Del Mar Futurity recap.

[Imriledup]

Anyone here bet confidently against Looking at Lucky and just looked to the heavens in disgust when the red sea parted?

LaL is a decent colt, but to be 4-5 from post 1 in a 7 furlong race, that was not my cup of tea.

Why would all the jocks just move off the rail in a grade 1 race and let this favorite just have his own way up the pole? If Lucky is forced to go 6 wide from last around the entire field, no way he wins.

It was nice of David Flores to let GOGO have the rail on the backstretch, after all, both those jocks are represented by Ron Anderson, i bet Ron was happy that David helped out his main man.

I'll never understand why jocks are many times not really concious of the horse to beat and ride accordingly? I know, you want to ride your own horse, but if you know the 4-5 shot is breaking from post 1 and gets away last, why not move over into that 1 path and force this guy to go around the pack and do it the hard way?

Isn't the rail the shortest distance between two points? Why would a supposedly talented rider like David Flores not take advantage of saving as much ground as he possibly could?

I'd like to believe that jockeys are very intelligent human beings and if they weren't riders for a living, most of them can go out and be CEO's and rocket scientists, but i'm just not seeing it.

[andymays]

Anyone here bet confidently against Looking at Lucky and just looked to the heavens in disgust when the red sea parted?

LaL is a decent colt, but to be 4-5 from post 1 in a 7 furlong race, that was not my cup of tea.

Why would all the jocks just move off the rail in a grade 1 race and let this favorite just have his own way up the pole? If Lucky is forced to go 6 wide from last around the entire field, no way he wins.

It was nice of David Flores to let GOGO have the rail on the backstretch, after all, both those jocks are represented by Ron Anderson, i bet Ron was happy that David helped out his main man.

I'll never understand why jocks are many times not really concious of the horse to beat and ride accordingly? I know, you want to ride your own horse, but if you know the 4-5 shot is breaking from post 1 and gets away last, why not move over into that 1 path and force this guy to go around the pack and do it the hard way?

Isn't the rail the shortest distance between two points? Why would a supposedly talented rider like David Flores not take advantage of saving as much ground as he possibly could?

I'd like to believe that jockeys are very intelligent human beings and if they weren't riders for a living, most of them can go out and be CEO's and rocket scientists, but i'm just not seeing it.


The Jockey Agent thing is problem for me. They do not allow it in New York and I've said in the past that two Journeyman Jockeys should not have the same agent. It has the appearance of impropriety when someone such as yourself notices that Flores seemed to let Gomez through. Having said that I'm not sure the move by Flores was intentional.

Tyler and Michael Baze also have the same agent and are cousins in case anyone couldn't tell. There was a race at Hollywood earlier in the year where in a pre race TVG interview Michael Baze implied that he had discussed the pace with his cousin Tyler. Both were on frontrunning sprinters strethcing out to two turns. The race was Sun, Jun 7th, 2009 - Race 8 and Carlsbad with Tyler and Kays and Jays with Michael ended up setting a very slow pace instead of what looked like would be a very fast pace. Both had previously set 44 and change fractions in sprints. The opening quarter was 24.26 with Michael not forcing the issue at all!

Back to the Futurity I thought Make Music for Me ran the best race and is one to follow. I don't know that Tyler gave this Horse his best effort not because he didn't want to but because of his broken finger. His ride on Battle of Hastings the day before looked a little weak in the Del Mar Derby as he didn't seem to whip and drive like normal. Although in the TVG interview Mullins said he just got beat it is my understanding that they weren't too happy with the effort. Chalk it up to the finger in my opinion!

[PaceAdvantage]

Sharing an agent is not a necessity for the "you let me by and I'll let you by" agreement to be made in the jocks room....

[Imriledup]

Sharing an agent is not a necessity for the "you let me by and I'll let you by" agreement to be made in the jocks room....

Excellent points.

Imo, This stuff needs to be handled by stewards, there are too many jocks who are buddy buddy in and out of the room. I don't really want to handicap this stuff and try and figure out who's helping who.

[Imriledup]

Thank you for the reply Andy, i agree with the Michael and Tyler thing, i've seen more times than i care to recall where Michael just forgot to go to the front with a 1 dimensional horse and let Tyler get loose and win.

Its funny how they couple common ownership horses and leave the 'hidden entries' alone.

[andymays]

Thank you for the reply Andy, i agree with the Michael and Tyler thing, i've seen more times than i care to recall where Michael just forgot to go to the front with a 1 dimensional horse and let Tyler get loose and win.

Its funny how they couple common ownership horses and leave the 'hidden entries' alone.


I just think it's better for Racing to not allow the practice.

PA is right though that many Jockeys have personal relationships with other Jockeys and it's up to the Stewards to remind them of their obligation to their connections and the Bettors to give the best ride possible in order the get the best placing for their mount period!

[Imriledup]

I just think it's better for Racing to not allow the practice.

PA is right though that many Jockeys have personal relationships with other Jockeys and it's up to the Stewards to remind them of their obligation to their connections and the Bettors to give the best ride possible in order the get the best placing for their mount period!

Judges don't say anything because like anyone else in life, they don't want to rock the boat. They still get paid blind eye or not. Most of them just want to feed their family, they really don't care to nit pick and call in a rider with nothing they can factually or physically prove. All the jock has to say is that the trainer told him to take the 1 dimensional speed horse back to last and how can the judges prove it wasn't so?

I guess this stuff is just part of handicapping, you have to factor in who's going to help who on the racetrack, there's really no other way unfortunately.