Why do jockeys refuse to go to the rail?

[banacek]

I'm certainly too fat (like double weight) to be a jockey so I don't know how difficult it is to manouever a horse at 35 or 40 mph, but one thing that always irritates me is why jockeys don't take the rail when they have ample opportunity get it. Here is an example that seems to play out all the time. A typical 6 furlong race at a big track. The 5 horse blows out 3 lengths ahead of everyone else, but stays 2 or 3 wide - jock doesn't take the rail. 10 or so seconds later a horse along the inside starts running up inside our early leader. He catches him on the inside and they run head to head the rest of the race, with our hero #5 stuck on the outside covering more ground (for apparently no reason) and #5 end up losing by a neck. Now I am assuming that if the 5 horse could have got himself over to the rail and forced the other horse outside of him for the whole turn and stretch that he probably would have won - maybe easily.

[headhawg]

Maybe the horse doesn't like the rail and the jock keeps off of it for performance/safety reasons.

[46zilzal]

VERY few animals will run their best with a horse outside of them and with the limiations of the rail to their left. One of the great exceptions was Unbridled, for which his trainer was often quoted as admiring him all the more.

Few of them are naturally adept at running through tight spots.

Also the better riders are constantly aware of "blind switches" ahead of them.

[delayjf]

Do you suppose that The sheets guys factor that into their numbers.

Given that most tracks are banked even on the stretches, it's possible that the rail at most tracks tends to run slower than the outside.

[Fredo515]

Sometimes the rail is not the best part of the track to be running on.
The track bias copuld be favoring the part of the track off the rail.

[Observer]

...one thing that always irritates me is why jockeys don't take the rail when they have ample opportunity get it. ...

Then Bobby Ussery really would have driven you nuts!!
:D

[Overlay]

Sometimes the rail is not the best part of the track to be running on.
The track bias copuld be favoring the part of the track off the rail.

I remember an old example from Theory and Practice of Handicapping by Ainslie where he mentioned a period in the 1960's at Aqueduct when Jorge Velasquez was winning many races with longshots that definitely didn't figure as the best in their fields. What made it even more puzzling was that Velasquez was running many of these horses in the middle of the track, beating others who stayed on the rail. According to Ainslie, Velasquez had been one of the first to notice that the rail had gone dead because of the track's drainage characteristics (where all the water collected along the rail and made the going there extremely tiring), and that the overland route was actually the fastest way home.

[cj's dad]

I asked the exact same question of jockey Edgar Prado at a guest bar tender fund raiser one evening and he explained to me that horses who are running on the lead do not like to be re-directed to another position on the track, particularly the rail. According to Prado, this is one of the primary reasons that a horse will "spit the bit".

[Valuist]

The older the rider and the more injuries the rider has had, the more likely they are to go wide.

[ratpack]

What I don't understand especially in So. Cal is why most jocks who are at the rail at the top of the stretch and are behind horses bolt outside 5 to 7 wide with very little chance to win the race.

I am not suggesting they risk life and limb by squeezing through a hole on the rail but lots of time after the turn the rail opens up if they would just sit tight I think they would be better off IMHO.

[Fastracehorse]

I know Jerry Bailey and Gary Stevens love the rail.

fffastt

[delayjf]

jocks who are at the rail at the top of the stretch and are behind horses bolt outside 5 to 7 wide with very little chance to win the race.

I know for a fact, that some horses will not pass horses running on the rail, they need to be outside. Also, you don't really lose much ground by shifting to the outside entering the stretch and you don't risk being cut off as you would if you stay on the rail.

[BIG49010]

You haven't watched Steven's at Keeneland, he is in the middle of turf course and main track every race. He doesn't have a clue.

Joe Bravo and Ramon Dominguez are the best at riding rails.

[Overlay]

I seem to recall the conventional handicapping wisdom at one time being that apprentice jockeys would have an edge in negotiating tight quarters on the rail precisely because their inexperience gave them a greater tolerance for risk-taking.

[Dave Schwartz]

Fear.

[cnollfan]

Calvin Borel is the best rail rider I have ever seen. Somehow Borel is able to communicate his confidence in the rail trip to the horse. If the rail is dull Borel isn't married to it, but he's just another journeyman rider then.

