wearing blinkers for the first time when he won the Wood Memorial so I don't think that was the reason for the poor derby showing

Answer 4

I doubt it.  When was the last time you saw a horse add blinkers as a 3 year old and win the Derby?  Especially when was the last time you saw a horse add blinkers for the Derby and win the Derby?  Nobiz Like Shobiz tried to do it last year and ended up taking the blinkers off for the Breeders Cup Mile.  The fact is, a major derby contender should be racing well enough that the connections don't have to be feeling around for last minute ways to improve his performance.  Court Vision sent out a stablemate to set up the race for him in the Wood... despite the race setting up for a closer (fast early pace), Court Vision still did not manage to pass War Pass.  I could understand if he and tale of Ekati battled to the wire, but not even passing the pacesetter shows a lack of talent.  He's not ready for the Derby and adding blinkers can't change that.

There's a problem with throwing blinkers on a horse and expecting it to solve all problems.  If the blinkers work and get him more involved in the race early, he's going to be running faster for the first 6 furlongs than he has run in prior races.  

Consider that in terms of the Wood... War Pass runs fast fractions on the front end, no-blinkers Court Vision should be full of energy to fly by War Pass, but fails.  versus...  War Pass runs fast fractions on the front end, blinkered Court Vision sits closer to the pace wasting energy, so he doesn't have enough energy to run past War Pass.

They need to develop the horse a little more, not look for a quick fix.

I like Gulch and am very much a fan of Thunder Gulch and his son Point Given.  This son of Gulch, however, doesn't have the power to win even this Derby field.

Also, Circular Quay is also from that breeding line and I liked him a lot and I think he's hiding a lot of talent, but it's hard to get him to show it.  Thunder Gulch and Circular Quay both have this problem where they are too disinterested in racing.  They fall out of the race early because they don't seem to care about running, then they close ok, but sometimes have trouble making up the ground.  They couldn't fix Circular Quay before the Derby and they're not going to be able to fix Court Vision to bring him to a win either.

no, I don't mean that Nobiz lost the derby because of his blinkers.  I mean that he lost the derby because he wasn't a good enough horse after the fountain of youth so he had to add blinkers.  Since Daily Racing Form began including blinkers in its past performances in 1987, no horse has added blinkers at 3 before winning the Derby.  And the fact that they ended up taking off the blinkers in the fall shows that the blinkers didn't solve any problems... Nobiz just needed to develop.  The same is true of Court Vision.

Answer 5

I believe if there is an upset, he is the one 2 do it.