Supposedly Flavien Prat is taking the mount on Hot Rod Charlie over Preakness winner Rombauer...at least, according to Doug O'Neill.
I'm a bit surprised at that. Interestingly, both horses have had a new rider for nearly every start.
I think the last time a jockey got off a classic winner in its next start was when Calvin Borel wisely got off Derby winner Mine That Bird to ride Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness.
That also might be the last time a jockey with a choice in a big race picked the right horse to ride, too...
The musical riders thing is pretty annoying. Although, sometimes we get some karmic gems, like in 2007 when geniuses Larry Jones and Rick Porter dumped Mario Pino for not being able to make the confirmed frontrunner Hard Spun morph into a late-running closer in the Preakness, just 2 weeks after setting a fast pace in the Derby. They had decided (without consulting the horse) that Hard Spun should be "several lengths" off the pace in the Preakness and Pino couldn't get it done. So they hired Garrett Gomez to ride him back in the Belmont.
At the eleventh hour, Todd Pletcher tossed Kentucky Oaks winner, Rags To Riches--also a half sister to the previous Belmont winner, the mighty Jazil--into the Belmont, much to the chagrin of Gomez, who was her regular rider. Jones wouldn't let him out of his commitment to Hard Spun (another genius move by Jones), leaving the mount on the eventual winner open for Pletcher's main rider John Velazquez. Gomez dutifully took Hard Spun off the pace in the Belmont (by strangling him throughout), even though the race is often kind to front-running types under the right conditions. He was a distant 4th, after placing in the other 2 classics under Pino.
Of course, after the Belmont Jones and Porter cried relentlessly, claiming that they had wanted Hard Spun on the lead all along. Once they stopped being clever, they gave the mount back to Pino and the colt won the only Grade 1 of his career (in a sprint no less) and finished second in the BC Classic.
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