This time of the year throws up the question "what are the owners / trainers intentions?' I was speaking yesterday to an owner whose horse has won last 3 starts.
The intention is to travel for a prestigious Cup race. It was rested even though it was at its fittest. Trialed Monday and bolted home. They plan to give it a race in 3 weeks then 10 days to the race that they are getting it ready for. There in is the problem. Do they race to win, and have too much weight to carry, or do they race for conditioning. The ROCK - The HARD PLACE. All owners want a horse to win, having a horse that wants to win is what they yearn for. Try and tell that horse not to win raises a lot of eyebrows. The owner is hoping that the horse does not get penalized too much and hopes the horse get a legitimate check or gets boxed in.

In the next two months most races in the upper class races are full of horses that are being prepared for prestigious events rather than bread and butter events.