LOL!!!! I'm not a Bernardini worshipper, I just believe in what my eyes are telling me. I actually am pulling for Lava Man to win the damn thing, I love that horse, I love a horse with a ton of heart and try, even when Lava Man lost in the Pacific Classic last year he was vanned off for over exertion, he tries so hard, thats a horse to be idolized and revered, not a cheating hanger like Perfect Drift. I just think after watching Bernardini this year that he is just simply a magnificent horse, it's just in the way he effortlessly blows away his rivals. I am one of the people that felt in my heart that he would have won the Preakness, and I LOVED Barbaro.

I'm like you Mike, I love racing and having followed it for so many years, ( I don't want to date myself, but I have watched every Derby since Riva Ridge) I have learned to really enjoy and embrace the stars while we can, God knows they don't last. I certainly don't want to turn my back and not enjoy Bernardini while he is here and accomplishing his feats now. The reality is the truly great and even good horses are not really appreciated until they leave the track, than we realize, too late unfortunately, how genuine and special they were.

Ok, I officially love ya. Anyone who screws with you gets a humiliation post.

best in fl mons venus in tampa

Overrated IMHO... you been to Lollipops?

they should run him into the ground til he wins a race of consequence

They all give bad rides. Every last one of them. Gomez gives a bad ride just as much as your beloved JV or Prado or anyone else you want to name.

But that Gomez character has given a couple of championship rides as well.

Hey, isnt he the leading jockey in the country?

Inconsistent? He is the leading rider in the country. How "inconsistent" could he possibly be and wouldnt we all love to be that "inconsistent"?

Ah the Devils Advocate returns.
I note the lack of addressing the ride in which many folks were up in arms about the other day that was so bizarre and awful that many were suspicious of it being intentional. I post the link to the direct replay and yet you choose not to address that issue, which is par for the course in your case.
Most people who can't refute something that someone says resort to addressing the specific issue with a sweeping general statement that makes no mention of the issue. Just like you have here.
Answering the question of what about the bizarre tragic rides hes given this year, despite enjoying great success this year as well, was the issue here.
So I suppose once again we have someone who comments on a race he never watched with pp's he didn't read. It would be rather like myself commenting on the merits of a book I have never read.
So can I assume that you haven't seen the ride in question? And yes, if it wasn't intentional its in the top 5 all time stupidest rides I ever saw, and I've been watching races for 22 years, and I can still remember the all time worst ride I ever saw like it was yesterday, and it took place in May of 1993.

I watched the race LIVE. Just to further it, I watched Diane Nelson take the race before it and i watched Kent D (another beleaguered rider on here) give a text book turf ride on Symphony of psalms the race after it. Do you think that maybe the instructions were changed? Youre the big time insider guy- why dont you go ask Violette? Without knowing all of the facts, how can you make any kind of claim? Its not like he was on Bernardini. This was a baby race and perhaps the animal was being quirky. But the worst ride ever?

You post the link of a seemingly bad ride but what about the good rides?

No one is playing devil's advocate. I am making a point that YOU were WRONG about Gomez from the start and you have yet to admit.

Tell the truth...DID YOU NOT SAY HE WOULD GET "SCHOOLED" at Saratoga? That didnt happen did it?

So now, every time he has a bad ride, we get a post about it as if you are going to subliminally convince everyone that you were right in the first place.

WHO IS THE NUMBER ONE RIDER IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW? Just answer that.

The number one rider is Edgar Prado according to the Bloodhorse. Its a fact. Hes earned more money on American soil than anyone.
Dubai earnings were not counted in Johnny V's failed attempt at Bailey's record a few years ago. They only used American races.
using Dubai races means our top money earner is Electrocutionist(RIP) and i think thats irrational since he never competed here, don't you?
http://racing.bloodhorse.com/leaders.asp?type=JOCKEYS

By the way I'm friendly with Violette since this past Saratoga when I clocked two of his horses in a set one morning in the slop when he worked them late and the clockers didn't catch them, I told him it was the best move i saw all morning in that slop. One came back and won, the other came back 2nd in a stakes race. I was down there two weeks ago and laughed about that in the paddock with him. Hes a tremendously nice guy and very classy. I'm going down a week from Saturday and I will ask him about that race and ride. WIll you accept that as proof of a complete abortion if he says it was?
I highly doubt he asked his jockey to strangle a horse back to last behind a glacial first quarter aftre breaking sharply and making the lead and already displaying a fine win stalking a fast pace.

Oh, and he didn't win the title at either belmont spring/summer, saratoga, or belmont fall despite he and his agent doing everything in their power to do so. And he has one of the two superagents. He also won't win the Belmont Fall. All those titles belong to a Mr Edgar Prado!!:)

I also think that this makes more sense
http://racing.bloodhorse.com/leaders.asp?type=HORSES

Than this! Don't you?
http://www.drf.com/drfLeaderBoard.do?category=horse

Speaking of bad rides, does anybody remember the day Tommy Turner moved too early with Butterface, and although she opened up a 7 length lead around the turn, she was caught late by a Dutrwo favorite?

Oh Come on, this Gomez bashing started when everyone was saying that he was Great, and he was screwed out of the jockey title last year. It was all high praise for Gomez. No other jockey was getting praise. Not JohnnyV, not Prado. Just more ridicules on Bailey (for his quitting in my opinion on horses) and PVal (for his continuous antics involving drugs).

Regarding Gomez, I'm with Cajun on this. I just want to know which one will show up at the track on any given day.

I just want to know which one will show up at the track on any given day.

Gomez isnt any different than any other jockeys. They all go through good and bad streaks. To answer the above question, take a look at the horses hes riding. That has 98% with which Gomez is showing up. You guys make way too much to do about jockeys.

