Slow Belmont

[rosewood]

I agree. It cost me,but at least Richiebee didn\'t have to endure another Borel post race sloberring episode...

[HP]

\"You could have put any NY based jockey on Mine That Bird and he would have had basically an identical trip/ride.\"

Now this I don\'t believe for a second...  I can\'t say for sure that the ride was the determining factor in MTB\'s performance...but I could see other jocks making different decisions for sure.  You can\'t put the whole NY jock colony in this box...that\'s a stretch.  

HP

[jmetro]

Given the history and circumstances just about every jockey has reacted the same way when on a stalking/closing favorite in the Belmont.  I\'m sure Stewart Elliott, and more so Kent Desormeaux, had ridden hundreds of times at Belmont, but it didn\'t prevent them from the same tactical error.

To say someone would have ridden him different also says they would have been willing to risk coming back to Woolley and saying \"sorry boss, I moved too late\", and on a one run, even money favorite that ain\'t happening.

[HP]

Ok.  You\'re right.  Every single jockey from A to Z would have done the same thing.

[jma11473]

In Bailey\'s defense, sort of tough to critique the ride BEFORE the race. And he\'s far from the only one criticizing it.

I don\'t think Mine that Bird had enough to hold off Summer Bird even with a better ride, but Borel thought he was much the best and rode like it. We\'ve seen it millions of times, just that 99% of them weren\'t on the national stage.

[Josephus]

I was sitting at the 1/8 pole and had the glasses on him.  The horse wasn\'t pulling, CB was riding him.  I was amazed at how close he was to this pace (for this distance).  Maybe he felt he couldn\'t be that far back of the bias.  I thought Dunkirk ran a great and unexpected type of race, and I was shocked to see CM open up so high and not really come down much at all, and compared to his Peter Pan he ran terrible.  Maybe the barn knew something in the last day or so and was downplaying him a bit so that he opened up so high.

[marcus]

Was wondering the same thing about Summer Bird - no races at 2  . The NY Sunday Daily News sports page reported Dunkirk with cramps after the race and said that he was able to walk back to the barn ...

[rosewood]

Don\'t want to spread a rumor;there was talk today that Dunkirk may have suffered a fracture. Haven\'t seen confirmed or denied; don\'t know how bad if it is indeed true.

[marcus]

Well I\'ll still at least take the Sunday report as a positive indicator . Personally I thought the track looked and played like CD a bit on Saturday . I can see imo how PIM gets the big sandy tag along with CRC , but Belmont ?

[Dudley]

rosewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don\'t want to spread a rumor;there was talk today
> that Dunkirk may have suffered a fracture. Haven\'t
> seen confirmed or denied; don\'t know how bad if it
> is indeed true.

Confirmed:

http://www.drf.com/news/article/104494.html