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Originally Posted by Handicappy
I am not just blaming the jock. But you have a head case horse with a jockey who CAN be a head case. In this case, two negatives don't equal a positive. And if you look at the beginning of this thread, I am not defending Charitable Man. I am not sure he is the horse I thought he could be this year. He doesn't seem to have developed well as a three year old. Maybe it is the injury he sustained last year or maybe he just isn't that kind of horse. I am only commenting that while I am leaning in the direction of him being not "that kind of horse" I wish he wasn't continually pushed and bumped every few strides through-out most of the race.
And a jock knows what kind of horse he has at the break. And yes, if you have a rank horse, one of the strategies is to pull him outside, closer or not. What choice does a jock have anyway. If he doesn't get him to settle he has no chance anyway.
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At Saratoga going 9f the run into the first turn is short. If you are parked outside you have to go inside or you will lose a ton of ground and having a closer wide on BOTH turns is suicide regardless if the horse is relaxed or not. He gets the horse over to the rail and thats when the horse starts freaking out. Watch the replay. Either way, the jock's move is to try to get him to relax BEHIND horses as his horse was keen to go. This did not go very well obviously. I realize that questionable rides have doomed Kent his whole career but in this case I dont think he did anything wrong.
As far as Charitable Man, that was his third two turn effort and each one has been poor. Granted, one was the belmont and the other was at keeneland so one can hardly draw any conclusions. He was wide on both turns although i cant see Garcia as having much of a choice either besides maybe being closer to the lead.
Everyone sees it differently and I understand that. To me, it just seems that people are often quick to declare jockey error. Myself, I am quick to claim track bias when further inspection proves the track to be fair. Either way, we will certainly see our share of bad rides and biases this meet. Cheers!