[Hosshead]

... Also, you don't really lose much ground by shifting to the outside entering the stretch and you don't risk being cut off as you would if you stay on the rail.This is true, because there is a certain spot, as the horses are turning into the stretch, where the jock can let the centrifugal force carry the horse wide, and not lose any momentum.
At that point, it actually takes more energy to "hold" to the rail, fighting centrifugal force.
The good jockeys take advantage of this. Even if a horse is loose on the lead, a good jock will let him "go with the force" and "float out a little", when entering the stretch.

[FUGITIVE77]

Once they take a spill their riding changes forever. We have a jock at our local track, a 20% rider who (according to my stats) is 1 percent in the one hole over the last 8 years at 6f.

[maxwell]

It must be damn scary being on the rail going around the turns; if your horse goes down, you are going into lane 5 with no hoss to block for you. And no rail to crawl under.

The last time I saw that was at Fairplex ... the rider and horse both died. :eek:

It takes a ton of nerves to that for a living.

[twindouble]

It must be damn scary being on the rail going around the turns; if your horse goes down, you are going into lane 5 with no hoss to block for you. And no rail to crawl under.

The last time I saw that was at Fairplex ... the rider and horse both died. :eek:

It takes a ton of nerves to that for a living.

Yes Max, it's a very high risk profession. Most of us have seen jocks go through transitions, from taking unnecessary risks to a more perposeful seasoned jock but even then the risk is still high just by vertue of a bad step or a horse breaking down.

I hate to think about it but, the Vets including the track vet along with the trainers have the jocks life in their hands. As handicappers the flag always goes up when we see radical drops in class in the claiming ranks, the first thing that comes to mind is, "What's wrong witht he horse and they are tring to dump him." Personally I think those type of horses should automatically meet thorough test of soundness prior to being entered and the results made public.

Good luck,

T.D.

[Hosshead]

Last year at Sam Houston, I saw a horse being led into the gate, when he reared up, fell on his side, and crushed the jockeys leg. The track then took the jockey away, and announced that they were still going to run the horse, however there would be a slight delay, while they replaced the jockey.
Needless to say, the horse ran up the track.

I never played that track again.

[Geekyguy]

What I don't understand especially in So. Cal is why most jocks who are at the rail at the top of the stretch and are behind horses bolt outside 5 to 7 wide with very little chance to win the race.

I call that "waving their dick" because that's about all the jock is doing, apparently, trying to give the owner (and bettors) a cheap, hollow thrill for a brief instant as a deflection from their losing effort.

[JustRalph]

If you taped the Breeders cup races, go back and watch what happen to every horse that rain the rail at Belmont. Especially down the lane. I don't think it was a serious dead rail.........but it wasn't good. Even the closers who went inside had it deep.......and didn't do well at all.

[delayjf]

What I don't understand especially in So. Cal is why most jocks who are at the rail at the top of the stretch and are behind horses bolt outside 5 to 7 wide with very little chance to win the race.

Another reason is that some horses are simply not "push button" or have the heart to move twice or start-stop-start in the race, once you start their run you can't stop the horses momentum because the horse simply wont re-rally.

[Pace Cap'n]

Having hit the zinged off the back of a galloping cutting horse who zigged when I thought he was going to zag, I can tell you for a fact hitting the ground at 30+ MPH is no fun at all.

I thought it odd when the ranch manager put me on his personal horse. As I was getting up and dusting myself off and counting all my parts, I noticed just about all the ranch hands had gathered to witness the event. Must have been quite a show.

[delayjf]

I can tell you for a fact hitting the ground at 30+ MPH is no fun at all.

I'm sure its not, thats why I'd prefer to fall off leaving the gate at about 5 miles per hour.

[Perilous]

Thats why they call Boo, Calvin BoRAIL. He doesn't get off the rail, sneaks up on you all the time. And I disagree that he'll get off of it when its dead, he stays on for the most part...it has to have land mines for him to get off of it.
Sometime, depending on the track, when coming out of the turn down the stretch you are pushed outward. Churchill does this, its hard to hug the rail, you drift out a bit. Rider's that aren't used to it and don't prepare before hand for it will often end up 7 wide before they notice it. Going left and right is hard to do on some horses, some only know whoa and go.