Originally Posted by gales0678

drugs i still think if you put mike smith on Gio Ponti and Dominguez on Zenyatta she doesn't win the race

smith gave her an perfect textbook ride for the pro surface as he should because he's a west coast based jock . ramon, a big a inner dirt specialit made the cardinal mistake of not getting his horse over to the best part of the track for the stretch drive - not only did he lose becuase he was on the deader part of the track , gio ponti never saw zenyatta and never had a chance to look her in the eye , if ramon could have gotten outside of her , we could have seen a different result

jermey rose made the same mistake in the derby , he was too far inside on derby day with afleet alex and mike smith hit the best part of the track on that day 10 wide with the 50/1 shot

Originally Posted by gales0678

drugs i still think if you put mike smith on Gio Ponti and Dominguez on Zenyatta she doesn't win the race

smith gave her an perfect textbook ride for the pro surface as he should because he's a west coast based jock . ramon, a big a inner dirt specialit made the cardinal mistake of not getting his horse over to the best part of the track for the stretch drive - not only did he lose becuase he was on the deader part of the track , gio ponti never saw zenyatta and never had a chance to look her in the eye , if ramon could have gotten outside of her , we could have seen a different result

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

Dominguez is more that an "inner dirt specialist." Did you miss his performance at Belmont and Saratoga this year? He gave Gio Ponti a perfect ride in the Classic; Gip Ponti was simply outfinished by Zenyatta (who followed Gio Ponti from the half-mile pole to the quarter-pole along the rail).

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Yeah --- it all could be. The connections talked about feet problems or something.

I don't follow Euro racing at all - let alone rabidly enough to have solid opinions up and down on Euro horses.

His last race though ... the final time was highly unimpressive when compared with other races that day at the same distance.

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Wow.... that's pretty scary that the list you posted came out today.

I feel sorry for European handicappers - they seem to have absolute garbage for information available to them regarding their own races ... and they all sound like complete imbeciles whenever you hear them try to talk about our horses.

Originally Posted by Dunbar

FWIW, and I'll grant you I don't even know who votes, Rip Van Winkle is ranked 3rd in the most recent "World Thoroughbred Rankings". From the DRF, http://drf.com/news/article/108893.html :

World Thoroughbred Rankings

Rank
Horse
Rating
Trained

1
Sea the Stars
135
Ireland

2
Goldikova
130
France

3
Rip Van Winkle
129
Ireland

4
Fame and Glory
128
Ireland

4
Zenyatta
128
USA

6
Cavalryman
125
France

6
Conduit
125
Britain

6
Gio Ponti
125
USA

6
Rachel Alexandra
125
USA

6
Youmzain
125
Britain

I don't know what was going on with track condition (or with the timers?) in the race you're comparing to 2-yr-olds, but there's no question Rip Van Winkle was considered one of Europe's best this year.

Maybe their current 2-yr-old crop will blow us away next year. ;>)

--Dunbar

Originally Posted by Sightseek

Nothing against Gio Ponti, but the fact they are ranking him with Rachel Alexandra tells me all I need to know about this list..