Mario o' Mario, please go back to Maryland o' Mario!

[the_fat_man]

Originally Posted by philcski

The speed duel that Pino (and the rest of us) had likely anticipated never really materialized.

Yeah, that's twice in a row that Go Go Shoot has gotten the jump on Accredit. Must be a conspiracy of some sort.

Hard to clearly tell on the web replay but it appears that Go Go Shoot is on lefty lead on the BS. (He's a short and low strider.)
And it took him till very late stretch to change to righty lead. Which means that he might've gone almost the entire race lefty. Which makes his performance all the more impressive.

Then again, if Pino gets through ......

[MaTH716]

Mario gets stuck on the rail again in the 3rd. Looks like he had some horse, should of definatley hit the board.

[golfer]

Originally Posted by MaTH716

Mario gets stuck on the rail again in the 3rd. Looks like he had some horse, should of definatley hit the board.

I thought I was watching a replay of the other race. Should have hit the board is putting it mildly. Gold and Blue Box is driving me nuts (and to the poorhouse).

[Travis Stone]

It was an absolutely horrendous ride.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

It was an absolutely horrendous ride.

Here's the problem, at least as I see it.....Pino was told when he came here to stick to the inside if possible, as clearly that has been the correct approach for most of the inner meet. So, he is trying to do the right thing, but what he is really doing is overthinking it, and not really race riding. He did everything right on this horse until the stretch.....he rode patiently, got outside the jammed inside horse on the turn without needlessly losing ground, and then he got himself in a jackpot and decided to head inside. However, his other option was to steady and alter course around Boggy Creek Dancer. While in retrospect I guess that would have been a better move he might have been heroic had his actual decision worked out.

Now, in watching this race a few times, I honestly believe the horse didn't have that much anyway, but that's somewhat subjective. Now, maybe his recent bad trips have been a succession of unlucky breaks, or maybe he's just one of those horses that always ends up looking like he had trouble. However, horseplayers go broke following good money after bad with horses like this. Look at it this way, if he had somehow gotten clear today, and even won, he would have accomplished it with a perfect trip.....and we would be looking to bet against him next time. Instead, he will be on everyone's ( well, not mine ) " horses to bet back " list, and will be way overbet.

I'm no great fan of Pino......but I'm also no fan of this horse.

[blackthroatedwind]

Let me also say that considering the incredible ineptitude we have witnessed on the inner this year, I would rather have a guy trying to do the right thing than so many of the " just go where they aint " rides I have seen.

Keep this in mind.......Taylor Hole is the second most reliable rider out there right now.

[blackthroatedwind]

Another thing is that people far too often focus on blatant trouble in the stretch and downplay, or even miss, early trouble that results in horses losing significant postion that is often far more detrimental to their chances.

There's an interesting example of this in tomorrow's third race at Aqueduct. That'srightofficer, who has the comment line " rallied into stretch ", actually had significant, but much subtler trouble, in his last race. Now, he was greatly overshadowed by the crazy effort the winner of the race put in, despite CC Lopez's ineptitude, but he clearly should have been second in the race. His rider, Norberto Arroyo, was also punished for trying to do the right thing, for which I don't fault him. He simply got skunked. But, nobody is talking about his trip because it didn't happen right in front of everyone's eyes.