Gemologist: won the April 7 Wood in impressive fashion,
taking the lead into the stretch and
holding off a run by fellow Derby entrant Alpha to win by a neck.
Trainer: “I would think there is going to be enough speed in here that (Gemologist) is going to be just behind that first wave of speed horses," Pletcher said. "
He’s the kind of horse that will adapt to that well.
That’s when it becomes a rider’s race. All the jockeys will have to be aware of how fast they are going and how close you want to be to it. Hopefully (Castellano) has that clock in his head.”
Kerry Thomas observations:
Quote:
Gemologist is a very interesting horse. His natural pattern of motion is to move another horse, and not just by presence. He wants to move the other horses physically. Gemologist wants to get up in the other horse’s grill and make that horse know he is there. That’s a very high dynamic, but unfortunately it’s not the optimum efficiency.
He was waiting on Alpha in the Wood Memorial, because that’s his game. He really feeds off close contact. He seeks to target and make contact with another horse in his space. That will cause him to lose focus when he is on the lead. He clearly lost some of his forward motion while waiting to engage Alpha.
Gemologist has a good group dynamic and he can handle a lot of stimulus. If he finds himself in the herd early in the race, he should be OK. He’s certainly a high-level horse, and he’s very bullish into space.
Once he has the lead, I’d like to see more of a sense of urgency to move forward, instead of hunting backward. Gemologist has delayed release points. A horse that moves horses with presence has a faster target and release than a horse that wants to do so physically.
[ My interpretation of this is that Gemologist likes to physically intimidate with his presence, and stops to point it out, rather than mentally intimidate by confidence catching up with then just speed passing another horses ]
Gemologist is not going to be the only one wanting to battle for space in this Derby. He is a high-level horse, but I worry that he could get so engaged with individual battles, he could lose awareness of the larger herd, the race.
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Here is John Lyons working an experienced horse in a round pen, just by using his body motion from the center of the pen. That's what horses do to each other in a herd (horse race) - they get in the space of others using body language, they take space using body language, they run down other horses, they pass them, or refuse to be dominant and refuse to pass, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXGLMEpXAr0&fmt=35