not to beat a dead horse but, ...

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by declansharbor

just got done watching that crime otherwise known as the Belmont Stakes 2004. The jockeys on RHTen and EDDIngton (eddington esp.) shouldve been stripped of their liscense to ride in NY..Smarty's preakness ranks in the top three races i have ever witnessed, as his dominance was well displayed..Stewie shouldve known that the "top tier" jockeys werent gonna let a drunken 5k claimer jock win the TC, a feat that neither of them have achieved..Smarty was a once in a lifetime horse and its a damn shame that it had to end like that..Absolutely pitiful..Who should take the brunt of the blame here??

I think that the other jocks would be criticized no matter what they did. I think that if they would have taken their horses back, people would have criticized them for giving Smarty an easy lead.

I'm very sursprised that anyone would be angry at Solis or Bailey. I think that there are a number of things that got Smarty beat in the Belmont. The fast pace was a factor. The distance was a factor. The fact that the race was his 5th race in 11 weeks was a huge factor. The fact that Elliot asked the horse for everything and won the Preakness by 11 lengths, instead of winning by 5 lengths under a strangle-hold was a huge factor. Elliot made a huge mistake winning the Preakness by 11 lengths. I think he pretty much squeezed the lemon dry.

I think that Smarty was a great horse. I think that if even one of those factors that I mentioned would have been different, I think that Smarty could have won the race.