he sent me an autographed one....It will be on ebay soon enough...should fuel my retirement fund.

If I was Johnny I would have one eye on the track and one eye on the rear view mirror because the sharks are circling.

Still though he has a long ways to catch Kent's riding in my estimation. At least Jonny is not an *******.

Johnny V is a good judge of pace, moreso when he is near the front. He isn't a liability from off the pace. One of the best jockeys. First call for Pletch.

I think it is more of a loss of Slew's Tizzy than a direct gain for R2R.

and BTW and others are talking about his performance "lately"....apples and oranges...why pick a fight??

Bejarano got the ride on Slew's Tizzy.

Therin lies the problem. You were talking about his stats for the year and Andy is talking about his recent riding at Belmont (not Gulfstream or Keeneland).

Apples and Oranges.

Let's look at the current Belmont stats broken down over distance and surface. Johnny V has okay (historically for him) stats on turf (18% wins) and an excellent dirt routes (26% wins). In dirt sprints, he is 4 for 30 (13.33% well below his win average for the year). Most of the cheaper races are sprints, a rider is also required to make split second decisions in sprints (whether to go for a hole that may or may not be opening, dive to the rail, etc..) and even a slightly bad trip can cause momentum loss and the loss of the race. Johnny's interest and his derring-do don't seem to be there in the cheaper races and most of them are sprints and that may explain is abysmal (for him) dirt sprint record so far this meet.

Come on bigs, you know logic is not allowed here!

I do need to sight in my rifle.....Bobblehead at 100 paces.

Here's one, off the top of my head, where a mediocre ride by Johnny clearly cost him the victory......May 23rd, the 6th at Belmont. Somewhat ironically, both Garrett Gomez and Kent Desourmeaux who both gave terrific rides, were the beneficiaries.

Try to pull up the replay.

your's for $2....


going once...

No doubt that was a terrible ride. Needlessly wide. Where's Trakus for verification? And I agree that JV is not exactly at the top of his game.

Let me ask you a ? since you've watched the race. Does Sensational Humour win with Port Royal's trip? There's no debating, IMO, that the winner was 3rd best.

I don't even have to find the replay to remember that one. Blazing Dynamo gets the win under Desormeaux and Gomez rode Sensational Humor beautifully. He swung him out and looked like he was going to get there and of course, since I was all over him, he came up a bit short. That day was made even better by my narrow defeat on Summer Doldrums a race later.

Either way, the point is Gomez and Kent D. both rode great races there.

NT

Sensational Humour would have been lucky to have been a fairly well beaten third.

$1!

5 cents and a back rub!

Have you watched his run vis a vis the winner's?

SOLD!!

Yeah, and obviously in some ways the winner benefited from being closer. But, one could also argue that given the race dynamics it was better to have been farther off the pace.

I bet Sensational Humour and felt he had his chance to win and just couldn't get up. I'll take tougher beats.

Oh forget it.


What are internet creatures for ....anyway?










I mean I wouldn't argue with him.

Not about horseys anyway.

But I have no fear of him when it comes to TetherBall....absolutely none.

I bet him as well and felt fortunate that he got 2nd given Port Royal's trip. But I also thought that steading and going around just after he entered the stretch cost him the race, as it was run. And taking nothing away from Desormeaux's ride which was excellent: the hole opened up and he dove to the inside and took off.