Leparoux's Ride on Dialed In
 

I am surprised that this hasn't been touched on. Was it simple race dynamics or did leparoux do a terrible job judging pace? He came home really strong.

Dialed In was certainly capable of being up closer and still closing effectively. I doubt he could have won, but he probably should have been closer at the finish.

I think the simple dynamics of the race meant LeParoux did a terrible job judging the pace. The first 3 horses were all forwardly placed or at least mid pack (AK)and the 4th place horse was the pace setter. He was too far back. As someone else I read wrote...when the Derby favorite runs the last half mile in nearly under 47 seconds and is a non-threatening 8th, there's problems.

Fastest last quarter in the race - think it was a shade under 24?

I think Leparoux completely misjudged the race.

I think he was using this 1million race as a prep for the big race in 2 weeks. At least thats what he looked like during the race. He just sat back there with no urgency at all..

agreed, i kept yelling for him to move up. too late.

I didn't get a good look, but didn't Dialed In break poorly? He was last by several heading into the first turn.

Maybe someone should time his final 7f, probably was faster than Zenyatta in last year's BC Classic.

Dialed In is most effective as a one run closer... you take him back and hope the race comes back to you. 99 times out of 100 in the Derby it does, and it looked like it would on paper going in.

He'll have a much better chance in the Preakness if Flashpoint goes, and Shackleford makes it to the gate.

With a better timed ride he definitely would have been 6th.

You don't think he beats Master of Hounds?

I say with a better ride, Dialed In's dosage would have kicked in and he'd have gotten there for 5th.

It is a head scratcher for me. All week, i heard from Zito he was special, special, special going back to last year. then.. you ride the derby and hope the pace comes back to you?

I am not a hater by any stretch but questionable ride & tactics seem like fair game for discussion

I was discussing this thought with someone else. He gets 5.5 million for winning the preakness. Could the instructions have been to not go too hard on him?

I know some people are friends with Zito on this board and I don't say this to make up some kind of "conspiracy angle". I know if I had a horse and he was up to win 5.5 million as opposed to 1.2 million, I would probably have that in the back of my mind.

Is this at least plausible?

No.

Maybe crazy, but not plausible.

He's still slow. That's the problem. Slow. He'll be slow in the Preakness.

Doesn't LaPenta also have a bazillion bucks? I doubt the 5.5 mill is the reason Dialed In is going to the Preakness.

:tro:

Ok the prep angle was certainly tongue in cheek on my part. But i mean Julien was in his own little world out there. Could he not feel the flow of the race. Even though after the race he said he was hoping the field would come back to him..Here are his splits for the race..27 52 1/5 116 4/5 203 /25. I think Dialed In would have been better ridden by Maxine Correa!

I've always wondered why jockeys don't try to time things in their head. You know, like count, one thousand one, one thousand two, etc..

Is it because they don't know what thousand means? Or they cannot count past 59?

I'm pretty sure they do this in Australia, so I assume some jocks do it here as well.

Lots of times when the on-track presenters are dissecting a race after the fact, they will reference the jock counting until [insert number] on the turn, etc...

Maybe it is just a saying, and no jocks are actually counting out there...