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Originally Posted by DaHoss9698
I think the reason that some view riders as pretty unimportant when handicapping is because pretty much the first excuse a bettor uses when he/she loses is the ride. Of course there are instances when a jockey legitimately causes a horse to not win. But, people use rides as a crutch for their own mistakes in betting.
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Right. After races are over there are sometimes, far less often than we hear around here, legitimate reasons to blame the rider. Hell, sometimes the riders even know it. Race riding comes down to a lot of split second decisions and even the best riders will sometimes make the wrong ones. However, before the race is run you just have to hope for the best and bet the horses you like....not the riders.
I respect the Fat Man a great deal, and I understand that some riders have strengths, and weaknesses, that may affect the horses they ride. If this works for him, great, but it doesn't for me. I can give an recent example in his favor. Garrett Gomez, who is a terrific rider, rode Guts Game the other day. I thought she had a sneaky chance to wire the field. Well, this obviously wasn't happening as even unpressured Prado went on a suicide mission with Love Co. However, Guts Game's only hope was to be the speed, and after breaking on top, Gomez completely rated her out of contention. Look, it was a bad opinion on my part for a number of reasons, but even if I had the right idea, Gomez was the wrong rider for that horse. He simply isn't the kind of guy you want on a potential sneaky speed. On the other hand, my friend Richard Migliore is one of the best riders around at understanding when he has a pace advantage, and using that positively. Maybe that's because he actually reads the Racing Form.