Mario o' Mario, please go back to Maryland o' Mario!
 

Anyone care to take on the task of explaining what Mr Pino was thinking in the 8th at Aqueduct yesterday (Feb 18)? He must've been watching the series premiere of KNIGHT RIDER (which might be off the air before the Gotham, that is how bad it was) the night before and thought he was driving KITT because the only way he was going to win from where he put that horse was to hit Turbo Boost and go over them. How does he not angle out at the 1/16 pole once clear of the horse to his outside?

Yeah that was a real thing of beauty. Most certainly gets second and maybe even wins if not for that brilliant move. There has been some real comical rides in the past few weeks at the ole inner track.

What I find to be most scary is the way it looked to me was Laysh Laysh Laysh seemed to realize there were horses in front of him and started to drift out on his own and I can swear that Pino keeps him inside.

Yes he was looking to tightrope the rail like Phillipe Petit. A horrific ride to say the least...

I don't know, I have a much different take on this horse than you guys. He was moving OK on the inside, and while it wasn't as heavily a biased track yesterday as many other days, I applaud Pino for staying inside. Basically, I think Laysh Laysh Laysh got as close as he did because of the ride he was given, and it wasn't until very late that he actually got close to winning. Had he been swung outside, and in the clear, I'm far from convinced he would have been able to have made up the same kind of ground, and thus it wouldn't have mattered that he had room. You can't have everything and to me knocking Pino in this instance is misplaced frustration.

Mario Pino was obviously encouraged to come to NY because of the utter incompetence of the riding community, especially with the track being as heavily biased as it has been, and has been specifically instructed to stay inside. He has done that well, and perhaps he got a little punished for that yesterday, though in the big picture I don't believe so, but overall he was trying to do the right thing. To me, criticizing yesterday's ride is not looking at the big picture.

But there was nowhere to go , it seemed to me that he had to check late in order to avoid running up the back of the other 2. Don't you think that he should have moved to the 3 path late ?

And how exactly was he supposed to do that?

You mean to tell me that Elliott, Mirage, and Garcia are frauds? Say it ain't so, Andy!!

I guess one could argue that there was a moment around the sixteenth pole where he could have, and should have, angled outside as he cleared the fourth finisher. It seems like he committed inside into the stretch, for whatever reason, and he stuck to it.

I can see the argument saying he would have been better off moving outside. Perhaps Pino overcommited.

I'd have to watch again but I thought he had the opportunity inside the final furlong. Of course being 5'11 and 205 my jock skills are limited.. At best...

No, I can see that. He did seem to overcommit a bit. He may have blown this one a bit, at least in isolation, though I'm not sure his plan didn't get him there. Maybe part smart and part dumb.

Andy, watch the race again. He is clear of Law N Dora about 5 jumps outside of the 1/16 pole and starts off the rail but for some reason doesn't get him out. Laysh Laysh Laysh is under wraps for the last 8 jumps.

Sorry Andy, we posted simultaneously.

I did. I can see that. He was probably wrong assuming this would not have cost him a loss of momentum.

I did read, however, a hilarious comment on Steve Crist's blog from someone who thought there should have been an inquiry in the race against the second finisher for fouling Laysh. Now, that makes a lot of sense.

What are we debating this for? Horse wasn't winning anyways, he had too much to do. It cost him 2nd, at best.

You can't say that. I guess you can because you just did, but he was under a hold for the last 8 jumps and made up some serious ground on them to that point. If he's swung out wide with clear sailing it could go either way.

And besides costing me the Pick 4, I'll never get that vision of Pino's horrendous Preakness ride on Hard Spun out of my head.

Unlike the rest of us, Phil's time is very valuable, and he believes message board topics need to be far more selective. Unless, of course, they are about the most overrated horse of all time.....Smarty Jones.

The worst thing Pino did was getting him so far back early. The horse made up a lot of ground from the 3/16ths to the finish. I think he would have ran second if Pino let the horse do what he wanted instead of trying to split the top two late. That being said if he kept him a little closer early he wouldnt have needed to worry about splitting or going outside because he was the best horse in the field. My opinion is it was a brutal ride, but I had money on Laysh Laysh Laysh.

Trust me, I know the feeling. However, I didn't bet the race, and I'm pretty steadfast that he wasn't going to win if he had come outside because, as Bid said, he had too much to do- even with the outside being more than OK yesterday. The speed duel that Pino (and the rest of us) had likely anticipated never really materialized. I lost out on the Pick 6 at Bay Meadows yesterday in what was a carbon copy of this race- the supposed other speed in the feature took back and let the phony speed loose (who then quit), but the other speed inherited the lead and held off my two selections who had taken back.

You forgot topics about Lindsay Lohan posing naked!

You know me too well, brother. :o