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Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin
After listening to Gary Steven's commentary on Thursday, I was convinced that Gomez would rate the horse. Stevens was saying that HS is kind of a head-strong horse and after seeing what happened in the Preaknesss and not wanting that to happen again, that Gomez would come out of the gate with a hold on the horse. The reason being that Gomez did not know whether anyone else would be gunning or not. If someone else did gun and Gomez came out of the gate asking the horse, then it would be too late to take back because HS is quite head-strong. So I think that GG made the decision to take back from the start. Once he saw how slow they were going, he could have let the horse take the lead, but I think that Gomez was happy that the horse was rating kindly and he thought that he could go by the two horses on the lead at any time. He knew it was a long race and he knew that the horses to beat were behind him, so he decided to sit tight.
Was it a mistake in hindsight? I would probably say yes. With a horse as fast as HS, if I knew I could get an easy lead in :49 3/5 or so, I would much rather do that than be sitting behind horses going :50. On the other hand, we don't know if those other two horses would have left GG alone on the lead in :49 3/5 if GG would have gone to the lead.
I'm sure that if GG knew that the other horses would have given him an easy lead in slow fractions, he would have been happy to take it.
Anyway, it was a tricky situation due to the fact that HS is head-strong. I don't think the ride cost the horse anything. I think he would have probably run 4th either way. I think that GG is the best rider in the country and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt due to the totality of the circumstances. I can certainly see why people would question the ride.
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Rupert, after having a few days to mull this over, I agree with most that the best this horse could have done was third in this race, no matter what trip he may have gotten. He was a spent horse coming in. I guess I am more upset at myself for going against my first instinct and playing him.
However, the strategy that you speak of comes from Gomez, and went directly against the instructions from Larry Jones. Add to that the fact that he swung 5 wide for absolutely no reason going into the first turn, and stayed out there the rest of the race, the ride Gomez gave this horse was abysmal, and GG was the only one who thought he was "money" at the 3/8ths pole.
My final word on the subject is, of course Garrett Gomez is a quality rider, but on Saturday, he sucked.