Charismatic

[Silver Charm]

Pretty good show last nite on ESPN. Well done and covered two stories. The horse and the Jock.

Sad story about Chris Antley. Remember when he went a season with like a winner for about 60 days in a row. Was riding double cards at Belmont and Meadowlands going for the Wins record and then crashed and burned.....

I bet Charismatic in the Lexington Stakes at 12-1 with an explosive looking line. Stood on the saw horse at the Lukas barn one Derby Week morning with \"The King\" himself, the Lewis\'s and TWO reporters and heard Wayne say DONT discount this horses chances!! I promptly threw him out figuring he would Bounce coming in off a Top Race Fig of a 3,.....UGH!!!

Three years ago at dinner \"The King\" told me both Jerry Bailey and Pat Day came by after the Lexington and said \"Run this horse because he is THE WINNER\"..... Wayne Bet Out on the horse....The rest is history at 35-1!

[covelj70]

Silver, great story.  Absolutely love this. Thx

[Silver Charm]

Cove,

Bailey had ridden the horse in the Lexington Stakes but Bailey was committed or under a pre-paid contract with The Sheik\'s to ride Worldly Manner in the Derby. He got Bailey for the lexington because he was the best guy around, it was a one race committment and the horse needed earnings.

Day was on the runnerup in the Lexington and said \"I know what I saw when he blew by me\". Day was also already riding Cat Thief in the Derby.

The deal with Antley was even though he was questionable off the Track he was in Wayne\'s words, \"Ice Water\' under pressure on the back of a horse. The instructions were simple, not the standard at the 5/16ths pole or 3/8ths pole, do this, do that, etc etc.....but instead when you get to the Track Kitchen on the far turn, essentially the 3/8ths Pole, set him down and CLIMB ALL OVER this horse.

[alm]

Great story, but Charismatic reminded me of a filly I had that couldn\'t finish on the board in cheap claimers in Florida...my trainer brought her to Kentucky one spring and first out she paid $30 in a high claimer at Turfway.  I asked him what was going on and he said simply, I can use a lot more \'stuff\' here.

So when Charismatic \'woke up\' at Keeneland and won the Derby and Preakness, I assumed it was about a lot more \'stuff.\'  At the time I was betting in the lounge at Los Alamitos and there were a lot of friends around....on Belmont day I predicted the horse would break down.  Everyone looked at me like I was crazy....they were looking for a Triple Crown or a bounce, but how do you predict a breakdown?

I figured this horse, running under much  tougher drug rules in NYC, would still try, but would feel the pain for the first time in a month and take a misstep.  That happened.  I wasn\'t happy.

[jma11473]

It\'s too bad Lukas didn\'t maintain this alleged view of Antley being \"ice water\" when he blamed him for Charismatic not winning the Triple Crown. Guess he\'d changed his mind by then.

[FrankD.]

Did u watch the show

D. Wayne wanted to remove Antley the day before the Belmont because he was supposedly up to old habits with old NY friends the entire week before the Belmont !!!!

He went to Bob Lewis and asked if he could replace Antley

Frank D.

[Silver Charm]

Well said Frank! There were other Riders Pre-Derby being mentioned....one was a resurgent Laffit Pincay.

They knew what they wanted apparently because Antley was \"under the radar\" and if you examine the trip the horse was up fairly close and 4-5 wide the whole way....and out of trouble.

He used Renee Douglas several years back in the Belmont when he beat Skip Away on one of those Cat horses who was a total headcase because he was \"STRONG RIDER\" who would pound the horse home if he needed it which he usually did.