Onion Monster
06-17-2009, 03:02 PM
Alan Garcia looked like Rudy Rodriguez in the 4th today.
1. Breaks a bit outward, but he's plenty fast enough to get the lead and the rail (which has been deadly at Belmont). Instead he's a statue on his mount, Rocky Candy Mt., and actually angles him well away from the rail to a semi-stalking/rating position.
2. His mount, under little or no urging, moves up on the turn and now he's stuck in-between horses as they enter the stretch. In Garcia's defense, no jock is really working too hard at this point.
3. The three wide battle for the pace has allowed the odds-on favorite, who has been tracking the pace, to sweep by and blow away the field. At this point, inexplicably, Garcia looks behind him and finally begins to go to work.
It could have been just an incredibly incompetent ride. He could have been following some foolish trainer instructions to rate his horse (they were going 9 furlongs). But Garcia's too good of a jock not to know the only way he wins that four-horse race is to get the lead, get the rail and get as far away as possible from the eventual and much-the-best winner Truly Divine.
1. Breaks a bit outward, but he's plenty fast enough to get the lead and the rail (which has been deadly at Belmont). Instead he's a statue on his mount, Rocky Candy Mt., and actually angles him well away from the rail to a semi-stalking/rating position.
2. His mount, under little or no urging, moves up on the turn and now he's stuck in-between horses as they enter the stretch. In Garcia's defense, no jock is really working too hard at this point.
3. The three wide battle for the pace has allowed the odds-on favorite, who has been tracking the pace, to sweep by and blow away the field. At this point, inexplicably, Garcia looks behind him and finally begins to go to work.
It could have been just an incredibly incompetent ride. He could have been following some foolish trainer instructions to rate his horse (they were going 9 furlongs). But Garcia's too good of a jock not to know the only way he wins that four-horse race is to get the lead, get the rail and get as far away as possible from the eventual and much-the-best winner Truly Divine.