5/26: Belmont (Met Mile; $239k C/O)

[pick4]

Originally Posted by the_fat_man

yo, Phil

I wondered on another thread yesterday why Clement was riding Castellano back after Javier got the horse beat at KEE last out.

He has a clear lead and the horse is tiring; and he makes the mistake of sticking him righty, rather than just coaxing him to the wire. The horse jumps back into lefty lead. But that's not enough of a clue for Castellano. He then sticks the horse righty which gets it back on righty lead. You'd think that at this point he'd just ride it to the wire. BUT, he continues sticking righty and the horse ducks out severely -- so even if it'd won, there'd been a DQ.

Castellano is the master of HERDING in the stretch. If I didn't know better, I'd suspect that he wanted the horse to drift out.

So, while I blame Morales for not giving up the rail, I also feel that Castellano deserves to get bullied for all the times he's won by herding horses out while the stewards sit on their asses and do nothing. And the end, I blame the stewards for not properly policing what is a very dangerous sport.

I hate rehashing tough beats. But you think Castellano's ride was the difference between victory and defeat.

When they turned for home it looked like Castellano could of been more patient and waited for a running lane to open up outside of Certifiably Royal. He decided duck inside and try to pass on the rail and the horse looked uncomfortable passing on the rail. Once she passed Certifiably Royal she made up ground on the winner.

If she would of got up to win I would of had the late pick four one of my backup tickets.