Its not cool, he is.
And the shills for him are the guys who are funny.
You go ahead, you go ahead and try, you find one ride any of the other top three ever gave that was as horrendous as the one on this thread. ZRound Pound was rank, and Efgar couldnt get her to chill, or maybe didnt try hard enough. Thats not even in the same universe as the abortion posted on this thread. That was top five all time worst stuff. How about Sigfreto? You remember that tragedy? Foutryninebelow? Milwaukee?
There is a theme here, when he goes BAD, he goes very bad. And thats called inconsistency. How is this wrong to point out?
Are you stilll trying to deny HOW AWFUL beyond belief that ride on here was?

I believe I remember this day, it was on Blue Grass Day/Wood Memorial Weekend 2004, also Artie Schiller won an allowance against older horses that day as well...

Silver Train didn't come out well. Thats the difference here, something I guess you can't grasp.
Obviously had Songster not come out well according to Tom, before his dreadful perforomance agaisnt Henny, I would not have held it against him or anyone.
Perhaps you aren't in the business, but I can tell you that no trainer can help a horse getting banged up in a race or injured.
Gomez is guilty of serious judgement lapses like the one on this thread far more often than any jock of his talent level alive. If you don't like that its demonstrated, thats too bad.
Greatness while consistent is always appreciated more than greatness that zigs and zags. Just ask Arod.:)

Wrong, Arties allowance win came on Derby Day 2004. I'm quite sure of this because the pik-6 paid 94 grand that day.:) Two guys I know were quite pleased about that day!!!!

We're you even around last year, or the past years? You must be new to the group. Most of us from the ESPN Board heard nothing but Bailey bashings, and no praises on anybody whatsoever. Now he's retired. Then the Gomez is a GOD threads started, then it was time to take him down. Which goes on and on and on and on. Trust me, it hasn't even come close to how much we heard about Jerry Bailey blown rides. But the Bailey bashers is not even here. Still the Bailey bashing pretty much equates on the same acceptance as Gomez is getting. Some agree and some disagree.

Da Hoss you should also note that my last Gomez knocking post was in mid to late August. Its not like its a weekly thing.
But I watch races, its what I do. And some of the great rides he gives are noted by me, but in my life watching races I've never seen such a Jekyll and Hyde as he is. One race he looks like Arcaro, the next like a ten pound bug. Its not a 50-50 mix, don't get me wrong. But the other big three don't give rides like that, not once a year.

You got me!

You are right, I remember that now, I was at River Downs that day, now that I remember it, I would have been at Keeneland on Blue Grass Day...That's the day I scared Shane Sellers to death at Furlongs after the races...

Silver Train has thrown in bad races before. Just not at Belmont. I hope hes okay, just a marvelous horse.

Any idea when during the race this happened? Obviously something was very amiss.

Look, you don't get it. Leparoux got boxed in that race, I don't think you understand the game. Leparoux saved ground that day and simply couldn't get through. They shut him off in the lane, I just don't see that as tragic. he didn't form a plan at the start of the race to get himself locked in down the lane.
You are really missing it here, totally. Gomez is the strongest jock alive, no doubt about it. Hes also agile. But hes so stupid. That ride I've shown you here, don't you see the difference?!!!!!!!! HE CHOSE TO DO WHAT HE DID!!! Nobody forced him into a bad spot, he chose to take one. He does it very often, and YES that makes him inconsistent.
I'm sorry but getting locked in with a closer, well thats unavoidable. YOu really aren't getting the difference at all. Sometimes racing luck lands you in a bad spot, like happy Ticket. Anyone who would criticize Garret for that ride is a moron. He had poor racing luck early, and his only chance was to try to get through that hole. No problem with that. But you can't seem to distinguish the difference between a roach like Pulpiteer(which is why hes still a maiden!!!) witha lack of speed getting locked in, and a guy standing up and grabbing a speed horse so hard to dead last after breaking great, that the track announcer uses the word wrangled. The fact that you wer reluctant to identify that ride initially as as bad as it was, tells me you must just worship the guy and be blinded to its horrendousness.
You won't see any posts on me knocking guys who get locked in a jam on closers in tight big fields, its gonna happen.

Once again, its not about differing. You are the ONLY guy who saw that race who thinks it wasn't horrendous ok? Thats fine.
But if you feel the need to run to his defense even after he gives a butcher job like that? I dunno what to say.
You find it odd that anyone who saw the race questions if he was stiffing or just plain incredibly stupid except you? Its not about anything else but that ride, and I just don't see how you could defend it, that ride.

Next time he gives a butcher job you will read about it, but only when he gives one. I guess I have to show the inconsistency and display it.

No problem. I'm on it.
:)

To read this board, one would think that Gomez is the worst rider in the country and the only guy that ever gives bad rides. Thats what i think is really funny.

These trainers are all idiots i tell you. Idiots. Anyone wanna bet that Gomez gets another Violette mount before the meet is out? Surely after that "butcher job" a trainer as good as violette would find someone else to ride his horses. No?

Why do these trainers consistently put a guy up that is so wildly inconsistent? Can ANYONE answer that question?

hes good.
a very good big race rider.
but he makes mistakes, and probably more than most other top echelon riders.
thats all anyone is saying I think.

I know this,
I want him on my horse on Breeders Cup day over just about anyone besides PVal or Bejerano.
but on Thursday afternoon at Belmont? well, I'd just assume have Coa or another capable jock.


Repent

Hey, thats fair. I respect that. I dont agree as far as more than most top echelon riders but thats a fair way to put it and i respect that opinion.

As far as thursday afternoon at Belmont, I think i would rather have Coa than ANY other jockey. Either him or Cornelio.