Dwelt Is Not Svelte


Dwelt simply defined is tardy breaking from the gate. How many times have you witnessed a horse being slapped with a "dwelt" in those past performances comments?

Green Riches, a 2-year-old I liked quite a bit, dwelt twice in his last two races within seven days at Calder race Course. I was quite surprised for several reasons. The 2-year-old:

Won his debut by nearly 10 lengths in a hand ride after breaking alertly from the No. 3 hole.

Finished second in the first leg of the Florida Stallion Stakes behind Express Tour, who also captured the second leg, despite breaking slowly from the No. 1 hole.

Then the son of Rizzi self-destructed in his next two outings:

He dwelt in the second leg of the Florida Stallion Stakes and finished way back.

He dwelt in an allowance race on Sept. 2 despite putting on blinkers and also finished off the board.

If you were the trainer, I asked a colleague, what would you have done after that first dwelt.

"I would have worked him from the gate," he replied.

Well, legendary trainer Frank Gomez did exactly that prior to the Sept. 2 race and Green Riches responded with a bullet workout of 35 1/5 handily for three furlongs. In the race, after the slow start, the colt covered the quarter-mile in 22 3/5 and was six lengths back. He ran the second quarter in the same time and got to within 2 1/2 lengths of the lead before fading.

I believe his three races in 28 days was just too much for the juvenile. A five-week layoff with some works from the gate may get Green Riches on the road to victory in the final leg of the Florida Stallion Stakes on Oct. 7.
The copyright of the article Dwelt Is Not Svelte in Horse Racing is owned by Greg Melikov. Permission to republish Dwelt Is Not Svelte in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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