Garret Gomez sucks

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind

Now, on Hard Spun.....while the tactics were probably foolish, and his best chance ( not that he had any ) was perhaps to try and bottom out the field, do you honestly think Gomez made the decision to ride him that way? Highly unlikely.

http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-spb...,6977749.story

According to post-race comments Gomez made the decision.

Not that it would've mattered anyways.

[Dunbar]

Originally Posted by Pillow Pants

http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-spb...,6977749.story

According to post-race comments Gomez made the decision.

Not that it would've mattered anyways.

Interesting! Thanks for posting the link.

--Dunbar

[golfer]

"Others emerged frustrated from the Belmont, notably Larry Jones, who trains Hard Spun, second in the Kentucky Derby after setting a suicidal pace, and third in the Preakness, in which he was embroiled in unreasonably fast fractions and fourth yesterday with Garrett Gomez riding while never involved in the pace.

"The pace was very slow. I thought that was our game plan leaving the paddock: to have these kind of fractions but be in front doing it," Jones lamented. "Apparently, we had a miscommunication somewhere."

Gomez, who until yesterday was Rags to Riches' regular rider but committed to Hard Spun while Pletcher wrestled with the Belmont decision, saw the race differently.

"At the half-mile pole, I felt I was in a great spot," he said. "At the three-eighths pole, I thought I was money. When it was time for sprinting, he just didn't have the turn of foot the other two had."

This borderline proves that Gomez mailed in the ride. For him to say he thought he was money at the 3/8ths pole is ridiculous.
He still SUCKS!

[mclem10011]

I had to go do freakin laundry, so i missed Monmouth, how did your horses run?

[alysheba4]

Originally Posted by golfer

"Others emerged frustrated from the Belmont, notably Larry Jones, who trains Hard Spun, second in the Kentucky Derby after setting a suicidal pace, and third in the Preakness, in which he was embroiled in unreasonably fast fractions and fourth yesterday with Garrett Gomez riding while never involved in the pace.

"The pace was very slow. I thought that was our game plan leaving the paddock: to have these kind of fractions but be in front doing it," Jones lamented. "Apparently, we had a miscommunication somewhere."

Gomez, who until yesterday was Rags to Riches' regular rider but committed to Hard Spun while Pletcher wrestled with the Belmont decision, saw the race differently.

"At the half-mile pole, I felt I was in a great spot," he said. "At the three-eighths pole, I thought I was money. When it was time for sprinting, he just didn't have the turn of foot the other two had."

This borderline proves that Gomez mailed in the ride. For him to say he thought he was money at the 3/8ths pole is ridiculous.
He still SUCKS!

.........yeah, he is soooo bad. i cant believe the greatest trainers in america use him

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by golfer

"Others emerged frustrated from the Belmont, notably Larry Jones, who trains Hard Spun, second in the Kentucky Derby after setting a suicidal pace, and third in the Preakness, in which he was embroiled in unreasonably fast fractions and fourth yesterday with Garrett Gomez riding while never involved in the pace.

"The pace was very slow. I thought that was our game plan leaving the paddock: to have these kind of fractions but be in front doing it," Jones lamented. "Apparently, we had a miscommunication somewhere."

Gomez, who until yesterday was Rags to Riches' regular rider but committed to Hard Spun while Pletcher wrestled with the Belmont decision, saw the race differently.

"At the half-mile pole, I felt I was in a great spot," he said. "At the three-eighths pole, I thought I was money. When it was time for sprinting, he just didn't have the turn of foot the other two had."

This borderline proves that Gomez mailed in the ride. For him to say he thought he was money at the 3/8ths pole is ridiculous.
He still SUCKS!

If he's so bad then why is he on top of the national standings for the 2nd year in a row?

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

If he's so bad then why is he on top of the national standings for the 2nd year in a row?

Your tongue-in-cheek detector is awful.

[Cajungator26]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Your tongue-in-cheek detector is awful.

