Belmont at Saratoga
- Thread starter bdroc
- Start date
Maggie is the best as she has so much in-depth knowledge of the horses. I just love it when she smokes the professional gamblers with her picks
Can anyone who is familiar with horse racing explain to me why Mindframe went wide down the home stretch? Something looked really fishy about that to me.
2024 Belmont Stakes
2024 Belmont Stakes
Inexperienced horse. And horses are not the brightest animals on the planet.
Watch again and take notice of which hand the jockey is using to apply to crop. He has a very heavy left-handed crop going on and therefore the horse veers to the right. Then notice the Jockey switching hands and starts the crop on the right side and it straightens him out. IMO, that Jockey should be fired.
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Any thoughts that it was intentional by that jockey?
I don't know much about horse racing, so I wasn't sure if it was incompetence or intentional on the jockey's part.
Nobody's firing Irad Ortiz. Any trainer would fight over him to ride their horses. You're dealing with animals that weigh half a ton and have a brain the size of a baseball. Ortiz is one of the best jockeys in the country and has been for over a decade. Sometimes racehorses do squirrely stuff and as mentioned the horse was lightly raced and has a lucrative future ahead. I once had money on a horse that when the gate opened just stood there. The rider couldn't get him to move. Typical of a horse that I would bet but that's racing.
www.drf.com
2024 Belmont Stakes: Mindframe's inexperience proves costly in stretch
After watching Mindframe stick his head in front of Dornoch in early stretch, one couldn’t blame trainer Todd Pletcher, owner Mike Repole, and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. for thinking they were on their way to winning Saturday’s historic, first-ever Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course...
www.drf.com
He misjudged his horse. It looks like he gave one or possibly two extra left hands too many and the horse reacted by going right. That jockey is one of the best in the business but he apparently (IMO) didn't know that particular horse very well. If I'm that Trainer, he would never ride Mindframe again, but I am not the Trainer and this is JMO.
It would be hard for anyone to know the horse well because he was in his 3rd lifetime start after winning his first two by double digit lengths over far weaker competition. He'd never been in a battle for the lead. This is the chance you take when you enter a lightly raced horse in a triple crown race and I'm sure Pletcher is well aware of that.
I understand you are familiar with the front side of a racetrack, but have you ever been on the backside of the track? That is where is training is being done and when jockeys will actually ride the horse and get to know them. Mindframe has been training on the track, whether the main track or the practice track many, many times.
How many mounts do you think Ortiz takes in a week that he has time to ride a certain horse in morning breezes at Gulfstream when he has a five ride card at Aqueduct the same day? They have exercise riders for that on the backside.
The horse in question has won almost a half a million dollars in three starts, two wins and a 2nd, all under Ortiz. He's not doing too bad. He led North America in wins and earnings for like four of the last five years and you want to fire the guy off a mount. Be my guest.
The horse in question has won almost a half a million dollars in three starts, two wins and a 2nd, all under Ortiz. He's not doing too bad. He led North America in wins and earnings for like four of the last five years and you want to fire the guy off a mount. Be my guest.
Since you haven't answered my question, I assume you've never been on the backside of a track to actually see what happens every morning. What is it that you think Jockey's do in the morning? Sleep in late?
New question for you. If you were the owner or the trainer would you be happy with the ride Ortiz made in the Belmont?
I have for decades, and the thing everyone knows is this, you can never predict how a horse will react. They go from left brain to right brain in a millisecond. Sh&t happens.
Believe me when I say this, the most ill mannered and unpredictable horses are the ones that come off the track. They're as bad as buckle bunny horses at the rodeo.
Yes I've been on the backside of a racetrack, which is irrelevant to the argument. A guy like Irad Ortiz is not going all over the place to ride a horse for "feel" in the morning. He has paying races to ride in other parts of the country, almost every day. This is why barns have exercise riders.
Mindframe didn't even win his 2nd race till May 24 at Gulfstream, two weeks ago. Had he lost, Pletcher wouldn't have even taken him to Saratoga for the Belmont. Why would any established rider waste time and risk injury hanging around waiting to breeze him 4 furlongs on an empty track before that? For what purpose? Should he be riding all Pletcher's other horses in the morning too that he has contracted to ride? How about the other trainers he's obligated to ride for?
Maybe if the horse is stabled where Ortiz happens to be riding on a certain meet he gets on for a morning work, fine. It's still just for conditioning and not meant to simulate a live race against other horses on the track. The horse never had competition in the last sixteenth of a mile on a track he never raced at before like he did Saturday and horses do crazy things sometimes independent of the inputs by the rider, no matter how good he or she is.
Yes, if I were Pletcher I'd be happy with the ride. Second paid $360K. Horse was an invader who was lightly raced and went toe-to-toe with two other Triple Crown winners and beat them both. You want to argue, fine. I don't. I'll take Irad Ortiz the rest of the year and you take whoever you want. Here's a better question, who would you rather have had on Mindframe if you were Pletcher?
I believe you because I was a groom on the track for several years working for several Trainers. I know exactly what type of training a horse goes through to prepare for a race.
