Ride on Normandy Invasion

[ninetoone]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Orb ran 2:02 4/5. Does that mean he's not a special horse? Did he need to run 2:02 flat to be a special horse?

I don't understand your logic at all. By the way, I think it is totally irrelevant how good of a horse NI is. That is not relevant to the conversation at all. What a jockey is supposed to do is to position his horse and to ride his horse in a way as to maximize that horse's finish position in the race. It doesn't matter how good the horse is. Just put the horse in the spot that will maximize his finish. That was not done with this horse.

I guess if you are a jockey and you are on a 1-9 shot that you think is the best by 10 lengths, then I could see some situations where making a premature move might make sense if you were in danger of otherwise getting boxed in. But Javy was not on a 1-9 shot and he was not in danger of getting boxed in.

I'll try this one last way. If NI manages to run that race in 2:02 3/5, he wins by a small margin, right?

Now are you saying that it's impossible that a horse that's not Secretariat could have done that, given his position at 6F? At a mile? If so, I disagree.

My contention is that JC didn't so much misjudge the pace as he did the ability of the horse under him.

I realize I'm in the minority here...no hard feelings though, I'm wearing my big boy pants tonight