Introduction: The Morning Line

Introduction:

     Ever since I was a little kid, I have been hooked into horse racing.  Raton, New Mexico, had, when I was a child a race track, La Mesa Park.  I went to the races with my Great-grandmother, Molly Killian, nearly every racing day from 1952-1962.

     Most people will wonder why I start the intro. to my blog by maundering off about my childhood at the horse races. Well, I'm getting to that.  I have called the blog "The Morning Line."  This has nothing to do with early rising (I am more of a night person). And it has nothing to do with bracing stimulants one takes to get the old motor going.  

      The Morning Line is a technical term familiar to racetrackers, people that hang out around race tracks. The morning line is the list of horses that will run in the races on a particular day along with the jockeys assigned to the horses.  A track official, the handicapper, assembles the list, organizes it into the twelve races that make up the "card" for the day and assigns the morning line odds on each horse. Obviously, the handicapper must complete the task several days prior to any given race day and programs are printed with the morning line information.  Of note to racetrackers, is the fact that the morning line provides the public with the track's view of the likely performance of each horse in each race against the particular horses running in that race.

     Here, for example, is the morning line for the Aztec Oaks, an important race for New Mexico bred fillies (a filly filly is a female horse under the age of four). This race will be run at SunRay Park in Farmington on May 25, 2013:

1)Tyger Teras (Alfredo Juarez Jr.), 5-2

2) Dance With Trixie (Miguel Perez), 10-1

3) Silver Streakn Gal (Enrique Garcia), 20-1; 

4) Chapaquiddick Hush (Macario Rodriguez), 4-1

5) La Luz (Isaias Cardenas), 6-1

6) Grand Flame (Ricardo Jaime), 15-1

7)  Lakehouse Fun (Enrique Gomez), 4-1

8) Swedish Goddess (Aldo Arboleda), 10-1

9) Appleina (Miguel Hernandez), 8-1

      The morning line is a baseline, a default assessment of the field for each race that provides the public with a starting point for the often elaborate assessments individuals make prior to making their bets.  The morning line odds for each race are posted on the computerized tote-board after the official posting of results for the previous race and prior to the moment that "the windows open" and the track begins to take bets on the outcome of the race in question.  The Aztec Oaks, for example, is the eighth race of the day on May 25.  The tote-board will post the morning line odds a few minutes after the seventh race is declared official and the results and payoffs posted.  When people begin to make their wagers, the odds will shift to reflect the wagers that the public makes up to the time that the horses are in the starting gate and betting ceases at the "bell" which sounds loudly when the gate actually opens.  Generally, the odds at that point have shifted away from the morning line projections.  If, for example, it is a rainy day and the track is wet, smart handicappers may learn that Swedish Goddess is what is known as a "mud runner."  She has won but two races in her life but both of those wins came on rainy days in sloppy conditions.  So, instead of running at the morning line odds of 10-1, she may very well end up as the favorite in the race at 2-1 or even 3-2 odds.  This is because many people are ignoring the other horses in the race to back a filly who has shown that she can win in the mud. (I have no idea if Swedish Goddess runs in the mud or not, I am using her as a hypothetical.)

Mine That Bird wins in the soup at Churchill Downs 2009

 (Probably the most famous mud runner in recent years was Mine That Bird, a New Mexico connected horse who won the 2009 Kentucky Derby on a sloppy surface at 50-1 odds - the betting public apparently ignored the fact that he had mud runners - Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer - on both sides of his pedigree).

       But the blog is not going to be about horse racing, at least not primarily.  Instead, I am thinking of  The Morning Line metaphorically.  The track handicapper considers many factors all of which emerge from the past.  Based on his/her consideration of those factors, he formalizes his projections of a likely future.  He does this knowing that circumstances outside of his/her understanding will almost certainly intervene to prove him wrong. But that fact is one of the things about horse racing that I find so attractive.  It is very clear at the end of a race that you have either made the right choice or that you have made the wrong choice. It's usually the latter, of course, and you learn the brutal truth very quickly.  Very few decisions in life have this admirable and immediate certainty of outcome.  Sometimes it's nice to know where you stand even if that knowledge is unpleasant. So my idea with this blog is that like the morning line handicapper, I can make assessments, weigh perspectives, ponder possibilities, and explore intriguing landscapes with the full knowledge that the wisdom I bring to bear on the discourse I take up will be always inadequate and often erroneous. But at least I will be able to expand beyond Facebook updates as expressing my observations and reflections.

       But touching on the races, I think I will end by posting a song that suggests, among other things, that horse racing is a possible pathway to ethnic and religious tolerance and harmony.

 "There was yet no animosity no matter what persuasion but sportin' hospitality inducing fresh acquaintance."  What could be better?