John R. Velazquez
 

What's the matter with John Velazquez....?
I know the Pletcher barn is a little cold but JV rides for other's also...Did he get hurt in one of those gate mishaps...gotta believe that Cordero ought to be able to be getting him live mounts.

I don't think he's been right since going down on Massoud in the Opener.

Something seems amiss. Obviously Pletcher is not having his usual dominating year which has had an affect on Gomez as well. Can you think of some other Jockey's who just may have hammered a way through with Octave yesterday?

That's right..I forgot about that spill at keeneland.

I think it is Pletcher, not JV.

It seems like the other trainers have these 2 year olds ready to go at first asking, and that is the area that JV and Pletcher have teamed up for so many winners in past years. Bill Mott never used to have the firsters so primed up in past years, but everything he put out now is live. It just seems JV and even Prado (even though he is 3rd in the standings) have not been in the winners circle that much. Face it, if your name is not Velasquez, Desormeaux or Borel you are having mediocore meet.

No, I can't think of a jock who would have hammered a way through because regardless of the jock, whoever would have been riding Octave, the jock would not have been sitting on enough horse to hammer a way through.

Eric

Agreed.

Eric

Fair enough. I never saw the head on of the race. That's why I asked.
I'm fairly certain he's still going to be in the top 3 when everything is said and done.

An angle to consider in the coming weeks is to play against some of Mott's horses. He has had these horses so keyed up for this meet that you would have to think that some of them will regress at the end of this meet or the Belmont Fall.

That's one of the downsides in riding first call for a barn like Pletcher -- although there has never truly been a barn like his before. You get so caught up, committed, etc. in working with this barn, when the barn doesn't fire (that bar is set pretty high) you don't have a lot else lined up, to fall back on, etc. Now, it hasn't been an issue for a very long time -- time after time Pletcher fires on all cylinders, meet after meet, year after year.

But what most people don't understand is that when your first call barn doesn't fire -- it's too late to go find other spots. You've already lined up your calls. In some cases, people don't call on you because they know you are committed, and in other cases, you've already said you've taken a call so they have gone elsewhere. Every single horse that races back (everyone excluding the winner) is a tough mount to get because someone else already got the call and wants to ride back.

Johnny is a talented rider. He will always be at or near the top.

Eric

Right you are.

Careful there Dave.

I mentioned he wasn't riding very well early on in the Belmont Spring meet and was told by several here that I didn't know what I was talking about....

So at this point he's basically in 3rd place for the meet. It just seems like any other athlete that "plays" 12 months a year there are form cycles that come into play. Gomez did similar things at Belmont last meet where it seemed like he rode fairly vanilla for a couple weeks and I complained about it here as well.

Don't these guys have nagging injuries that make "great" just a shade above good which in this case is what we seem to be saying about JR.

It's almost like we should be asking for a weekly injury report for these guys ala the NFL ......now THAT would be a useful piece of information for handicapping wouldn't it now.

Maybe a new industry has been created (JOCKEY INJURY REPORTS)....

He needs some saddle glue too

With the depth of the current riding colony here, if perhaps Cordero spent less time as an exercise rider and more time as a jockey agent, things might be better for his rider. Angel still acts as if it's a few years ago when JR was one of the few games in town (with Bailey and Prado).

His ride on English Channel told me everything I needed to know...JV is definitely off form.

PLEASE, dude give this **** up it is f'n annoying as hell.

I'll give you 2/1 that ENGLISH CHANNEL doesn't win another GRADE 1 race in his lifetime, with more then 6 horses in the race, $1 to $100. Bet ends once he is retired, for the first time, because he is the type of so-called stallion that will come back after his runners suck

Guess he should have stayed at Belmont Kev
:D

Let's see how Tenpins (same cross as Curlin) does once his first crop runs in 08' before you start laying down that English Channel will have lousy runners. If you think that English Channel is going to come back after his runners suck (which I don't think they will), you're smoking crack, Scavs. He'll be 8 or 9 years old before his first crop even hits the track... LOL

Thailand Stallion Station here he comes

You place all your ingnorance aside and rewatch everyone of EC's races and then you tell me that JV put him where he needed to be to give him the best chance of winning that race.

You know I am right...quit being a d*ckhead.

Done. WELCOME TO THE FAR EAST EC, PLENTY OF EGG ROLLS FOR YOU HERE!!!

Jay, I still think it was a huge mistake on JV's part to take him that far back. He took him out of his preferred running style and a great majority of the time, when you do that to horses, the chance of them firing their "A" race deminishes a great deal. I could have dealt with EC not hitting the board if Johnny had placed him where he runs best, but he clearly made a mistake taking him that far back.

They all make mistakes. JV may have made a mistake on EC but the fact remains that the Pletcher barn is winning at 12% this meet, rather than 25% and that is a significant stat. JV rides first call for Todd and if Todd is leaning to running in a given spot, it's assumed that he has the call. If Todd's horse doesn't go, JV may end up sitting out. If it does go, he's (statistically) not as likely sitting on a "live mount" as he was last year.
That JV has won as many as he has with Todd being cold is testament to his skills and Angel's as well.

That is kind of the point of this thread. He is making FAR more mistakes and not riding nearly as well as he has in the past.

I think that overall, he's riding on par with before but is, overall, sitting on far fewer "live" mounts. You can get away with far more when you are sitting on "much the best" horse.

Thats the beauty of different opinions.

I happen to agree with others on here in that he is not riding anywhere near was well as normal. I tend to think the Keen spill and the couple of falls this meet have him a bit shy.

the spills and a
its cause todds horses aren't winning.

so j.v. is doing as good as tood.

todd is winning at 12 %.

I suspect he was riding with bruises on top of bruises ... which I'm sure had to affect him, at least physically.

okay now its personal
 

JV now an average rider at NYRA?
Let me preface with saying i had a large exacta wager in the nightcap at Saratoga with Gomez on top who won for fun and JV in second who got in traffic and once he weaved his way out could not get up for second place. I understand riders get in traffic all the time but clearly he was on the second best horse and clearly he made a bad call by settling behind horses and not going wide to get second. Also, i realize his book relies on Pletcher who has been ice cold for Pletcher this meet. But, clearly he is not the same rider that he used to be and has fallen behind Gomez, Prado, Kent D., Dominguez and probably one or two others.

Sad but true?

You're right...he's not the same. Used to be a no-brainer for a bet; not anymore. Maybe its personal stuff.