Great point!

I was wondering the same thing.

WSB's previous dirt route at GP was pretty damn sneaky good actually...and I think I remember you saying so much.

the ride in the preakness could have been the all time worse by an experinced jock in a big time race on the best horse in the history of the game... chop chop would have won that day fir shug , simply unexcusibile

for once we agree , i thought it was a great ride , this was the type of race that ramon wouldn't have won on but talamo did

ramon would have found more trouble and finished 3rd cuse he ain't that good

I just don't think that's possible.

I agree with you 1000% -- Talamo showed calm and cool, and he didn't panic at all. Many times you see it and when you see it you know it. It is certainly different sitting in the saddle than it is in the grandstand. Regardless, I am not a huge fan of his, but I think today he showed a maturity when the heat was on.

So, as you said, the ticket was punched. However, I am not so sure it would played out that way. That colt gets beat today because he never gets out, maybe the kid gets a bit shaky when he's in tight, etc. -- now do the connections have something to talk about? Taking him inside? Second guessing? The "no pressure" ride -- I don't think it's that simple.

Eric

You're right.

I think Herberto Castillo could have come out of retirement and won on him. Forget Dominguez .. who is an excellent jock.

was it a great ride or just a great horse????....either way, you cant take him off. he did show patience for the first half...credit to him.

ask shug how he felt having the most expeinced jock and the best horse and losing 2/3 of the TC to a inferior horse[/quote]

By the way, Sunday Silence beat him 3 out of the 4 times they faced off......Easy Goer's only win over him was at the irrelevant (for dirt) 12 furlong distance.

Did I really just read that Victor Espinoza is the most physically gifted jockey ever?

I thought that was Studart, but ok.

Do not mock my latent homosexuality.

Or mediocre horses can get the golden trip , and have a rider that knew how to use it.

I laughed

While there's no room for argument when debating the merits of Ramon Dominguez and Stewart Elliot. I can only think of threes point that Breen was thinking.

1. Look at the pp's and see the J/c Combo. While just about all those wins were in NJ, they have had success together.

2. He trusts the Stewart and know that he will honour is committment to ride in the Derby.

3. He had an agreement with Elliot to ride two horses and was not going to boot him.

The good thing about the Wood is the best horse won the race. I Want Revenge had to overcome a tough trip and regardless of the quality of this field, he ran a heck of a race.

Victor Espinoza is the best final card jockey around. He came within a bob of winning today and wins more than his fair share of finales.

Could not have said it better myself!! REally people are shocked she got beat??:eek: I am amazed!

Yes. It was hard to ignore.

That's a very valid point, but also in this situation (with the jockey only being 19) they might be having these discussions anyway. And I'm guessing that the phone will probably ring a few times in the next couple of weeks to see how committed they are to Talamo.
I hope he keeps the mount. I think Andy said it best on the MSG show/feed. When he said that we all just saw something very special. I think he was right, that's one of those trips/races that people will remember/be talking about for years to come.

I was shocked Hooh Why was 24:1. Only race I hit all day.Had that nice exacta too. I thought Talamo gave quite the gutsy heads up ride. Smith rode Stardom Bound the same way he always does, she just came up short.She wasn't going to beat Rachel in KY anyway but if you still like SB you might get better odds now.

its a common theme on these sites. a horse loses and its the jockeys fault (ESPECIALLY CHALK). forget about the horses talent or its training which is about 95% of the races result, its always the jockey! every week some big fav loses and its garaunteed there will be a thread blaming the ride. the guy (girl) weighs a hundred and something wet and the horse weighs half a ton but folks think these people are driving cars with steering wheels and gas pedals. forget the fact that things happen in a race that are unpredictable(the wood yesterday) or the horse just is not trained enough to do the right thing. but heres the most important factor, your chalk eating pic just was not good enough on the day of the race. its a game, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. get on a horse and ride a race, come back and tell me how easy it was to win ! that takes alot more balls then coming on here and crying about the ride.

I think he also rode at Finger Lakes for a time also. I like him, he's a pretty solid rider, the times I've seen him go head to head with what some would call A list riders he didn't look out of place at all. He's got the same presence as Lezcano when he was leading rider at Tampa.

Or Migliore. :zz:

also as was said hes only 19 and still learning. he should not lose the ride.
he did all the right things saturday.

I think the way it worked out -- no discussion whatsoever. Like Andy said, it's rediculous. Depending on who gets in, who is out, and how the musical chairs plays out, sure, the phone might ring. Big difference between the two scenarios -- of course -- the horse won! LOL. The rest is all racetrack supposition.

If the horse was already in, and the jock made some real tactical errors and got jammed up big time, sure, the connections could start thinking. They might have something to talk about. However, that didn't happen. This jock played the cards he was dealt, played them exceptionally well and when it appeared all was lost, he was very cool.

Eric

Talamo is not producing the win percenatage as he did in his first year. He started to slide when he dumped his first agent at So. Cal. However, right now he is on probably the favorite going into the derby.

I guess you would have perfered a sweeping 7 wide move on the turn, coming from dead last on a track that has favored speed.

I would have preferred him not being so close to that pack

The track certainly did not favor speed yesterday imo.

Are you talking about when the horse got back in contention on the backstretch? Or are you talking about when he got bounced around in the stretch? It's not like he had the ideal break and was able to pick his position. I thought he did a great job putting the horse in a spot where he could win. I'm really not sure where else you think he should of had him.

I'm glad he rode the horse to win regardless of earnings. If he throws in the towel after a poor break everyone complains. That was the prep-race of the year so far.

I actually only saw the Wood and Carter yesterday (obviously those horses came from behind to win). But I glanced at the charts this morning and it looked like horses on/near the lead were winning. But I really didn't take a good look at times, except I saw the Giant Moon race was a crawl.

When he started to make his bid on the backstretch he went to the inside. He got to about 5th place at the half mile pole and there was no opportunity for him to get out until they hit the eight pole and then he finally shook loose. It actually looked like Talamo was very still in the irons until he found that seem. To his credit he was very patient and didn't try to force his way through a hole that wasn't there. But he really didn't have a whole lot of options going in to the top of the stretch. He was stuck inside Just a Coincidence and West Side Bernie.

I think all of the Equestrian Room knows Tony's middle name now thanks to me. :o

What impressed me about Talamo during that FG meet is the guy wouldn't give up. When most riders would have folded up on their mounts, Talamo kept driving and that made a difference in many exactas, tris, and supers, especially in the lowly last race on the card.

Heading to SoCal was a mistake. He should have stayed on the FG-Kee-CD-AP-Kee-CD-FG circuit until he gained some more experience.

He lost his bug and that's when he started to not win as many races. Trainers are basicly whores and if a bug can ride they will give them the mounts, as far as his agent change costing him mounts,,,,,,,,well he made the right move by going with Scotty and time will tell.

Most of Lexington...

Tony " I Killed Pincay's Career" Farina.