JOCKEYS & The Belmont Stakes

[Travis Stone]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

I think the jockey to focus on besides obvious Desormeaux might be Eibar Coa on Tale of Ekati.

Coa is the most ruthless rider in New York - and if Kent or Alan Garcia are passive early, he might be in much of the same situation with ToE that Gomez was in last year with Hard Spun.

If that happens, it will be interesting to see if he decides to make an easy lead or if his sole focus becomes to race ride Big Brown.

Big Brown is a long striding horse and you want to take him out of his comfort zone just as Gomez did to Curlin by boxing him in behind a crawl last year.

I think the other riders will do a great job if they can box Big Brown in behind a slow pace and get his face a little dirty. BB has never really had dirt kicked in his face before in any of his races.

The worst case for BB is Da Tara makes the lead and Coa covers both of them up with Tale of Ekati. If Da Tara runs out of horse - and you have a rail to your left and Coa to your right - neither one will give you an inch.

I think this sums it up fairly well.

You know these jocks are going to do what they can to make things difficult for Big Brown. If that means boxing-in, throwing dirt etc., they'll do it.

Plus, if Big Brown makes the lead, one-by-one they'll take their shot. This scenario is what I expected with Casino Drive.

Da Tara is just another horse with speed, which doesn't help, but Tale of Ekati is a horse with some ability to make things difficult for BB, at least for a little bit.