Rajiv Maragh
 

After his mind-bogglingly incompetent ride on Musket Man - I decided to look at his stats again even though I remembered them as being close to average.

They are alarmingly terrible in dirt routes - and this has been his worst year of all.

2010: 23 for 173 - $0.93 ROI
2009: 62 for 365 - $1.42 ROI
2008: 41 for 365 - $1.24 ROI
2007: 42 for 347 - $1.35 ROI
2006: 30 for 251 - $1.25 ROI

over 1,500 rides and over a 36% loss on the betting dollar in total. That's losing almost 2.5% times takeout - and even on his very best year, he lost double the rake.

I can't get over how many dummies I've read on facebook saying JRV cost QR the Whitney with his flawless ride .... yet, Musket Man got a ride that's simply too bad to believe...and it's like no one even notices.

i agree with you that johhny v did not lose that race QR did. but rajiv did the best that horse could do. he does get caught wide on the turns but i don't know if musket man can pass those horses. if you want to see someone butcher a ride watch jose lezcano.

I was having the JV argument with some friends. I was comparing it to RA's losses earlier this year where the fastest horse winds up running too slow and isn't sure what to do. QR at 48 or so is really not his game. His splits are typically way faster than that, no? I think going slower, while it would seem to compromise the finish, works against this type of horse. I think they were concerned about getting caught, wanted something left for the finish and wound up not being ahead enough. Not a bad ride for sure, just didn't work out as they had planned. All IMO. MM would have a hard time passing these too.

“We’ll probably keep him going long now the rest of the year,” Ryan said. “He ran his race. One of these days, he’s going to get a legitimate pace and the race will set up for him. He was closer than he ever has been in any of his races. It wasn’t by design, but it wasn’t his fault. At least [Maragh] had the initiative and the brains to go on with it.”

Intersting that MM's trainer, is praising Rajiv for having the "brains to go on with it."

The most difficult trip for a jock is one in which (s)he's chasing a loose leader -- whether on a fast or slow pace. The idea is to realize when/if you can get the leader and still win the race. If you can't get to him, then you really should be riding for 2nd. I believe this is the most difficult trip because only Dominguez gets this right a majority of the time.

One of the jocks that is absolutely clueless with this setup is Maragh. If you need Maragh for 2nd and he's 2nd on the turn, don't count on him being there at the wire. He's pathetically weak in this area -- bush track level weak.

I felt like Rajiv Maragh was struggling towards the end of the Belmont meet and that really hasn't changed at Saratoga. In fact, it's probably gotten worse.

Since winning the 1st and 2nd two weeks ago he has two winners. One was Wow Wow Wow, who he astutely took off the pace but did basically nothing special with regards to finishing. The race was served up to him on a silver platter.

His ride Friday on Sotique was good, but how horrendous did Lezcano look as he impotently let Fandangle change leads, drift out and basically do everything possible to lose that race?

Maragh does not move horses up whatsoever. He is not a good finisher and has serious problems when he has to assess the pace scenario in a given race. He also seems to have to put horses in a drive earlier than most riders, I don't know if it's part of his style but the innate things that elite jockeys can do to get horses moving (Dominguez can do it without the whip or even really moving his body) are totally lost on Rajiv Maragh.

NT

I'm shocked at how bad Lezcano has looked this meet. That isn't the same rider I saw at Gulfstream this winter.

Sotique wanted no part of being inside. He wasn't going through. All Lezcano has to do was Keep Fandangle relatively straight and he wins the race. Lezcano SUCKS as a jock -- he cost me the race mentioned and the Lake George. Have no idea why I've read so many positive things about him.

The sad part is that these 'things' NEVER improve. You have owners and trainers relying on figure makers to determine claims and race placement YET when jocks take money out of their pockets they do nothing about it. Why do these jocks not take steps to improve their race 'comprehension' skills?
Seems to me, that this impetus needs to come from the owners/trainers. Or course, they're even more clueless in this area.:rolleyes:

Daniel Dennett has argued that even MICE understand modus ponens. Clearly, jocks don't.

I have to disagree that his ride was "mind-bogglingly incompetent." His hand was forced once Dominguez decided not to press Quality Road for who knows what reason. Rajiv couldn't have known that QR was going to come back to the field like he did, and the fractions were soft, so he pressed the pace. The wideness certainly hurt him, but other than that, I don't see his ride as terrible.

When Dominguez decided not to press Quality Road from the outset - Margah basically took his horse out of his game and do it.

That results in him being 2 paths wider than QR the whole way around the first turn - and 3 paths wider than Blame .. meaning he's giving away 3 lengths in ground loss to Quality Road and 4.5 lengths to Blame while riding the ears off of a horse who couldn't hold off Sumo the last time he was that close to the pace.

On the backstretch - he puts Dominguez in a box and starts race riding him ... Haynesfield's a 12/1 shot who broke through the gate pre-start - and he's treating him like he's Cigar or something. Dominguez has to get shoulder to shoulder and pushes Musket Man out to get out of the box on the turn .. while Musket Man's getting shoved out he's about a path and a half wider than Quality Road on the far turn ... and Gomez's had a flawless ground saving ride in behind him while Quality Road's had a dream trip in front of him.

Once Haynesfield didn't go after Quality Road, Musket Man's chance at winning dissipated no matter what. So he either had to sit off the pace, hope that QR came back to him (seemed extremely unlikely at the time) and that he could outclose Blame. Or, he could do what he did, press QR into submission and try to get first run on Blame. No matter what, he wasn't going to win the race the way it set up, so I think harsh criticism of his ride is a little excessive.

To quote your GURU Beyer (or any number of his disciples)

"There are NO TRIP in SLOW (PACED) Races"

I don't agree. Musket Man absolutely wins that race if he lets Quality Road and Haynesfield go .. and I say that even knowing that a pace battle between the two wasn't going to develop.

If Gomez rode Blame the way Margah rode Musket Man - Blame would have been beaten a significant margin.

I get your point that his chance of winning appeared to be 0% when Dominguez opted to use passive tactics. But that doesn't mean he needed to act as a rabbit for Blame and Mine That Bird.

I've never met Beyer - how I'm a guru of his I have absolutely no idea at all what you mean.

First of all - yes, there are trips in slow paced races. Whoever said there isn't is nuts.

Second of all - the pace wasn't all that slow. The pace figure was only 9 points slower than the final figure. I would call it a moderate pace in relation to final time.

Has anyone noticed Lezcano winning around 24-25% at Aqueduct?

He's terrible. Any given day you can select one of his brutal rides

I know, he's God awful!! If he had any talent at all, he'd win at a 55-60% clip.

Should be winning about 40pct w the mounts he's been given. Lotta squandered opportunities

Aqueduct is the premier meet. This makes up for the performance at measly Saratoga. Future Eclipse Award winner for sure.

Many of the same jocks at Aqueduct that were at Saratoga, no?