Quote:
Originally Posted by Track Phantom
Can anyone confirm, or say with a straight face that:
1. Baffert entered Restoring Hope because he thought that colt could win the Belmont
2. Baffert did EVERYTHING in his power to give Restoring Hope the best chance to win the Belmont
3. Baffert did not instruct rider Geroux to do anything, be it overtly or subtly, that would compromise the chances of Restoring Hope to the benefit of Justify?
My opinion is very simple.... Baffert told Geroux to get out of the gate with Restoring Hope and sit on the flank of Justify, thereby forcing anyone else that wanted to pressure Justify to travel at least three wide. I also think Baffert told Geroux to not press Justify or go to the lead in front of Justify. This is the reason why Geroux floated very wide was to take the early sting out of Restoring Hope and not get in the way of Justify early.
All of this leads to one serious theme....too many good horses are in the hands of too few trainers (and owners). When horses are entered in a race without serious intent to win but to change the race dynamics (i.e. rabbit) or create early chaos (i.e. blocker), we have a major problem and it becomes a slippery slope. This problem doesn't exist if all 10 horses in the Belmont were trained by 10 different trainers.
I don't recall the name of the horse but didn't a Chad Brown runner on the turf, a rabbit of sorts, shift way out from the rail in a G1 to allow the favorite to roll up the inside? Two different betting interests but clearly a "team" approach. If connections are willing to "cheat" (for lack of a better term) in full view of the public, what are they willing to do out of view from the public?
Welcome to 21st century horse racing.
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The only way to solve the problems above is to:
Allow only one entry per owner or trainer per race. This would keep teamwork out of a race and force owners to move horses to other trainers. The guys with all the stakes horses wouldn’t be able to keep their owners happy if this was the case. Thus horses would be dispersed more evenly.
