Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottJ
Exchange Javier Castellano and Cornelio Velasquez in that third race and the results are different. Many feel that watching the jockeys is unimportant at Saratoga and I tend to disagree greatly. Hence, my comment regarding interchanging those particular third race pilots.
As for the strength of the colony, I have always agreed that these (along with Del Mar's group) are very talented; that said, it is fairly clear that few if any can adequately judge pace and internal fractions in a race which is a major gap in their arsenal. If I have this wrong, why do we see so much discussion about NYRA-disease - also known as "clutch and grab"?
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I can't say I have ever heard anyone say that the jockey's in the Saratoga colony are interchangeable. Can anyone really say that you can use Abel Lezcano in place of Jose Lezcano and lose nothing?
Certainly the NY colony has been very frustrating all year with the grabbing instead of being aggressive with speed horses. However, there is no colony that is even close to being as good as the Saratoga colony, regardless of how frustrating the grabbing has been. The grabbing has not been limited to NY either.
The Del Mar colony is not even close to the Saratoga colony. When Edwin Maldonado is one of the top riders in a colony there can be no comparison to the Saratoga colony.