Quote:
Originally Posted by Track Phantom
My previous posts came from a fan of the game. These posts will address this issue from a bettor's standpoint.
Rabbit vs. Blocker -- If you are a handicapper and can't conclude the likelihood of one runner going out to keep the pace honest (i.e. Noble Indy) to ensure a fast pace to help another of the same trainer's runners (i.e. Vino Rosso) then you can't handicap and should quit. I don't care what Repole said, you should have known there was a very good chance Noble Indy was going to run with Justify. Nothing at all wrong with this. Again, it is NOT AGAINST THE RULES BOTH SPECIFICALLY AND IN THE SPIRIT OF THE RULES to allow a horse to run fast early, middle and/or late. Nothing wrong with this. You must have seen dozens of sent runners that keep going and win. Well within bounds and not hidden to the betting public.
A blocker, on the other hand, is completely hidden from the public and is, by far, short of performance enhancing drugs, the worst thing to taint the outcome of a race. It should not be allowed and should be dealt with. There is no debate whether Baffert instructed Geroux to do this. No Debate. None. Baffert did it four times that I can recall:
1. 2016 Travers with American Freedom (owner Gary/Mary West) purposely floated out from the 2 post, cascading the entire field together, opened the red sea on the rail which helped Arrogate wire the field. (V Espinoza)
2. 2017 Hollywood Gold Cup with American Freedom (owner Gary/Mary West) came out purposely and again cascaded the field which helped eliminate the main speed, Follow Me Crev, and led to a win by stablemate Cupid. (V Espinoza)
3. 2014 Awesome Again with Sky Kingdom (owner Westrock) which floated Shared Belief out to the parking lot and allowed Fed Biz to roll up the rail. Shared Belief won by a neck over Fed Biz. (V Espinoza)
4. 2018 Belmont with Restoring Hope (owner Gary/Mary West) took out half the field leaving an aqueduct on the inside for Justify. (F Geroux)
Watch the replays of all four, both pan shots and head on, and you see if you can convince yourself that each of these are strictly coincidental and not by design.
Baffert instructed Geroux to break fast and stay wide and keep all the runners to his outside as wide as possible BUT, in doing so, should in no way outrun Justify. So when Geroux did his job, floating others wide, he was going too fast on Restoring Hope and he used ground loss (i.e. 6 wide turn) to slow him up and not challenge Justify. The whole thing is absolute garbage from an absolute garbage human being. Anyone that would destroy the integrity of the sport despite all the sport has done for him is a piece of garbage. I said it before, if someone is willing to blatantly (and frequently) cheat in broad daylight in this fashion, there is absolutely no question they are willing to cheat tenfold in the mask of darkness.
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I think you're losing it, quite honestly.
Both those horses (if everything you say is true), were entered in that race SOLELY TO **** UP THE CHANCES OF SOME OTHER HORSE.
PERIOD.
END OF STORY.
You can go on and on with your fantasy about Noble Indy somehow wiring the Belmont, but (like you said in another thread), if you're a handicapper worth two shits, you know that is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN IN ONE MILLION RUNNINGS OF THE RACE.
And horses GO WIDE every SINGLE DAY. Riders also INTENTIONALLY float the competition out if they get a chance. It's called RACE RIDING and it's been a part of the game since forever (just ask Cordero). Jeez.
So stop it, please, with the nonsense and fantasy world scenarios.
Both parties are EQUALLY AT FAULT. To say one was worse than the other is an insult to any semblance of intelligence.
