Ramon Dominguez
 

Nice write up in the New York Times, of all places.

An Unorthodox Jockey and Predictable Winner

:tro:

He's had a brilliantly planned career. Used to like watching him ride at Delaware Park. In the media, his comments are always intelligent, thoughtful and even eloquent. Should get a job as a commentator when he hangs up the saddle.

Free lance long read specialist Ryan Goldberg on ATR this morning at 9:30..

Nice article, thanks for posting.

Great interview Steve!

Enjoyed the interview. Plus the article was very well written.

Personally not a fan of Ramon, ever since his ride on ScrappyT in The Preakness, I still believe he had the race won, until He blew The turn, If he didn't blow the turn Afleet Alex would have never caught him, and I would have cashed a 100 double with Eddington, that double would have paid 735.00 for a 2 dollar bet, and I had a 100 double riding on that. Sorry no fan here.................

He didn't blow the turn, the horse bolted after getting hit left handed.
For what it's worth I think Afleet Alex was going to catch even without the mishap.

Of course he was going to catch him. If not for the incident at the top of the lane Afleet Alex wins by 7 or 8 lengths instead of 3.

Wow, I mean WOW. :zz:

Loved him back in Del bout 10 years ago...a must use in ex and tris...Never could understand the heat he took from players at other sites for 'poor' rides..when he didn't win every race....one of the best..:tro:

I was in the sweat box waiting for the official sign, please no change i got the ex!...Phew...:)

What a day for Ramon. He should be a solid lock for an eclipse this year

Yeah and nice prices, Ramon and JR in between gets you well...:tro:

Aw poor baby.

I like the guys (idiots) that say Ramon doesn't win on big days.

His flawless ride on Stay Thirsty made the difference.

However, the riding exhibition of the day was the lesson Johnny taught to Junior Alvarado in the Demoiselle. He undressed him every which way.

I don't know if he'll learn anything from it. It was a 4-horse field, but a veritable match race when none of the other two horses wanted to go on a suicide mission and pressure a superior horse.

Velazquez had more early speed anyway, but once he won the break and Emollient was crossed and cleared on, and none of the two others wanted to do anything stupid ... I think the in-race odds might have shifted from Even VS 4/5 to about 3/5 VS 7/5 pretty quickly.

The early inside move was a bad choice, but none of the other options he had were that good, especially with his horse getting a little rank and not settling well down there.

Like Mike Tyson liked to say: "everyone has a plan until they get hit." Once he lost the break, once he got no help from the two other riders doing something dumb, and once his horse wasn't happy to settle, he was left with two bad choices and probably took the worst of the two.

I guess he's one of your pets, but it's silly to defend his performance in the Demoiselle. He got schooled, it's as simple as that. He's a very good young rider, who likely has a very bright career ahead of him, but that performance is tough to defend. A top rider doesn't allow himself to be put in that position, especially in a big race. Plus, the halfway move inside, when Johnny threw that bait out there, was absolute amateur hour...and Johnny knew he would fall for it.

No doubt he was behind the eight ball, due to the speed advantage of his rival, but he has to have a plan to deal with that. Now, the slight stumble after the start hurt him, but you really need to watch the head-on of the backstretch. He needed to send in the four path hole Johnny herded his rivals to open, and establish position, or force Johnny to let it out a notch. Instead, he half went as they approached the turn, which is tentative and too late.

Yes, Johnny had the tactical advantage, but he used it to full advantage, and Junior gave him every edge.

He's ridden over 4,400 races in his career as a jockey -- and he's showing a flat-bet profit.

I've never met the guy, never heard the guy talk, I don't know him. If you want to call him one of my pets, it's because I like what I've seen from him.

I agree with a lot of what you said, and disagree with pretty much none of it.

There just was never a good option for him, and that was the result largely of stuff out of his control (losing the break, his chief rival having a tactical edge and getting no pressure at all, and his horse not wanting to settle)

Was it a bad ride? Technically, yes. But, those aren't the kind of rides that I believe are trademarks of bad jockeys. The more egregious errors are the ones where riders actually have good options available to them and instead make bad decisions. And the bad jockeys make a habit of commiting those egregious errors.

Here's the head-on replay on Youtube if anyone wants to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmXmH...ature=youtu.be


Alan Garcia was never going to let him outside of Velazquez and in the clear down the backside. He would have had to come over and knock him sideways to achieve that.

You used egregious twice in that post.

Did you just learn that word?

I never said he was a bad jockey, in fact just the opposite, but you are being a bit defensive....because he's one of your pets ( which, by the way, in no way implies you know him ). You have posted about forty times here about his fllat-bet profit stats. We get it.

It was more inexperience than anything else.

I did love how Johnny claimed the rail was dead, or deeper, which I assume was him creating an excuse for Revolutionary.

I respectfully disagree. And you are a bigger pet of mine -- and I don't have any trouble taking issue with you.

I think it was probably checkmate before they even got to the 3/4 pole and any decision was made.

In horse racing, unlike chess, the race continues after checkmate.

I'm sure you'll hate that, but...a little Isaac Asimov for Indian Charlie and his love of Sci-Fi.

I was compelled to defend Junior because I don't think it was inexperience or a lesson he can learn from. I know you are well aware of the point I'm about to make...but since I've already quoted Mike Tyson and Isaac Asimov in this thread...

You know what I love most about Julius Caesar? As he crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC and marched on Rome to start the civil war, he said probably the most famous quote ever spoken by a Roman: "Alea iacta est" or "the die is cast" ... language taken straight from the gambling tables of his day.

I think it is awesome that Caesar knew he was rolling the dice and even though he thought the world of himself and his men, he knew the final outcome of the war would likely come down to chance, randomness, or factors outside of his control ... and he needed the dice to roll his way to win.

Anyway, my father thought it was a terrible ride. He was bitching about it this morning. He moved way too soon, why the hell wasn't Lezcano on him, etc. I didn't even bother to put on a defense for my supposed pet with him.

And speaking of what I believe was a true case of inexperience ... this is the result of me driving at 6AM in bad conditions (snow and ice) this morning.









Luckily I only paid $4,000 for it. I was too dumb to get collision coverage with my insurance because I don't drive a lot.

I'm just happy to be alive. Pretty weird feeling.

I stopped reading at the mention of Julius Caesar.

The fault, dear Druggie, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

I believe those are Shakespeare's words.

What happened to Bono? He was approaching legendary status in his first two posts.