You're probably right, though he is so far behind many contenders that even his clunk up style is highly unlikely to land him in the super. It just feels like the best case people seem to be making for the plethora of bums being discussed for this Derby is " he can help fill out the super ".

I'm not high on the horse but think Julien had a heck of a lot better chance of clunking up for the super or fifth place with this horse than with Sedgefield. With Teuflesberg, Stormello, Liquidity, Cobalt Blue, Nochance Cat, and Storm In May in the field the bottom four superfecta is going to be a tough super to crack.

We are all just glass half-full types. ;)

That pretty much sums it up.

Personally I just don't get all the concern over who rides what horses. For the most part, the riders in the Derby are very good ( OK, Bridgmohan isn't and Jara sucks ), and the horses will do the job in spite of their riders. Most of these riders have little choice and the real choice some make is " do I take a worthless mount just to be in the Derby or do I seek better opportunities out of town ". Leparoux rides at Churchill, so he doesn't want to sit in the room, though after the race he will probably feel differently.

I couldn't care less what horse which jockey is on. The only time I pay attention is when a jockey has a choice of a couple mounts. In this case I think Leparoux made a poor decision to go with Sedgefield over Zanjero. Neither has a shot to win but Zanjero is a much better shot of hitting the top five and cashing a check.

The problem is you don't really know why a choice was made. Obviously you are right, that Zanjero is a million times likelier to have any impact on this race than the utterly hopeless Sedgefield, but perhaps there is another reason we don't know.

I learned a lot of things from Drew Mollica and one of them was most assuredly that the vast majority of time jockey's choices are for very different reasons than most people think.

Educate me on Jara. All I know about him is he is young and he rides the best horse in the world, and won the Belmont on a mediocre horse. Won the gotham on some horse last year and now rides Cowtown Cat. I only see him in the big races...what makes him suck to someone who observes him much more than I do??

I was in the paddock @ kee and J.V. had to show Jara how to get to the track through the tunnel. I have no clue why KMc likes the guy so much.

Seems like all he needs to know is how to go around an oval and finish in front at the wire. Doesn't sound like bad race riding yet although you can probably draw conclusions from the tunnel thing. I assume there's a reason for grumbling though so I'm interested to hear it.

I remember having someone tell me about Leparoux when he first came over and I've been following him ever since. Just out of curiosity who's got better English at this point? Him or Jara? I remember one time where they both got post-race interviews with the commentators and I swear, I couldn't catch a word bless their hearts. Seemed like Leparoux was better last time they talked to him. Always an adjustment but they try hard. Guess it's nice being in the position that so many people want to talk to you that you have to learn the language quicker than you might've.