In yesterday's first race at Aqueduct, Mario Pino gave She's a Tuf Cookie a good ground saving ride into the stretch versus 1:9 favorite Shelby's Memory. At the top of the stretch he smoothly angled her out and eventually wore down the favorite. The only problem was when he angled out he left the inside open to Roxanne's Dancer, who took advantage of that position, and rallied to win the race.
Was Pino wrong this time? Not in my opinion, and I bet his horse, but I thought in the spirit of this thread I should point out that perhaps even the right decision ends up being the wrong one. There's plenty of jockey buffoonery at all racetracks but I have found a lot of selective Mario Pino bashing ( none more ridiculous than the 2007 Preakness ) to be misguided.
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