Mike Smith

[drbillym]

Kent and Calvin were interviewed together on the NBC pre race show-they are friends-and I don\'t think they have a lot of love for Julien, who comes down to Kentucky and wins all those races.  So I think it is not inconceivable that they jointly decided that pinching him off at the start would make it tough on the most likely winner.  I am not usually a conspiracy theorist, and my dough was on Dullahn, but watching the head on raises that question.
Now, that said, I do think Julien totally screwed up by not immediately taking UR to the outside and letting him run. Other horses have circled the field and won-Gato Del Sol, for example.  If you are the best, you gotta go for it and not hope the rail opens up.  So I would not be surprised to see a jockey switch, Garrett Gomez would be perfect.

[MonmouthGuy]

I agree with all of this, and think that if UR had gotten Gemologist\'s (who I unfortunately pounded at the tote) trip, he would have been right there in the stretch.

[analizethis]

So who is the new jock on UR because he looks like the current year\'s copy of Lookin At Lucky.

Ran wide to get beat after running the better number in the BC Juv (both favs), comes out in the first start as a three year old and runs a big race (LAL was a top; UR a pair), has an off race/tough trip in his last prep, has a disaster trip in the KD, the jock gets replaced and he runs to win the Preakness and the Haskell. Also, as proven by the Classic, maybe he never did really want to go 1 1/4 miles anyway.