ARCADIA, Calif. -- People ask all the time how jockeys plan for and handicap races, especially the big ones like the Breeders' Cup. In all actuality, I'll look at the race and find out who's in there and where they're gonna be; I know where the speed horses are and I know where the closers are, but it doesn't always work out the way it looks on paper. For instance, when I look at the Form when it first comes out, I might see two or three or four speed horses that gotta be in front. But when we actually get onto the racetrack, one might break bad, one guy has instructions to not send, and all of the sudden you're the one that's out there on the lead. I mean, I always keep in the back of my mind what I saw on paper, but in the first couple of jumps of a race is when I see what's really going to happen. That's the way I play most of my races. That's why I don't really go in depth until like the last second before I go out to the paddock. I'll glance and see what's in a race the day before and I'll go through it a little bit when I first go to the jocks' room -- and of course I know or I've studied the horse I'm riding -- but when I do my real studying is about three minutes before I go out to ride. People think that sounds crazy last-minute, but I'll try to explain to you why I do it. Say we're going through the Sprint. We look and we see all the horses, we know where they're at, post positions and so on. Now if I study today and I study for the speed of the inside horse of Baffert's and I study for Fatal Bullet, just say for instance that on Saturday around the fifth race or something, they both scratch. I already have in depth in my mind the way the race is going to play out, and those two horses are a huge factor. Now with those scratches at the last second I'm pretty much lost as to how the race is going to develop. I go out there with this pre-set-up race that I've gotten into my mind and it involves those two horses and guess what, they're not there! So I don't do that. I glance through the Form. I see who's in, that's about it. Say they scratch; I haven't really gotten so in-depth. So now when I do have the scratches and I go through it and see where the speed's going to come from, it's a whole different race. When I go out everything's fresh, I know where the speed's going to be, I know how the race theoretically should set up. Now when I break, I look to see what's going on. That sounds obvious, but it's a contentious decision because you really can get caught up just with what your own horse is doing. Say one's on the inside and one's on the outside of me. When we break, I'll glance there and I'll glance there right away, boom, trying to see what's going on. If I see one guy holding back and the other guy holding back, I'll let my horse kind of be comfortable. If I see them both sending, I'll slowly take mine back and see what's going to happen. Someone asked how I'll plan for the synthetic surface or if I adjust to ride over it compared to the ones at Hollywood or Del Mar. They all play a little differently, just like any dirt track. They're all very similar but they're all a little different too. You still need a good horse and a good trip; the main concern is having your horse in the right position and having it traveling well. When they're traveling well, you're able to place them to be in the right spot. When they're not traveling well, that makes it a lot more difficult. So it's pretty much the same scenario that you have with any surface -- you just hope your horse handles the track and has what it takes to come running at the end. Hopefully I'll be riding a lot of those in the next few days.