question about Going Wild in todays race...

[JPinMaryland]

Umm, it looks like throughout the entire stretch run he failed to change leads. Am I looking at the tape right? He is the 5 horse (I think) on the rail.

[Buddha]

trying to watch the replay online, it looked like he didnt switch leads, but couldnt tell real easily from what i was viewing.

[JPinMaryland]

I slowed down the ABC broadcast and he is visible up until about the last 150 yds when they zoom in on Declan. He does not appear to change up to that pt.

In the same race Declan gives a dramatic demonstration of the power of switching leads. He does it as soon as the track straightens out and he immediately starts gaining ground, another gear indeed. Spanish Chesnut switches but does not pick up as much.

[Observer]

I thought this race was really hard to judge exactly what was going on through the stretch because the camera work was poor.

My impression was that Going Wild had made the change to the correct lead for the stretch run, but then switched again to the wrong lead. I may be wrong on this, and admit I'd need to go back and look again.

I thought Going Wild may have felt a bit "confined" down on the rail inside of Declan's Moon, who appears to be a big, imposing runner. So, maybe Going Wild was either distracted or felt more comfortable (because of the close proximity) on the "wrong" lead in the stretch run with that big horse just to his outside.

Mainly what I didn't like about the camera work was how late in the stretch run, the viewer is made to guess how the rest of the field (especially Going Wild & Spanish Chestnut) finish the race as they zoomed in tighter and tighter on Declan's Moon. Yes, he's the horse, but there was no way to even judge by just how much he ended up drawing off by.

[JPinMaryland]

Yes Observer, those are pretty good...observations.

Watching these races on tape on several occasions you see a horse jammed right at the moment they are to change leads, right off the turn. And they then either dont change leads quickly, or they duck in or something. Even a veteran like St. Liam, the other day at SA, he knows how to change, but he got in tight right at that moment and then couldnt fire. Consolidator who looked good earlier this year, also got in tight off the turn and as he was changing leads he started to duck in. (this was the race Fu Rock Star won the other week) Seems to be some sort of pattern here...

Agree also on the camera work, ditto that.

I dunno if Going Wild was on the right lead and then changed back on sat. I would guess that in his other race when he was loose and ran impressively, he probably did it correctly. Have to look at this again.

In a similar vein I saw a clip of Sunday Silence/Easy Goer in their BC duel (part of last years BC special). EG's jockey was saying "I finally got him to change leads near the 1/8 pole and he dropped down, it took him a couple of strides and then he took off." Sure enuf, you watch the tape, it takes him about half way through the stretch to change leads (he's running clear on the outside) and finally his high gear kicks in and then he starts eating up ground on Sunday Silence, but the finish line comes up too fast and SS holds on.

[Observer]

A head-on win picture of Declan's Moon on the cover of the DRF shows Going Wild on his correct lead .. so some point after he went out of view by the jim-dandy camera work, he changed to his correct lead.

As for the Sunday Silence/Easy Goer BC .. WOW .. was that a Classic!! (Of course, so was their Preakness!)