ROTW

[analizethis]

Jerry/Alan

What is the race of the week? One of the Candian races?

Thanks.

[TGJB]

Canadian International.

[trackjohn]

Absolute awful trip on the #5...was stopped inside the 1/8th pole, Garcia drops him back to last, then wheels him out into the 8 path, closes and misses by less than 3/4 of a length...curious ride to say the least!!

John

[drbillym]

Analysis was good, race fractions just came up poorly.  I don\'t blame Garcia who probably had instructions to sit off the pace.  Good horse, good bet, that\'s horse racing.

[Rick B.]

I have to give TG credit for a great call on Al Khali, who was clearly the best in the race.

Maybe TG could invent an \"Alan Garcia Brain Fart\" scale, so that we can adjust his horses accordingly:

~AG: lose 1-2 lengths
+AG: lose 3-4 lengths

That effort was definitely a \"+AG\". Pathetic.

[jbelfior]

They pretty much all had those instructions. He has butchered him twice. Will 3 times convince you?

Good Luck,
Joe B

[Bigredgoer]

Absolutely agree...horrific ride in a $2mil race...Garcia looked like he had no idea where to place him once they turned for home..good analysis in a tough race..hate to lose that way

[jimbo66]

The only solace I take is that while I am 99% sure Garcia cost me some money, he cost himself about 120k with that horrific ride.

[drbillym]

I have watched the replay a couple times, and you are right.  Horrible ride not moving sooner in such a slow pace.  Still love the horse, tho.

[miff]

American turfers a joke with 2-3rd string euros taking their lunch money all day.ROTW run too slowly for any trip to be too relevant.


Mike

[Rick B.]

miff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> American turfers a joke with 2-3rd string euros
> taking their lunch money all day.ROTW run too
> slowly for any trip to be too relevant.
>
>
> Mike

Mike,

I hear what you are saying, but if Garcia tips out for running room in the upper stretch *immediately*, instead of stubbornly trying to stay inside and trying to bull through a hole that doesn\'t exist, Al Khali likely wins for fun. I\'ve seen Garcia do this a few too many times now to write his trip off as irrelevant; he f*cked up, plain and simple. I\'m getting tired of him burning up my cash.

IMO the N. American horses in the race were competitive and capable; their jocks, not so much. They got snookered into that dawdling pace by their Euro brothers; that ain\'t the horse\'s fault.

[jack72906]

Garcia clearly cost him the race and many of us a lot (or a little) of money. Awful ride.

The good news is that maybe we\'ll get a decent price the next time he runs.

[FrankD.]

miff,

No one can argue the dominant euro turf theory at all but come on with irrelevant ?

Garcia was thinking ( or not ) he could go through 3 tiers of Grade 1 and 2 horses in a $ 2,000,000.00 race !!!

Horrible ride on a horse that gets beat 3/4 of a length for it all.

Interesting thought, what if Desormeaux comes to Canada to ride this one for Mott providing he doesn\'t have a glass of wine the night before ?

[miff]

Frank D,

Trips in VERY slow races are irrelevant.Also saying the ride(if you watch the race carefully) was kinda forced with them crawling most of the way.Lots of rave for a horse that did ZERO running for the first 10f on a turf course that was kind to horses coming from way back.

He would have most likely won if got inside/out off the last turn, but Garcia decided to stay inside too long waiting for a seam.That turned out to be wrong, in retrospect.When the rider stays inside and a path opens, it\'s a great ride, when a path doesn\'t open,the rider is a bum.

Mike

[Rick B.]

miff Wrote:

> When the rider stays inside and a path opens, it\'s a great ride, when a
> path doesn\'t open,the rider is a bum.
>
> Mike

OK, then what is it when the rider *knows* he\'s sitting on a ton of late-running racehorse and needs room to run, but has no other strategy for winning than staying inside and hoping for a path to magically open?

What, Mike -- are you saying Garcia gave Al Khali an acceptable ride, and is not to blame at all for a disappointing 4th place finish???

The \"nothing was open on the inside\" excuse is wonderful if you are trying to NOT win, but I can\'t possibly level that allegation against Garcia -- that implies forethought, or some semblance of an actual riding game plan.

Garcia was on a mental vacation out there yesterday. I don\'t believe we are being overly critical of his ride, and I\'ll wager that Mott doesn\'t use Garcia on Al Khali anymore -- yes, it was *that* bad.