Stevens always had the whip put away on Havana. I had people around me trying to tell me "he just didn't see the inside horse coming" -- that's crazy, he's not a 10lbs bug. It was pretty obvious it had to be riding to instructions.
At least with Mucho Macho Man, he pulled the whip out, showed the horse the whip, and used the whip on him in the final furlong without ever slashing into him real hard.
Again, I don't care about the fact that Havana was given a lazy hand ride through the stretch & hit a complete brick wall in the last 1/16th. I think the whip is kind of overrated.
I just get a little sick with trainers and jockeys being cute and imposing their will when they don't have to.
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