Ride on Normandy Invasion
 

dunno what to think of it, I think he hit the front way too early but I think it would not have mattered. Reminds me of what Javy did on Bernardini in the BC Classic, in any case I have been hearing and reading that the connections are not too thrilled with the ride he gave. If he were a bit more patient could Normandy have won?

I needed Normandy Invasion for the double and an exacta. I do think Javy moved a little early, but I don't think anyone was going to beat Orb on this day. The race kind of broke down and maybe that hurt Normandy Invasion from making a launch from the middle one run, but I don't think he wins regardless. That being said, I do think he could have gotten 2nd

The second quarter did him in. He simply had horses backing into him when he hit the front. Oxbow is another one whose backers could second guess.
If Golden Soul had won the connections of Orb could claim Rosario made a premature 4th quarter move, but Golden Soul didn't win.
Normandy Invasion wasn't good enough. Three races in a row now he has excuses. Horrible trip, pace dynamics against him and now premature move. If the jockeys could operate the horses like tyco cars they could run THE perfect race. So if indeed NI lost the race to the 3 horses in front of him because of a premature 2nd quarter move no one will ever know who else in the field could have factored if their rides were perfect.

I tweeted earlier that the ride was almost identical to the Bernardini ride.

All of the early speed other than Oxbow was totally fried.

Oxbow finished a heroic 6th beaten 10 lengths, but it gets ugly after that.

Palace Malice stopped cold in the stretch even though he was free running on a loose lead. Goldencents was beaten 50 lengths. Vyjack was beaten more than 50 lengths. Verrezano was beaten 16 lengths with no trip excuse. It'smyluckyday was beaten 22 lengths.


After the fact, it's clear that Castallano basically misjudged the pace on Normandy Invasion.

Pace meltdowns happen.

The Giacomo year the half mile fraction was 45.38 and the final time was 2.02.75

This year, the half mile fraction was 45.33 and the final time was 2:02.89

The pace was 0.05 seconds faster this year than the Giacomo year, and the final time was 0.14 seconds slower this year than the Giacomo year.

Good horses like Flower Alley and Bellamy Road both got fried chasing that pace. Afleet Alex made a premature inside move that I'm sure Rose regrets. He was flat in the stretch.

Giacomo was 18th beaten 16 lengths and Don't Get Mad was 19th beaten 19 lengths and they surged wide to finish 1st and 4th at odds of 50/1 and 30/1.

This year it was five deep closers making up the top five spots. All of them raced 18+ lengths off of the early pace other than Normandy Invasion...who was surprisingly close and made the eye-catching early move.

I used Oxbow and Revolutionary on top and thought Oxbow ran his tits off.
Wonder how things turn out for him if Palace Malice doesn't run off and drag them thru those splits.
He never actually hit the lead though (if so it was for about a second or two) but turning for home i thought he was a top 3 finisher or even a winner.

Got in good but nothing to show for it - Golden Soul knocked me out of saver tris with the winner over my top two picks.
Would like to see Oxbow in Baltimore.

If he still has a pulse, he will be there.

I agree. I thought he moved too soon and would have been a clear 2nd with a more patient ride.

Hard to justify that ride. Especially from a supposed top jock. Wins with a more patient ride

I don't think it was a bad ride. He just wasn't good enough

I probably missed it somewhere, but was Johnny V's decision on who to ride made because of his relationship with Pletcher or did they think Verrazano had a better chance to win?

i think it was more due to him riding for pletcher so much-but it's not like verrazano wasn't a good horse.
sometimes you pick right, sometimes not....

I agree with Cannon...he wasn't winning today. I bet him to win...he simply didn't have enough in the tank & wouldn't have even with a more patient ride.

He moved WAY too soon and cost his mount at least a 2nd place finish in my opinion.

I think it had everything to do with his relationship with Pletcher. The Derby may be the biggest race of the year, but it's still just one race. He's smart (and classy) to stay loyal.

