Quote:
Originally Posted by Alabama Stakes
Cmon rock head . Point given shoulda won the triple crown if not for gary Stevens impatient rock head head ride in the derby . Didn't he destroy most fields he ever faced .its a little early for that comparison
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We had this discussion once before. If a jock either moves a little too soon or is a little too close to the pace, and he ends up getting beat by a length or two, you can make a case that maybe he should have won. But when a horse gets blown off the track by 12 lengths, it's pretty absurd to say the jock cost him the race. Stevens was sitting about 8 lengths back. There were other horses who were much closer to the fast pace, who finished far in front of him. So to say he should have won is absurd.
That reminds me of Jack Van Berg claiming that Alysheba should have won the Belmont. He got beat by about 14 lengths, yet Van Berg claims that if he would have been on the lead, instead of sitting just off the lead, that he would have won. It's absurd.
Horses are not machines. They don't fire every time. When a horse loses by 12 lengths to the same horses he normally beats, there is practically zero chance that it was because of the ride, unless we are talking about some extreme trouble, or some insane suicide pace. I mean if a horse who normally goes the half in :47, runs the half in :44 4/5 in a 1 1/4 mile race, that could conceivably cost a horse 12 lengths. But sitting 8 lengths back, instead of 12 lengths back, is not going to cost you 12 lengths. It may cost you a couple of lengths but not 10 or 12 lengths. I have no idea why Point Given ran so bad in the Ky Derby, but it sure as hell was not because of the ride. The ride might have cost him 2-3 lengths.
A more feasible excuse of why Point Given didn't fire was the condition of the track. He probably just didn't like it. That track was rock hard and lightning fast that day. On a normal Ky Derby track if they run 2:02 in the Derby, that is typically a pretty good time. The year we are talking about, Monarchos ran 1:59 3/5. Monarchos is not Secretariat. That track was obviously at least a second or two faster than normal. When you have a track like that, not every horse is going to like it or handle it. I think Baffert even said that he didn't think the horse really handled the track that day.