Kent's Ride: Stride-by-stride

[justindew]

Look, if someone can convince me that it was Big Brown's fault that he almost ran into Da Tara and then played bumper cars with Anak Nakal, as opposed to Kent's fault for not keeping the horse relaxed early and then waiting a moment or two in order to get out in the open, then I will retract my criticism of Kent and blame the horse.

I read Travis' work. Seems solid. But while it shows Big Brown was affected to some degree by Garcia and Coa, it still does not excuse Kent's actions, in my opinion. There was a period of time AFTER Garcia and Coa's actions where Big Brown was relaxed and had his space. He may not have been on the outside, but there is no reason to think Kent could not have waited a moment or two, and THEN made the move.

I think too much is being made of the fact that Big Brown "wants to be on the lead or in the clear."

We have all seen it a million times, at every level of the sport. Huge favorites encounter minimal trouble early, and then fail to fire. In Big Brown's case, the early and brief traffic trouble hurt him, and he was unable to recover, in my opinion. And it was Kent who failed to keep him out of trouble, even though others were trying to bother the horse. Kent did not have to act. But he did.