Harness: Dig deeper to reveal the complete picture

What if it wasn't a cherry tree that George Washington tried to chop down?

You grow up believing in one tale and never ask a question that makes you look deeper. If not a cherry tree, would an elm tree suffice?

Racing too has its own myths and legends, and what we learn from the early stages doesn't always quite match up with what reality bears somewhere down the road.

There is a long-held premise when handicapping trotters and pacers that class will win out. There's an assumption that class is something derived from a horse's ability to earn money over a period of time. Since more money is attainable at the ages of 2 and 3, it's generally believed that a horse that earned during those two years would hold a "class" edge over rivals in later years.

What if that premise was not the entire picture?

Much like the cherry tree tale that could be stretching a myth, class in racehorses is something that can't just represent a limited period in time, because it would eliminate an entire story borne out by history. George Washington was only a boy when the cherry tree tale was allegedly crafted. There's a great chance much of his true character as a man came out over an extended period of time, and perhaps even conflicted with his youthful endeavors.

When it comes to looking for class or applying class to a handicapping scenario, one must be extremely careful in giving too much credit when it may not be deserved. Take, for example, the beaten favorite in Saturday's (2/20) Meadowlands featured pacing event. Springsteen was given much public support on the basis of his apparent class edge over just six rivals. As a 6-year-old with $681K earned during his racing career, the son of Rock N Roll Heaven theoretically outclassed the other six horses, none of which matched his earning power. Despite the lofty earnings, Springsteen's career past performances, when looked at a little more closely, give indication that his earnings total had a bit of a lucky twist to it. Take, for example, his win in the $500,000 Max Hempt at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in 2018. He, along with most in the field, appeared to be outsiders as Lather Up drew all of the public support. A 53 1/5 opening half was the perfect setup for Springsteen's closing style, but it didn't hurt him at all when Lather Up, the 1-20 favorite, broke stride. A few weeks after the Hempt score, Springsteen went first-over in an elimination for the Adios and finished eighth, losing by some 12 lengths.

It's that type of all or nothing past performance line that has littered Springsteen's entire racing career. In establishing class, it's important to look not just at the speed a horse possesses but how well they carry that speed under different conditions. Springsteen's questioned class, at least when looking at him as an odds-on choice, has a lot to do with a single racing style that appears to suit him better than others. Had Springsteen convinced people that he could leave the gate and go wire-to-wire this past Saturday night, he would have been worth every penny of an odds-on favorite. It's a wrinkle in Springsteen's five-year racing career that has to make a handicapper look long and hard before giving credence to him as a so-called best-in-class type. While some could make the argument that Springsteen, by virtue of his first- and second-place finishes in the same class in his most recent starts, deserved the added public support, it should be noted that in both of those miles the last halves were slower than the openers and essentially played into his style. When looking at class, it's generally the past performance lines where horses can succeed, no matter what the trip, by virtue of the edge they have over competition that stick out.

It's somewhat ironic that the second-place finisher in that 2018 Hempt final was also racing on Saturday night at the Meadowlands, and that Nutcracker Sweet also seems to fit the bill of a horse with incredible earnings that hasn't proven himself all that classy over time. On earnings alone Nutcracker Sweet theoretically represented the class of the field in the $17,500 Play Meadowlands final, racing at what should have been a very comfortable class for the career winner of $434,634. While the trip for Nutcracker Sweet couldn't have worked out any better in the Hempt, his most recent miles are perhaps more telling of his true class. When dropped to the absolute basement at the Meadowlands on January 29, Corey Callahan marched him straight down the road, with the pace too taxing for any horse in the non-winners of $2,500 category to keep up with him. An eight-length victory in 1:51 1/5 on a tough night for speed was enough to give hope that the veteran had finally found his form and was ready to return to being an upper-level horse.

On Feb. 13 in the first leg of the Play Meadowlands, Nutcracker Sweet was backed as the 3-2 favorite, and that seemed justified. Callahan was faced with a different trip this time when too many inside of him left the gate. Still, Nutcracker Sweet, at the reduced level, should have been able to polish this field off, even if forced to race without cover. While his nose loss was something many would excuse, it did make me wonder whether he was just another of those type of horses with a resume built more from being in the right place at the right time, rather than gutting it out each and every week.

What many Meadowlands players have been finding out this winter is just how easy it is for some Down Under imports to race and win no matter how tough the trip. For many of those, it represents what can happen when horses are dropped in class. It's a known fact that many horses reach a class level where they can no longer compete at in New Zealand and Australia. When they come to North America, they generally bring with them poorer past performance lines that allow them to drop perhaps two or three classes from the levels they have been mismatched against. It's why so many can easily move past the lower classes before reaching their actual levels.

Racehorses tell you who they are over a period of time. If you want the complete story, look at all of the past performances.