The advocates of the tired old terms "buried on the rail" and "mired on the inside" took another serious hit yesterday when Arrogate proved once again that the best place to leave from in any distance race is the No. 1 post.

    The TV analysts haven't gotten the message yet and even Bob Baffert had his concerns, but the betting public didn't. The bettors ignored the morning lines on Arrogate and California Chrome and made the former 4/5 and the latter 6/5. Like me, the betting public loves the rail.

    Granted, California Chrome had the worst of it from No. 12, but Victor Espinoza got the champ away quickly and Chromie was in a good spot as they headed down the backstretch. His failure to accelerate when Arrogate moved toward the lead nearing the turn was a major disappointment. However, nobody was going to beat Arrogate yesterday. His final time of 1:47.61 wasn't too far off the track record for a mile and an eighth - the 1:46.86 that Lea posted in February of 2014. And if anybody had been chasing him in the stretch, racing's new poster boy could have gone faster.

    In judging the success of the $12 million Stronach experiment, the place was packed to the rafters, and an astronomical $40,217,924 was wagered on the superior 12-race program, a Gulfstream record. They gave the people everything they love to bet on - seven stakes and seven grass races - and the public responded by sending it in by the bucketful.

    There will be an encore of this performance next year, without question.  

    OBS GETS IN THE ACT - And, speaking of handle, the eight pari-mutuel races conducted on the 11-race OBS Week of Champions program on Tuesday saw a total of $43,261 sent into the mutuel machines. The first seven races were of the quarter horse variety, and the eighth was the $50,000 OBS Sprint for fillies.  

    Here's a breakdown of the betting on each quarter horse race: 1 - $2,766; 2 - $3,764; 3 - $4,566; 4 - $4,218; 5 - $5,246; 6 - $4,640; 7 - $7,696. The OBS Sprint, naturally, took the most play - $10,365 - broken down thusly: win-place-show- $6,850; exacta - $3,051; and the daily double pool on races 7 and 8 - $464. The rolling daily doubles weren't too popular, lagging far behind the other pools in every race.

    The bettors were keyed in pretty well, with the win prices ranging from the low of $2.20 on Silver Wings in the seventh race to the high of $11 on Of Royal Decent in the fourth. Silver Wings paid $2.40 to place and $2.40 to show, which no doubt upset the win players.   

    

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