If it makes you feel any better, Joey, I thought his ride on Hard Spun was questionable as well. At least his record in the Belmont is better, though. Instead of having an 8th place finish aboard Bob and John as his best Belmont ride, he now has a 4th place finish on Hard Spun.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Cajungator26

If it makes you feel any better, Joey, I thought his ride on Hard Spun was questionable as well. At least his record in the Belmont is better, though. Instead of having an 8th place finish aboard Bob and John as his best Belmont ride, he now has a 4th place finish on Hard Spun.

After listening to Gary Steven's commentary on Thursday, I was convinced that Gomez would rate the horse. Stevens was saying that HS is kind of a head-strong horse and after seeing what happened in the Preaknesss and not wanting that to happen again, that Gomez would come out of the gate with a hold on the horse. The reason being that Gomez did not know whether anyone else would be gunning or not. If someone else did gun and Gomez came out of the gate asking the horse, then it would be too late to take back because HS is quite head-strong. So I think that GG made the decision to take back from the start. Once he saw how slow they were going, he could have let the horse take the lead, but I think that Gomez was happy that the horse was rating kindly and he thought that he could go by the two horses on the lead at any time. He knew it was a long race and he knew that the horses to beat were behind him, so he decided to sit tight.

Was it a mistake in hindsight? I would probably say yes. With a horse as fast as HS, if I knew I could get an easy lead in :49 3/5 or so, I would much rather do that than be sitting behind horses going :50. On the other hand, we don't know if those other two horses would have left GG alone on the lead in :49 3/5 if GG would have gone to the lead.

I'm sure that if GG knew that the other horses would have given him an easy lead in slow fractions, he would have been happy to take it.

Anyway, it was a tricky situation due to the fact that HS is head-strong. I don't think the ride cost the horse anything. I think he would have probably run 4th either way. I think that GG is the best rider in the country and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt due to the totality of the circumstances. I can certainly see why people would question the ride.

[ELA]

I guess after thinking about it more, Jones was more comfortable speaking his mind. He seemed to have a lot more to say about Gomez and his ride. I am not sure where the story, comments, etc. that I read come from, so I won't reprint them here without being able to quote the source. But to say the least, Jones was more outspoken about Gomez and his ride.

Eric

[cmorioles]

It is staggering to think Bob and John was actually favored in a Triple Crown race.

[Cajungator26]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

It is staggering to think Bob and John was actually favored in a Triple Crown race.

Agreed. He was quite the plug.

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by cmorioles

It is staggering to think Bob and John was actually favored in a Triple Crown race.

Is it really that hard to imagine? Think about that field...you had Bluegrass Cat whose form really didn't look that great and needed to validate his Derby runner-up finish after anything but an awe-inspiring spring. Sunriver could not have possibly been favored, Steppenwolfer was a plodder and so was Jazil. I didn't bet Bob and John, but I can see why he was favored- the field was awful. His Wood Memorial win was slow, but I think many chalked it up to the wet track that day.

I am a bit of a Stonerside Stable guy because of the hometown connection, but I don't agree that it was staggering to think that he was favored. Too bad Pointgiven1985 is not around anymore, he admitted to betting Bob and John in the Derby AND Belmont.

NT

[Bobby Fischer]

Originally Posted by gomez

When it was time for sprinting, he just didn't have the turn of foot the other two had."

I have to give him the benefit and assume that his words came out different than he meant.
He had to know Hard Spun wasn't going to out-kick anyone home in one run.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Bobby Fischer

I have to give him the benefit and assume that his words came out different than he meant.
He had to know Hard Spun wasn't going to out-kick anyone home in one run.

What do you mean? Come-from-behinders with great late kicks get beat all the time when there is a slow pace. They often can't catch the front runners. The front runners don't necessarily need a huge lead either. If you have a good front runner and he has a 1-2 length lead at the top of the stretch and the pace is really slow, there is a good chance that the come-from-behinders will not be able to out-kick him.

If I'm riding Hard Spun and I can take the lead at the 3/8 pole or the quarter pole after running 6 furlongs in 1:16, I would think that I would be very hard to catch. Don't get me wrong, with a horse like HS, I'd rather have a 5 length lead in 1:14 than a 1-2 length lead in 1:16, but either way I would think that I would be hard to catch.

