If by 'Wednesday', you mean the 11th, and Pu Dew, I can't tell what he did wrong.

As for today's 1st: is it his fault, or the stewards, that Maragh, in the 3 path, decides to come in a path going into the turn, and squeezes him? This happens a few times a day, at every track, and the stewards, at some point, will realize that it's as dangerous as anything else that can happen on the track and will start fining jocks for not keeping a straight path entering the turn. Someday, it just might happen. There were a couple of blatant cases of this (squeezes into the rail on the turn) at TAM last week; I mean, these were so ****in brutal that it's a wonder the horse/jock didn't go down; and the stewards did **** about it. However, it's good to know that should a jock (other than Castellano or Sutherland) drift a half lane or so in the stretch, the stewards will be there for the takedown.

Dominguez is one of the best on the front end in a turf route - maybe the best. Other than that he is a solid jockey, he is classy and seems fairly smart, not the most physically gifted jockey in the world, more of a finesse and brains type.

You take a real risk jamming horses between horses in traffic, especially when you are on super logical horses that don't need to get lucky to win. Dominguez does this too often in my opinion. He did it with PU Dew and never was clear to be able to run. I have no idea what his plan was in today's opener. The winner was the lone speed, but he had the speed to stay close, yet left unaggressively and literally begged the others to shut him off. They obliged. Now, he may not have had any horse anyway, but I still thought it was a surprisingly amateurish ride.

Don't get me wrong, Dominguez is a very good rider, not as good as some people think, but overall he is very smart and capable. But, getting overexcited by his performance at Aqueduct, where he gets his choice of mounts in basically every race, and the overall colony isn't great, is to not see the whole picture. Sometimes he makes the mistake of riding overconfidently and gets into unnecessary jackpots.

I disagree. He consistently whips the horse in the run through the stretch and the headon shows that he does have a clear run with more than enough time to gain; if he had horse, which he didn't.

You and I have a basic disagreement. You think horses will always run between horses if given room and I simply do not.

We'll have plenty of more races to critique his performance if this report that he's coming to NY on a full-time basis is correct:

http://www.delawareonline.com/articl...44/1002/SPORTS

My focus is on the horses that are able to run on after encountering trouble, or run well against race dynamics; and there are certainly quite of few of them.

Of course, the '*****' horse will, at some point, get everything its own way and win. The game is like that.

The backing of a barn like Steve Asmussen was probably the final addition to the case that RD needed to stay in NY. If Asmussen uses Dominguez 1st call then Bridgmohan can stay away from Saratoga.

Trainers getting away from riders they've used for an extended period can wreck one's business. Look at Channing Hill, he's barely making ends meet without Hushion.

NT

Hill really needs to spend more time in the weight room. Riding like a girl in the lane just doesn't get it done. He has, however, provided me with much entertainment as some of his out of control, wide stretch runs are just RIDICULOUSLY COMICAL.

Dominguez has hardly ridden at all for Contessa this winter (after seemingly riding all his horses the past few winters), and he's still winning at the same clip. I'd assume that the added (successful) connections that he's made this winter lead him and his agent to conclude that he'll be able to make a go of it when "the big boys" return.

stop giving away secrets, if beyer and those speed fig. nit wits were right as much as they think they are. they would be rich winning bets instead of writing articles that say people are cheating when the figs don't work out ......lol. if it were as simple as a high number, no one would lose at this game.

Losing Contessa but geting Asmussen is a step UP not back. As-man doesn't start as many but he wins alot more. When Asmussen doesn't have a mount for him he still has lots of shots to ride the best in the race. Contessa sends out so many that it figures a jock like Ramon would be stuck on a lot of junk too.
I like Ramon's style because he seems to be able to get a horse to relax without fighting him. Trainers tell me they like him because he rarely uses "more horse" than he needs to.
As to any particular ride, they all make mistakes. I've seen brilliant rides from 7lb bugs (rare, but it does happen, often inadvertently) and bonehead moves from Hall of Famers. I've seen some times when I cannot figure out what Ramon is doing but others when I can't imagine that he can win and yet he does, often to beat me.
As someone who rides jumping horses I will tell you that horses are not baseballs, they don't always just go when you ask or stay where you put them. The perfect throw will tag the runner at third base, the perfect ride may still get you to the outside fence, or in a box turning for home or worse. Sometimes the rider give you the best ride and the horse just won't or can't cooperate.

One of the things about Dominguez that is interesting yet puzzling on a day-in and day-out basis is getting used to his style. He is almost all arms and legs on a horse so you never really know when he has a lot of horse or when he's really getting to the bottom of them. Because he's so tall you never really see him "sit down" on a horse but you can certainly see when he sets them down.

I think he's going to be the leading rider in NY by an incredibly wide margin for the year (no surprise because he will start on the Fla boys with a huge edge) and I doubt that the inner track riding title will be the last he one he earns in 2009.

NT