I look forward to the day

[KMS]

when robot jockeys rule the tracks and the stupidity of human riders is a thing of the past. That is all.

[Overlay]

To me, it's the variance in ability between riders that can produce benefits from including the jockey as one element of the handicapping equation. That wouldn't be the case if the jockey were just a passenger, or if all riders were of uniform quality.

[KMS]

after watching more races this year than I ever have before, it looks to me that the jockey hinders his mount more often than he helps. The riders who actually put a horse in position to give it his best shot every time are few and far between. My favorite is the guy who can't decide whether to do what it takes to get on the lead, or sit off the pace and save ground. So he does neither and gets hung out four wide around the clubhouse turn, going just slow enough to have a lot of catching up to do, but just fast enough that he burns too much energy to do it.

It's not a surprise when professional athletes do stupid stuff off the field. Jockeys are unique in that they can regularly do stupid stuff in the context of their sport and still have a long career.

[BombsAway Bob]

when robot jockeys rule the tracks and the stupidity of human riders is a thing of the past. That is all.
..but then we would only have trainers & owners to blame for our losing bets!

[GlenninOhio]

after watching more races this year than I ever have before, it looks to me that the jockey hinders his mount more often than he helps. The riders who actually put a horse in position to give it his best shot every time are few and far between. My favorite is the guy who can't decide whether to do what it takes to get on the lead, or sit off the pace and save ground. So he does neither and gets hung out four wide around the clubhouse turn, going just slow enough to have a lot of catching up to do, but just fast enough that he burns too much energy to do it.

It's not a surprise when professional athletes do stupid stuff off the field. Jockeys are unique in that they can regularly do stupid stuff in the context of their sport and still have a long career.

Just a thought.

A classy horse (with "classy" here being defined as relative to the competition in that particular field) can overcome less than perfect jockey decisions and even overcome horrendous trips.

A horse with little or no class needs a perfect trip (and thus no rider mistakes) to have a chance to win - can't run between horses, won't pass on the inside down the lane, can't handle even minor contact and so on. I think Quinn once commented that betting horses who've had "trouble" in their recent races is usually a sucker's game, and a better predictor of future trouble than of future success.

4 wide on the clubhouse turn is not what you want to see but it's also not a death sentence for many horses. And often they get hung like that because the rider ends up having less horse than he thought he was going to have (in other words, horse problem, not rider problem).

I'm no "pinhead advocate", but they're awfully easy to blame when we lose.

[Marshall Bennett]

when robot jockeys rule the tracks and the stupidity of human riders is a thing of the past. That is all.
Thats about as dumb as me saying " I look forward to the day when robot posters rule the forum and the stupidity of human ignorance is a thing of the past " . This thread should be bombed and destroyed !!

[thespaah]

after watching more races this year than I ever have before, it looks to me that the jockey hinders his mount more often than he helps. The riders who actually put a horse in position to give it his best shot every time are few and far between. My favorite is the guy who can't decide whether to do what it takes to get on the lead, or sit off the pace and save ground. So he does neither and gets hung out four wide around the clubhouse turn, going just slow enough to have a lot of catching up to do, but just fast enough that he burns too much energy to do it.

It's not a surprise when professional athletes do stupid stuff off the field. Jockeys are unique in that they can regularly do stupid stuff in the context of their sport and still have a long career.
Cut your weight down to 105 lbs, get an agent and try your luck.

[levinmpa]

I personally pay very little attention to the jockeys. I know many like to blame their losses on bad rides or incompetent riders. When I lose, I blame myself or just bad racing luck. If every rider rode the perfect race, there is still only 1 winner and multiple losers every race, barring dead heats. Sometimes we should just look in the mirror instead of blaming the rider. We all make mistakes, even jockeys.

[Tom]

Thats about as dumb as me saying " I look forward to the day when robot posters rule the forum and the stupidity of human ignorance is a thing of the past " .

Some are already here! :lol:

[cj's dad]

Some are already here! :lol:

Do you have a list prepared?

[46zilzal]

From the grandstands or in front of a tv monitor the "mistakes" that riders make are amplified. Working right on the track with them for the past two years has given e a new respect for what they are asked to do while starving themselves, AND I AM POSITIVE, with their electrolytes all out of balance from all the fluid loss. Some of the, on hot days, almost appear so weak that they should not even have come to work,

What they do to their bodies borders on criminal assault.

[Steve 'StatMan']

when robot jockeys rule the tracks and the stupidity of human riders is a thing of the past. That is all.

Unless the robots have the same software to control them, we'll end up complaining about the robot jockey operators. They'd probably have to list the robot jockey operators in the track program. Some will invariably be better than others.

[Tom]

Do you have a list prepared?

A list has been prepared... prepared...prepared...prepared....prepared........ .

[applebee]

when robot jockeys rule the tracks and the stupidity of human riders is a thing of the past. That is all.

and pray bill gates has nothing to do with their operating system:lol:

[Marshall Bennett]

A list has been prepared... prepared...prepared...prepared....prepared........ .
This could be an award winning effort Tom . Where is it ? :lol: