Garret Gomez sucks
 

Sorry, just letting off a little steam, but I'd like someone to find me three worse rides in one day than his gems on Wait a While, Dream Rush and Hard Spun today.

Jon Court in the 6th at Hollywood. Has an easy winner and smacks the shiat out of the horse in deep stretch, resulting in a DQ. Thanks Jon! That hurt!

What did he do wrong on Dream Rush? IMO there was no scenario he could have won the 5 horse turf race and personally thought that Hard Spun should have skipped the race.

agree on Dream Rush,

but was up with the stranglehold on Hard Spun?

GG might be, but tell me about Hard Spun, what are we to do with this colt?? what is his style ?? a stocker? or a pace setter? either way, better horses ran him down.. you saw !!

agreed!

He just did what everyone complained Pino did not do

How about Johnny V though??? He's the guy that's been riding bad?!..??

..imo, Hard Spun performed the way he did in spite of the connections. That horse has nothing left....and today was worth a ton of $$$ to them because of the Darley deal....there is no excuse for the way this horse was worked through this whole process....jmo

Cut him back to 8-9 furlongs, and there isn't anyone beating him...IMO

Chuck,

question about all of this...... if you have a horse that goes through the jockey situation that HS did after Rags to Riches entered do you have reservations....I guess what I'm asking is once you take Pino off, then replace with Gomez, and then Gomez wants off because Rags is now entered, are there any concerns about that? I don't know, that whole thing would just make me uneasy....

He strangles the **** out of Wait a While behind a crawling leader, then doesn't do **** to slow Dream Rush down on the front end? That's not bogus to you? And he had Hard Spun all over the f'ing track, man.

I agree completely. He sucked on Derby Day, and he sucked today (and I too am letting off some steam).

Wait a While doesn't win regardless.....no front end speed caused her to lose that race...

She easily could've been the one on the lead, but Garret decided to choke her and let My Typhoon get away.

well maybe..i can understand your point there.....

I think he was probably riding to instructions....I'm sure he would have rather won the race but it is a valid point that you want your jockey not thinking that he is not on the horse he thinks is best if they had a choice.

I didn't bet Wait a While, but everyone except GG could see they were crawling... Dream Rush completely alone on the front and the slowest he could go was 1.09?? And Hard Spun may have been cooked, but he rode him like he wished he was on the Filly. Wide, wider and widest!

that's what I'm saying......especially with the pending sale.....I just think that horse was put in bad spots all over the place...

1st of all what were you doing betting Wait a While at that price? She was cutting back to a distance that she has never won at and the winner had the inside post and the pace advantage. If he goes head and head do you think she would have won? What other choice did he have? Perhaps he waited a bit too long before he ran at the other filly but I have my doubts that she is better than her at that distance anyway. Dream Rush had no excuse, Cotton Blossom ran huge. Hard Spun had no excuse.

Actually Wait a While is the same filly but she is now running against better horses instead of straight 3 yos

but you can bet your sweet patootie porter will come up with one.


i bet he didn't like the track.

The other filly is faster...Castro was choking down the leader also

and I would be amazed if he ever races again.....

Can you imagine the lashing he would take if he said that again....I really hope he does..

Chuck, those are all fair points... and Garret Gomez STILL SUCKS!
(we need an emoticon for bitterness)

I didn't bet Wait a While at that price. And his other choice was to let her run and not snuggle her into My Typhoon's asscrack expecting her to backtrack after running :25 and :50. Dream Rush didn't have an excuse after going :22, :45 and 1:09? I'll keep that in mind next time any horse folds after running scorching fractions like those.. "No excuse".. Cotton Blossom plodded past a tired horse. If one of your horses ever gets a trip like Hard Spun did, I'd like to hear you say that the horse had no excuse. Not saying it was all Gomez' fault, but he was supposed to be an improvement over Pino, and he was just as bad if not worse.

I think the over/under on how far Gomez could move-up Hard Spun was five inches.....I guess the under won that prop?

based upon the speed of the track today I would say that a 45 second half would not be out of line for that kind of race. Especially since she was doing it under no pressure. I would say she bounced off of a huge effort last time but Andy will get pissed off at me. I think Gomez rode overconfident on WaW but IMO there was almost no scenario that looked like it would play to her advantage in that field. What excuse did Hard Spun have? He was empty at the 1/2 mile pole. Better jockeys are insignifigant if the horse is in the wrong race.

Hard Spun's excuse? How about he was running like he was doing shuttle drills at the NFL draft combine rather than on a racing oval..

And I don't think the track was playing particularly fast. Stormello ran :22 1/5 and :44 4/5 and backed up.. Dream Rush ran about the same going a furlong further..

The track was quick
Race 1 NW1x 22.3 45.1 56.3 108.4
Race 3 Stake 23.3 46 109.3 134 147.2 (naughty NYer on the lead)
Race 4 NYbred nw1x 22.1 45.1 57.1 1.10 (wire to wire)
Race 6 stake 22 44.1 56 108.3 (fractions set despite going sideways in the turn)
Race 7 stake 22.1 44.4 109 121.2
Acorn 22.1 45 109 134.3 8 lengths back to 3rd place horse

Stormello made a big reputation getting beat by who exactly?
Dream Rush is probably better than Stormello

Gomez really did suck. . . He looked like such an idiot in the Acorn. . . Tried to give her the patented hand ride and looked like Borel in the Preakness times a million. ..

I disagree. He cost me bigtime as the 11 was going to go by and win.

agreed ! i thought 7-8 furlongs and turn him loose.

What????

Wait a While stalked a crawling pace and was dreadful ( I bet her career is over ). Dream Rush ran well in hand and collapsed.....looking like the distance got her. Both these horses were 3:5 for God's sakes. Not Gomez's fault at all that they lost......just as he wouldn't have deserved any credit had they won.


Now, on Hard Spun.....while the tactics were probably foolish, and his best chance ( not that he had any ) was perhaps to try and bottom out the field, do you honestly think Gomez made the decision to ride him that way? Highly unlikely.

And so the question begs asking.........

What determines ,other than order of finish, what a good ride is???

It would certainly be helpful to me to understand what charcterizes a "good ride" per say. If a jockey on a horse who finshed 3rd or 4th is there an objective set of criteria that all would agree with that would glorify an effort or is it more like a piece of art in the eye of the beholder.

I don't think it was Gomez' decision to ride that way. They replaced one rider already because they thought he moved too early. This was the plan going in....to wait and wait and wait. I knew he had no chance to win when I saw how close Curlin and Rags were to him down the backstretch. I said then that I thought Pino made the right move to try and take the race at the point that he did. That horse had no chance of outrunning them down the lane so his only chance would have been opening up as much as he could.

The final time in the Acorn was over 54 seconds faster than the Belmont Stakes...which is obviously four furlongs further.

I guess that speaks volumes about how amazingly slow the pace was in the Belmont Stakes.

How do you think Street Sense would have faired in such a ridiculously run race?

I'm struggling with that question myself....but it would very likely have depended upon where he was placed. His turn of foot is obviously clearly superior to anyone in that field...but he'd have needed to have been very close to the pace for his weapon to be most effective.

It would have been very interesting if Curlin had won, going from a facile wire-to-wire debut winner sprinting in February, to having to better a 23.83 second final quarter mile, in a 12 furlong stake, just four months later.

I still haven't gone back and re-watched the races yet....but there seem to be a lot of interesting things to think about just as I start to look over the charts.

The bottom line is that none of those 3 horses would have won today no matter how they were ridden. I have no problem criticizing a jock if they cost a horse the race, but GG did not cost any of those horses the race.