[Cajungator26]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

What do you mean? Come-from-behinders with great late kicks get beat all the time when there is a slow pace. They often can't catch the front runners. The front runners don't necessarily need a huge lead either. If you have a good front runner and he has a 1-2 length lead at the top of the stretch and the pace is really slow, there is a good chance that the come-from-behinders will not be able to out-kick him.

If I'm riding Hard Spun and I can take the lead at the 3/8 pole or the quarter pole after running 6 furlongs in 1:16, I would think that I would be very hard to catch.

Perhaps hard to catch, but I highly doubt that a front runner would be 'sprinting' towards the end. If anything, he probably would have been hanging on for the win, don't you think? I liked Hard Spun to win, so I was a bit frustrated when I saw what was happening, but he looked pretty damn tired to me regardless. IF he was on the front end setting slow fractions like that, I still doubt he would have sped up very much at the end.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Cajungator26

Perhaps hard to catch, but I highly doubt that a front runner would be 'sprinting' towards the end. If anything, he probably would have been hanging on for the win, don't you think? I liked Hard Spun to win, so I was a bit frustrated when I saw what was happening, but he looked pretty damn tired to me regardless. IF he was on the front end setting slow fractions like that, I still doubt he would have sped up very much at the end.

If you look at most of his races, I think HS usually improves his position from the 3/8 pole to the wire. He's not some front runner who has a 5 length lead at the half-mile pole and then barely holds on.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Cajungator26

Perhaps hard to catch, but I highly doubt that a front runner would be 'sprinting' towards the end. If anything, he probably would have been hanging on for the win, don't you think? I liked Hard Spun to win, so I was a bit frustrated when I saw what was happening, but he looked pretty damn tired to me regardless. IF he was on the front end setting slow fractions like that, I still doubt he would have sped up very much at the end.

Even in the Derby, after setting incredibly fast fractions, HS out-kicked the entire field(with the exception of SS) from the 3/8 pole to the wire. HS had around a 2-3 length lead at the 3/8 pole and by the time they came to the 1/16th pole, he had a 5 length lead on everyone except for SS.

If you look at most of his other races, he puts the most daylight on the field in the stretch, not early in the race.

[Bobby Fischer]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

What do you mean? Come-from-behinders with great late kicks get beat all the time when there is a slow pace. They often can't catch the front runners. The front runners don't necessarily need a huge lead either. If you have a good front runner and he has a 1-2 length lead at the top of the stretch and the pace is really slow, there is a good chance that the come-from-behinders will not be able to out-kick him.

If I'm riding Hard Spun and I can take the lead at the 3/8 pole or the quarter pole after running 6 furlongs in 1:16, I would think that I would be very hard to catch. Don't get me wrong, with a horse like HS, I'd rather have a 5 length lead in 1:14 than a 1-2 length lead in 1:16, but either way I would think that I would be hard to catch.

It comes down to the individual horses.
Take a horse like Hard Spun for example. He isn't really a sprinter. His strength is his high cruising speed and his pedigree. He can breeze faster than this others and for most of the race. When asked to go slower for the whole race he doesn't benefit any positional advantage from his cruising speed, he doesn't really save that much more energy, and he doesn't have turn of foot to kick home fast.

Now a slow pace would on the other hand help a sprinter type. It would generally hurt a closer. When everyone is within a few lengths and no one has momentum, it is all about position and turn of foot.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Bobby Fischer

It comes down to the individual horses.
Take a horse like Hard Spun for example. He isn't really a sprinter. His strength is his high cruising speed and his pedigree. He can breeze faster than this others and for most of the race. When asked to go slower for the whole race he doesn't benefit any positional advantage from his cruising speed, he doesn't really save that much more energy, and he doesn't have turn of foot to kick home fast.

Now a slow pace would on the other hand help a sprinter type. It would generally hurt a closer. When everyone is within a few lengths and no one has momentum, it is all about position and turn of foot.

You may be right. HS may in fact be the type of horse who runs his best race going a little faster and letting everyone else get tired while they chase him, like in the Derby.