A column by Donald Harris

I started my watch on Zenyatta at the five pole and caught her in 23.60, 35.60, 59.20, 1:11.40, out 1:25.40. I don't think she took a deep breath as she cruised by her bait El Vino. Awesome drill.

Khendum (November 13 column) turned in yet another eye popping move when toying with work-mate Theodora. I caught the last half mile of the drill. Khendum's high cruising speed on display every step - 23.40, 46.80, out 59.80 - rider never had to ask for a thing. Watching this kind of drill makes it hard to believe she is still a maiden.

Make Music For Me (February 26, June 24 column) returned to log a much improved drill this past Sunday when working in company with fellow three year old Alphie's Bet. Both are actually entered to run Saturday. The duo went stride for stride every step of the drill - 23.80, 35.80, 1:00.00, out 1:12.80 - Music settled beautifully on this day. Solid team drill...

Perhaps one of the most overlooked handicapping advantages available to horseplayers is the act of looking at horses that are scheduled to race. By turning a critical eye on possible contenders, horseplayers can unveil a number of clues to give themselves a potentially lucrative edge over players with their noses in the Daily Racing Form. There are several approaches. Some of the terms that fall into the category of “reading horses” including “physicality handicapping” and developing an understanding of “equine body language”. All these approaches involve looking at the horses to collect information.

Golden Gate Fields handicapper, Monty of Jack’s Blue Card is a handicapper renowned for his ability to read and remember important information about horses. Like other handicappers with this talent, Monty can remember horses in much the same way that other people remember faces. In describing his process, Monty said, “Going into it, I have an opinion of how I like to see a horse look. As a rule, I can remember what they looked like in the last race – if they’ve gained or lost weight, if they were hot, if they were excited in the paddock or were well behaved the whole time.” As confirmation of this ability, Monty can often call the scratches before they happen...

By Noel Michaels (Originally published by Nassau (N.Y.) OTB.)

The weather outside may be frightful for many of us around the country at this time of year, but one of the best exceptions to that rule is usually in South Florida where the weather is warm and sunny, the grass is green, and the winter racing is as good as it’s going to be all year long. And so, no matter how cold it is in your neck of the woods, there’s no excuse for horseplayers not to get themselves out to the track or favorite OTB, or, even better, no excuse not to log on online with your favorite account wagering provider and break the locks off your wallet so you can let it rip at Gulfstream Park. The meet is always very challenging for handicappers, but the winter racing at Gulfstream still features the best trainers and jockeys, and many of the season’s best stakes runners and stakes races.

The annual winter Gulfstream Park meet opened January 3 and will extend for four months until late April. Northern grass courses are frozen, but Gulfstream’s turf course is fresh and will be in full use all winter, offering one of the best turf racing programs of any track running at any time of the year. In addition to the top winter turf racing in the East, Gulfstream also offers the region’s top winter stakes program including a 3-year-old series designed to offer horses the best possible stepping stones to the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown...