Pacific Classic

[sekrah]

#1 Don Cavallo.

Coming off big effort but perfect rest into this, 1w1w lock. value at 8-1.   Rail/Speed looking good to me.

[jbelfior]

That\'s a great job by Martin Pedroza on Jeronimo. Let\'s break to the lead from the inside and then strangle him back to 8th in a race with zero pace.

Hey can I just get a fair ride. Third still gets me a nice score. Horse is 5  lengths better than Stately Victor.
 
Good Luck,
Joe B

[P-Dub]

jbelfior Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That\'s a great job by Martin Pedroza on Jeronimo.
> Let\'s break to the lead from the inside and then
> strangle him back to 8th in a race with zero
> pace.
>
> Hey can I just get a fair ride. Third still gets
> me a nice score. Horse is 5  lengths better than
> Stately Victor.
>  
> Good Luck,
> Joe B

Bad luck that Mike Smith didn\'t ride your horse.  He gave it his all nosing out Chantal for 3rd.

[SoCalMan2]

jbelfior Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That\'s a great job by Martin Pedroza on Jeronimo.
> Let\'s break to the lead from the inside and then
> strangle him back to 8th in a race with zero
> pace.
>
> Hey can I just get a fair ride. Third still gets
> me a nice score. Horse is 5  lengths better than
> Stately Victor.
>  
> Good Luck,
> Joe B

Pedroza may have given Jeranimo a bad ride but I do not think it is fair to say his mount was 5 lengths better than the 3rd place finisher.  

The betting crowd viewed them as roughly equally likely candidates, and, I, for one, thought Stately Victor looked very good going into the race (and certainly better than Jeranimo).

Stately Victor always runs excellent figures on Poly Track.  Only Jeranimo\'s two tops on the Santa Anita turf course (2 out of 20 lifetime efforts) are good enough to beat Stately Victor\'s multiple repeated tops on the relevant surface of the day (5 out of 6 lifetime efforts on poly track (and the one not good enough was a very nice two year old top)). To me, Stately Victor clearly looked primed to finally move forward as a 4 yo which made him a top contender (although not quite as good as Acclamation). Jeranimo, on the other hand, is a 5 year old who cannot seem to break through to the top level unless he is running on the Santa Anita turf course (I suspect his Pro Ride numbers are pretty good for that surface, but, notwithstanding how good they are, they still are not as good as Stately Victor\'s usual poly track effort). Pedroza may have done you a disservice (I was not looking at Jeranimo during the running of the race, so I cannot really say) but I do not think it is fair to say his mount was 5 lengths better than the legitimate 3rd place finisher.

[jbelfior]

I thought the pace scenario favored Jeranimo over SV. In visualizing the race, I thought Jeranimo could be on an easy lead from the inside with Acclamation stalking from the 4-5 path or vice versa. Either way, I expected a soft pace which at 1 1/4, regardless of surface, gives the 2 a huge advanatage.

Pedroza broke him well and he could have taken an easy lead into the first turn as PVal did not appear to be in any hurry. My question is why give up that advantage while fighting your mount who was not rank. Take a look at the replay.

Good Luck,
Joe B.

[TGJB]

Because they were concerned about the distance, probably.

[Caradoc]

Maybe, as was I before I noticed how well Jeranimo had run in the 10f Santa Anita Handicap last year, pairing his top at that point.

It was an odd rider choice in any event, as Pedroza never seems to be comfortable over a route.  As revealed by the TG jockey stats, there is a significant difference in his win percentages in sprints as compared to routes.  Gomez was available, as was Talamo after Drysdale withdrew Bourbon Bay.  Either of those would have been a better choice.

[Ill-bred]

U definitely got a bad ride from Pedroza, who must have misjudged the early pace. An inside stalking trip from 4th was there for him, but he choked his mount backward, terrible move.

That being said the horse didn\'t show much, did he?

[jbelfior]

Not after that.  Can\'t measure what the choke down did to him mentally or physically . I was looking for a fair ride. The rest would have been my fault.
I agree with Jerry\'s thoughts that connections were probably concerned with the distance. Taking a horse out of its game won\'t get it done; getting a competent rider can.

Good Luck,
Joe B.