To me he's been Jeckell and Hyde. Lately a lot of Jeckelling out there.

I know but the guy can really drive you to drink. One race he looks so great you are in awe, the next hes boxed inside on a dead rail and you wanna tear your DRF into a thousand pieces of confetti.

Now we have 3 posters who watched the replay multiple times and say Gomez didn't stop riding. But it will still be another bad ride to oracle and scuds.

If Gomez keeps making the same stupid mistake, as Scuds insists, you'd think it would be easy for the other riders to get the best of him. But there he sits on top of the list of money-earners.

Funny, too, how the trainers that use Gomez haven't been turned off by Gomez' stupidity. Somehow he keeps getting mounts on so many top horses, despite all his "obvious" shortcomings. It's good to know we've got folks here who are so much smarter than the top trainers.

Yesterday Gomez rode for Pletcher, Biancone, Hertler, Blasi, Reynolds, James Jerkins, and Clement. You'd think that some of them would have noticed how easy it is for Gomez to get trapped into a mistake. But they just keep giving him good mounts in their ignorance, I guess.

--Dunbar

Again,the "top money winning jockey" is the get out of jail free card.

If not that card,then "top trainers use him," and that's a get out of jail free card#2. It is not a big issue to me.I don't bet the guy anymore on chalk.He rides everything like it's a 3rd or 4th choice in the race,and that just doesn't work on chalk.Everybody knows where you are at (if you are prohibitive chalk.)When he adjusts to this,and realizes that he can't just put chalk anywhere he wants(and eventually get out,)then he will be playable on chalk.As far as yesterday's race goes,I don't think that what he did in the final 16th is very important.Horse is simply stopping,and I personally don't think tappin' that a$$ one more time will do that much ,but to each his own.Like I said,he made a very quick move with quite a distance to still run,and I would rather have seen a smoother move to the front.I would much rather somebody move too early than to wait,and get in trouble.If you notice,the only issue I have with the guy is getting horses stuck in a bad spot that his fellow jocks won't let him out of.For instance,in the race on Kewen,he is stuck behind horses on a 7/5.He then wants to get outside of them,and somebody coming from the back isn't having it(because he has a chance to keep a 7/5 trapped in.)So,he has no place to go in front of him,or outside of him.The horse in front of him slows and goes wide as he hits the dirt.All Gomez can do is take his horse up.Game over.I just think he always has ridden a certain way(relax your horse and come with an outside rush,)and he has to ride more defensively that that.I would agree that he is a great talent from off the pace.The best I have ever seen at closing.Problem is that he often places horses in spots that they can't get out of without the cooperation of others.If you're on a 7/2,you will probably get out.On the 6/5 chalk,we have seen that he often doesn't get out of that same spot.

LOL..FULL QUOTE=


"EMAKE ENME ANSO EGGSIDED!!!!"-Rafael Furcal(when asked about his thoughts on the trade sending his best buddy Wilson Betemit to the Dodgers.)

In the jockey standings right now at Saratoga, Gomez and Prado are tied for the lead with 11 wins each, but Gomez has a higher win percentage. Some of you said that he wouldn't make it in New York. I think he's doing alright, he's on top of the standings at Saratoga.

Your saying he is generally a top rider,and using stats to prove it.I am giving you instances of poor rides he has had on heavy chalk.I think the amalgam of the two would be that he generally rides well,but you may not want to depend on him to get a chalk single home.That I would agree with.

I never bet chalk and I don't play Pik 3s or Pik 4s, so that wouldn't be a problem for me. I still don't know if that's true though. I'm sure he has given some bad rides on favorites. I don't deny that. I have seen a few of them. But he has also given a ton of great rides on favorites. You have to be careful drawing a conclusion from a limited sample. I've even seen Tiger have periods where he plays poorly for a few months straight. It would be pretty silly if I made conclusions about Tiger based on a three month stretch where he wasn't playing his best.

By the way, you guys would have been bashing Gomez so hard if he would have given the ride that Prado gave Songster the other day. Prado goes three-wide, head and head in :44 1/5 on a deep and tiring track. Yet you guys didn't say a word about what a bad ride Prado gave. These jocks all make mistakes sometimes.

With regard to getting boxed in, if you are riding come-from-behinders in big fields, you will get boxed in sometimes. There is no way to avoid it unless you want to go five-wide around both turns. At least Gomez tries to swing to the outside at the head of the lane. Most of these guys aren't even smart enough to do that. They just sit there and hope something opens up.

I hope Gomez wins our jockey race here so all the gloom and dommers on Gomez eat some crow. I am sick of hearing how bad a jockey this guy is.

Why not just blame Artie's utter mess of a race yesterday on Gomez. He was after all 1/2 and those priced horses never lose.

I hope he smears Johnny V and Edgar Prado in the standings.

I know what they'll say if Gomez wins the riding title. They'll say that it was because of his agent.

Or the White Mercedes guy. Another very tiresome and frankly very boring story.

Rupert this pathetic little man needs to be slapped. Watch his ride in race 5 today on the 12 and explain to us all what exactly he was thinking when he allowed himself to get locked in the backside and even you will be at a loss for words at how stupid a rider he is. Good thing God gave him a lot of strength because he is one very stupid indivual.

Care to bet on that one Tim?

Nope. I said I hope, not that I predict. I have no clue who is going to get what mounts but I wouldnt bet against Pletcher's go to guy.

Tim you should watch races more closely before you knock the opinion of guys who do. Its no coincidence that everyone who knocks the guy knocks his lack of consistency. Race 5 today was an absolute nightmare stupidly executed ride by Gomez and just another example of how he makes very dumb mental mistakes day after day. Broke great from a bad post and angled over to get a great spot. Tracking in about 5th and clear on teh outside. Grabs his mount and allows not one, but three horses make a move(when he could have pushed the button and made the move the eventual winner made) and get himself hopelessly trapped. Turns a horse with tactical speed into a hopelessly blocked closer and has to jerk her between traffic with too much to do. Just an embarassingly stupid ride. WHy bother breaking and getting a great spot if you are just gonna sit there and let yourself get locked in and shuffled back to 10th. This guy gives some of the dumbest rides you ever saw. I will give you the link Tim so you can watch the replay if you care to. But we aren't making this stuff up, he gives some torturous rides.

At some point you just have to stop betting him then. If he gives bad ride after bad ride every day, its simple. Just toss his horse.

I had no dog in that fight...but again...he sat up just a touch before the wire and instead of trying to get his horses nose to the wire, Cornie was working the h*ll out of Inca and lost by half head. If I would have had him boxed in tri's...you think yesterday was bad...I really would have called him names.

and yes...it was a **** ride...waited way to late to make his move.

Okay it was a terrible ride. Way worse than the one yesterday which I dont think was bad at all.

Resound was pretty awesome today in that turf sprint. Wow, he passed the entire field in the stretch.