Let's just hope UR has not been ruined ( as Phyllis Wyeth said ) by JL the last two times getting UR boxed in at the rail unable to stretch out most of the race??? Have to hope UR doesn't think that's the way they want him to go now. That may cause him to lose interest. Let's hope a new jockey can revive his fire to run by letting him get involved early.
Good decision. And get him a jockey who will enable UR to find his stride early, so he won't reach his best stride too late.
Do you feed the horse, take care of it's vet bills, train it, no all the in and outs -- need I go on -- I think it\'s classless and rude to tell an owner where YOU think it should run his horse when most of you don't have a clue what's going on behind the scenes and make value judgments as to what YOU think is fair when you really dson't know. Experts without the knowledge who think they know more than Jones -- one of the best in the business. Sorry, it makes absolutely no sense to me. A comment, you're disappointed, sure! But, to go and on about it, and some of the ugly things I've heard from people that don't sound like they have a clue, ids just plain wrong as well as extremely rude and out of place!
Sorry, you really have no right telling someone who has spent millions of dollars in the game when to run his horse or where.
Spotting Plum Pretty 6 lbs. at a distance she relishes ( 1 1/16th, where HDG's best is 1 1/8th ) would have been suicide.
Troy, you're right. Even the owner came out and said as much after looking at the numbers. Spotting
If we had a national governing body, one of the things I would do is assign well-respected handicapping experts with no affiliation to any particular track or tracks to decide on weights for races. These weights, as long as there has to be handicapped races, should be assigned by a centralized body and not one who has a personal agenda or their own track's best interest as their primary focus and concern — where fairness can take a backseat to profit and gain. Even then, the centralized body should be ready to explain their rationale behind the weight assignments and be willing to enter into discussion when complaints are lodged. None of this, it's been done this way for years stuff, so accept it or get out. Sounds more like an ultimatum to me, because we hold all the cards and power, so fairness be damned!
Horse and jockey learned some valuable lessons for sure. I'm not worried about the outcome, Matz does not want this horse peaking now and after his 3 1/4 Rag in the FOY, he back off in training, not wanting to waste his best.
Havre de Grace received a 3 1/2 Rag figure ( the lower, the better ). Pretty remarkable when one realizes she was geared down in the stretch and was coming off a 4 month layoff. One would assume that room for improvement was left at the doorstep and her Rags have a good chance to go down from here to the kind of numbers that win many major races.
Who said I was talking directly to you? Just talking in general to comments out there I have read on the subject. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I'll go with the expert trainer's opinion here, thank you. They obviously believe in the importance of the weight spread and so I think should be admired for sticking to their guns. Right or wrong in their opinion, it IS their opinion and they are doing what they feel is best for their horse. Frankly, I'd prefer to more focus given to the fact that we have the HOY back, in her prime for all of us to enjoy again for at least another year. To me, that's a much more important fact than weights. Just sayin....;-)