123, I've been away for awhile and stepping in to ask about a couple horses, your thoughts, which I value. Who Dr Who" and Skunktail? Any short Jack Van Berg stories? Haha After this over I will sit a pad aside and go through the thread to gleam out some thoughts to applly to my meager trials at Fonner! Thanks DP
dp, this will be LONG. Besides, it would take a couple of old-timers like you and me to be familiar with Van Berg and the two horses you name.
The red flag went up when you asked me for "short stories" about Van Berg. As most would attest, I don't do "short." LOL.
Marion Van Berg, Jack's dad was one of the original trainers in Nebraska that had his horse running assisted by things other than Hay, Oats, and Water.
I was never much of a fan of Skunktail. His tail was his calling card to his local fame, not his running talent.
My short list of the best Nebraska-bred sprinters that I've seen:
Who Doctor Who, Vale of Tears, Amadevil, Ogataul, Roman Zipper,
Who Doctor Who was bred out of the Nearco bloodline on the top side of his male genes. On the female side, he was a progeny of Hyperion and War Admiral. Mixed with a lineage of Count Fleet and Princequillo. There was plenty of reason why the Doctor was a talented horse despite very poor hooves.
At his best, he was the best Nebraska-bred sprinter ever, but not much better than Amadevil. Ogataul, Vale of Tears, and Roman Zipper were all great local horses. The thing that separate the top 3 was the amount of weight they were able to successfully carry and still win.
For quite a while I haven't spent much time on the Nebraska racing circuit.
So many tracks now to choose from and so many more wagering opportunities.
I think a handicapper can still do very well on the Nebraska circuit, but, like anything, it takes a lot of time and concentrated effort. In this day and age, it's hard for people to find that amount of time to really dig into it.
To try to do it the way I've done it requires 12-16 hours a day, and if a day were longer, more hours would come in handy. It really requires daily focus on the sport. In my opinion, my job will never really be finished. For every trainer I measure, there are 10 more I would love to be concentrating on.
As I sit here this evening at almost midnight, I have a stack of paper I researched and printed just from TODAY'S races around the country. It will take another hour or two tonight, and then all of tomorrow just to get it "kinda" ready to be entered into my computer.
Believe me, I really, really do love to do this work even though I've been retired for a decade. In my world, it's the little difference that makes the big difference. Napoleon Hill penned two things when I was a young man that gave me the inspiration to do things the right way. He said, "whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve."
He also wrote a great book, "Think and Grow Rich." I never set about to try to get rich, I just wanted to be the best I could be. As with everything in life,
I incorporated the R2A2 formula. Recognize, Relate, Assimilate, Action. I've been able to do that in many aspects of my endeavors. I've tried to make it an all-encompassing part of my handicapping life.
Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are the slower race days of the week, so by then, I will have completed Friday, today's, and Sunday's action. By Thursday next week, I will be raring to go again!
This has never been some passing fancy. Decades ago, I took a self-imposed challenge head-on, knowing that it was "considered" impossible to do. I used ingenuity, creativity, and good old-fashioned sweat equity to try to achieve something most would never take on.
I'm a dinosaur. It's a labor of love.
Over the course of years, many handicappers have tried to pick my brain about horses, and to be boastful here, as I am prone to do, they find out in a hurry I have a lot of depth to my overall understanding of this sport. I know I can be a pain in the ass, but nobody is gonna bullshit me when it comes to the sport of horseracing.
