They wanted to tar and feather Jerry Bailey because he opted to try and put a little bit of early pressure on Smarty Jones with Eddington of all horses.
I suppose Bailey must have re-watched the film of Touch Gold's Belmont win where McCarron had challenged Silver Charm early - backed off right away - and came again to wear him down in the stretch. Bailey should have known that what works with a tactically gifted horse like Touch Gold would not work with a grinding plodder like Eddington ... but still, the Smarty Jones fans acted as if Bailey pulled out a crow bar and went Tonya Harding on Smarty Jones.
The real thing that hurt SJ and helped Birdstone in that race - was the insanely pre-mature inside move Rock Hard Ten made. SJ got a very serious mid-race challenge from a fairly good horse. Friggen Bailey getting Eddington to breath on SJ for a few seconds was so overblown.
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