Blaming the Jockey
 

When your horse loses, do you ever blame the jockey, and how often?

I’m curious to see how many of you blame the jockey when your horse loses. There used to be a guy here who would do it for virtually every race, and I used to think he was crazy, but I’m finding I do it more and more these days. I'm not sure if the riding colonies are getting worse or if i'm becoming a whiner. When I first started betting, I never did it, but now, well ,,,,, you can see my selection below. Remember, it’s only when your horse loses.

I do went its warranted but I usually blame my crappy handicapping

I'm trying to get away from it. You have to handicap the jockey too. If a rider keeps doing dumb things, maybe you should expect it. What I like to do is analyze the ride for future betting, just like any other factor. A crappy ride is a crappy ride and might have some value later on.

I will blame the jock if he gets in trouble, or bad positioning. If he does nothing wrong and horse doesn't fire, i quickly blame the trainer. I hardly ever blame my handicapping..

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable approach to me!

My pet peeve is when the jockey decides to save ground. OK, I bet a lot of closers; this is a good thing to do, no problem with that. So they ride the rail until the turn , again no problem here. Then they get to the turn and decide to go 10 wide, rather than sit tight, make the turn, then look for an opening near the rail.
if you made up your mind to swing the horse wide near/on/after the turn, then you shouldn't be on the rail in the first place. I'd rather see them sit 3-wide then swing wide. I understand some horses don't like going inside after the turn, I get that. it's that wide swing that gets me.

Watching two speed horses knocking heads for 5 furlongs then finishing up the track is an annoyance.

Just an observation...Racing on American dirt seems to favor early, and early/ presser type running styles...Bob Baffert appears to run his racing program with this in mind...if a jockey can get high quality early/ presser types to ride, there is less chances to get blocked or avoid tiring horses...if a jockey can break well and place the horse somewhere near the front in order to let the horse run wire to wire or to have first run at a tiring leader, I believe there is less to go wrong and the jockey can truly focus on winning the race...

Amen to that. ;)

If the jockey could hear my complaints, then I would blame the jockey more. But since he can't...I try to be "philosophical", and keep the "blame-game" to a minimum. After all...I'm a big boy who has been around. If, knowing what I do, I still persist in betting my money on high-varianced outcomes, then...whom but myself have I got to blame?

Earlier this year I was playing Delta Downs and had noticed that the track had become biased. The winning horses were not on the lead, but were doing most of their running on the rail. In the 4th race, I watched a jockey break his horse fast, get to the rail, let the speed go, ran on the rail almost the whole race and win at 4-1. In the next race the same jockey, who this time was on a closer, took the horse quickly to the rail and again stayed on the rail for most of the race and won. I thought, this jockey has figured out the track and looked ahead to see what other horses he had. I found he had two more mounts and one of them I thought had a good chance to win and would be around 6-1 in the race. The horse did not need the lead, i thought could get to the rail with a good break, and take advantage of the bias. So, I bet a lot on this horse, and watched as the same jockey, broke from the 8 hole, took the horse 3 wide straight to a battle for the lead and finished 9th. So much for that great riding i thought i saw earlier. Jockeys can be both, good and bad.

Let me get this straight. The Jockey falls asleep at the wheel and your horse loses by a nose. You never think "gee a better ride might have won me that race?"

Yes...I think about it, but not enough to turn that thought into a "complaint". Would it help if I pondered this lamentable occurrence at length? The money is gone...and the best that I can do is move on to the next race, without any mental "residue" from the race before.

It's all part of the "self-mastery" program that I follow...and recommend.

Do you think about the times when a jockey riding an opposing horse falls asleep at the wheel and allows your horse to win by a nose? Or does it only happen to horses that you bet on?

I think the interesting question is if jocks are worse now. I definitely think the depth of real quality riders has decreased since the 90s. The only jock in the past decade that I'd consider making few enough mistakes to be "flawless" is Dominguez.