I bet Normandy Invasion to win, too, but now that it's all about hoping for a TC for me, I would like to think that right now Orb is just maybe better than everyone else.

(But I'm not saying that very loud, Racing Gods, okay?)

Typical Javier premature move. I too was reminded of his ride on Bernardini.

Orb......................... :24.29 :24.22 :23.74 :24.68 :25.97 Rosario J 5.40
Golden Soul .............:24.12 :24.31 :23.72 :25.03 :26.13 Albarado R J 34.50
Revolutionary ...........:24.54 :24.15 :23.72 :25.05 :26.02 Borel C H 6.40
Normandy Invasion... :23.68 :23.12 :23.89 :25.48 :27.34 Castellano J J 9.30
Mylute .....................:24.63 :24.05 :23.48 :25.12 :26.24 Napravnik R 15.30
Oxbow .....................:22.88 :23.41 :24.11 :25.85 :28.29 Stevens G L 24.90
Lines of Battle ..........:23.93 :24.32 :23.87 :25.32 :27.43 Moore R L 31.90
Will Take Charge .......:23.64 :24.00 :24.06 :25.31 :27.95 Court J K 36.40
Charming Kitten ........:23.66 :24.17 :23.45 :26.09 :27.77 Prado E S 33.20
Giant Finish ..............:23.47 :23.58 :24.32 :26.19 :27.60 Espinoza J L 38.60
Overanalyze .............:23.95 :24.22 :23.87 :26.04 :27.09 Bejarano R 16.20
Palace Malice ............:22.57 :22.76 :24.47 :26.53 :28.86 Smith M E 23.70
Java's War ...............:25.31 :23.73 :23.55 :25.22 :27.72 Leparoux J R 21.50
Verrazano ................:22.77 :23.15 :24.56 :26.11 :28.98 Velazquez J R 8.70
Itsmyluckyday ..........:22.96 :23.58 :24.57 :26.09 :29.48 Trujillo E 9.50
Frac Daddy ...............:23.39 :24.27 :24.30 :26.29 :28.76 Lebron V 25.00
Goldencents .............:22.59 :23.53 :24.56 :27.16 :33.48 Krigger K 7.90
Vyjack .....................:22.86 :23.08 :24.71 :27.69 :33.52 Gomez G K 18.80
Falling Sky ...............:22.76 :24.21 :24.66 :26.80 :33.48 Saez L 39.70


Visually it appears as though Normandy Invasion moved too fast when overtaking the four runners in front of him around the far turn. The incremental splits tell a different story. The horses in front of him were backing into the field. It was his 2nd quarter mile where he accelerated too quickly and passed 5 horses to get into 7th place. Only the pacesetter and Vyjack ran faster during that time frame.

It's unreasonable to think he could have slowed his horse down any more than he did in that 4th quarter. The damage had already been done.

The move might have been a little early but I also think Tapits don't want to go 10F. His AWD is high but he's also only had 1 winner going 10F and Tapit also stopped at about the same time in the Derby.

Want a really bad trouble line? Watch the overhead and take a look at Will Take Charge. Moves in concert with Orb, actually appears to be moving a little better than him for a bit around the turn, then Verrazano backs up into him and Orb takes the outside line, Court tries to dive inside but it's too late and has to pull up and just flat out stops COLD. Would have been in the super for sure and might have even challenged for 1st/2nd. Hats off to Lukas for having both horses run really well when there was a lot of buzz that both were doing poorly.

Chuck

The game has all these tech advances, albeit for the fans, over the last few years with innovations like Trakus to make a race easier to follow. Is there nothing on these massive scoreboards for these jocks to see or in some way hear the splits for the big races on a day like yesterday.

Is a glance at 22.1, 45.1 or 109.4 on these huge tote boards completely out of the question given the chaos of a 19 horse field. I realize the jocks are supposed to have a decent clock in their heads or does it not matter once a suicide pace is set you can't slow'em down and expect to kick it in gear at the top of the stretch. The horse doesn't exactly come with a gear shift.....