I felt like Rajiv Maragh was struggling towards the end of the Belmont meet and that really hasn't changed at Saratoga. In fact, it's probably gotten worse.
Since winning the 1st and 2nd two weeks ago he has two winners. One was Wow Wow Wow, who he astutely took off the pace but did basically nothing special with regards to finishing. The race was served up to him on a silver platter.
His ride Friday on Sotique was good, but how horrendous did Lezcano look as he impotently let Fandangle change leads, drift out and basically do everything possible to lose that race?
Maragh does not move horses up whatsoever. He is not a good finisher and has serious problems when he has to assess the pace scenario in a given race. He also seems to have to put horses in a drive earlier than most riders, I don't know if it's part of his style but the innate things that elite jockeys can do to get horses moving (Dominguez can do it without the whip or even really moving his body) are totally lost on Rajiv Maragh.
NT
|