Easy for you to say. It's his living, burning bridges with owners will send a jock to Po-dunk Downs in a hurry.

There have been many times when I would have liked to tell my boss those very words, then thoughts of feeding my family and paying the mortgage help me keep my mouth shut...or at the very least, temper those words into something more civil.

Comment and question.

First, in Arabic, it's called a keffiyeh. The garment is more germane to the region than just to Arab culture. The British military wore them in WW2 and WW1 in their North African campaigns. Lawrence of Arabia (T. E. Lawrence), anyone? Hell, Moses wore one.

And please, can you tell me the names of three horses Jara has won Grade I races on? Take your time.

All this love for Jara as a very good rider makes me laugh. He's been at Gulfstream every day of the meet save two, DWC day and the day he rode at El Commandante.

Yet, the last time I looked, he's way behind riding stalwarts such as Manny Cruz, Rajiv Maragh and, yes, Elvis Trujillo. These three guys can get you home on the best horse as can Jara. But he's certainly done nothing to make me think he's any better than any of them.

At this point, he may well be the luckiest rider in history to have the mount on Invasor.

Whether Jara is the luckiest rider or not isn't the point. He won the race and the criticism was not only unnecessary, it was classless. I'm sure this idiot would've thought Pat Day was the worst rider in the world because he'd save something and not win by unnecessarily large margins.

Can somebody imagine hearing the owner of a Super Bowl or World Series winning team interviewed after the game and the owner throwing a tantrum?

Good point Sent to Stud, I know he is only 19, but I have seen Jara put in some bad rides on the NY Circuit. Even Rudy Rodriguez can bring in a superior horse. I believe Jara is overrated as a rider at this point of his career. That being said, I found nothing wrong with him looking back. As others have pointed out, had he not done that and someone passed him everyone would be shooting him down for the ride. Also, there are times when the horse themself doesn't see another horse coming and the jock has to show the horse that the race is not over. I have no problem with a jock assessing his competition and certainly no problem with a jock gearing a horse down when there is no need to go all out.

Well, he won the Donn on the horse as well where he apparently was channeling a Pat Day ride on a $20k turf claimer and came within inches of perhaps ruining a $50 Million horse. And for his ride there, he probably deserved to lose the mount then.

Hamdan may be many things, but he's certainly no idiot.

I can think of at least three riders worse than Pat Day.

Angara
Jazil
Invasor

How many G1 races have you won?

Good catch. I forgot Angara. Any idea why Jara's riding 4th call for Mott at Gulf?

Now Cajun, if you keep quoting Seattle, my "block" isn't going to be as effective!

--Dunbar

Right. Cigar got run down by Dare & Go because Bailey was so worried about the speed horse (Siphon?) getting away from him. That's how one long winning streak ended.

--Dunbar

Sorry, Dunbar. Twon't happen again. :o

Thanks, Cajun. Now I feel safe again. ;>)

--Dunbar

......... nail on the head.

This thread is just amazing. Before anyone else posts, though, let me grab another bag of popcorn...

ALostTexan

I just watched a replay of th 1973 Belmont. Damn that Turcotte for stealing a peek back on the turn and coasting to the line. He coulda won by 50 lengths if he woulda gone to the whip....:D "Just win, baby."

It appears that an element of Hamdan's comments may have been motivated by Shadwell Euro 'house' rider Richard Hills, whom you'll note was on board Invasor for his lone career defeat. Those close to the situation believe Hills is likely to be campaigning in advance for the mount on the defending HOY in this fall's BC Classic, and has been badrapping Jara to Hamdan.

What a jerk -
I hope Jara takes this constructively and really puts his mind to his riding and proves HE is the one who belongs on Invasor.

Perhaps Hills should shut his mouth and concentrate on his riding. If he had been doing that, perhaps he wouldn't have gotten himself into the predicament of losing his ride on Invasor. Jealousy... what an awful thing.

I think the 7 straight wins is doing the most talking..

I heard that Hill took a wrath of #^%@ from Hamdan for his losing ride last year. That blame never went public. Funny, they were hushed about Hills, who lost but public about Jara, who won!

if you have the bucks, you can go anywhere for college. even if you can't speak proper english. look at the president, for crying out loud, they let him in yale! whats even worse he brags about being a "c" student. Some rich people should just just own things, real estate , horses, companies and investments. many times when they try to manage them for themselves, well , just look at the world today and you can see the results. when the shiek weighs 110 pounds can ride a horse at 40 mph and not fall off. then he should be giving professional jockeys advice. like i stated before that horse is great because of talent and training. he should enjoy the winning and go the the winners circle, otherwise throw on some silks and mount up ,you ungrateful bag of hot air.