4th of 5 in the San Diego Handicap. Accelerate won in 1:42.15 over the mile and 16th distance.
Dangā¦ I read the title and thought heād died.
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The real Arrogate didnāt show up.
Mike Smith said he was just flat and thatās what I saw. Pretty much 4th out of the gate (due to a bad stumble, I think, by the 2), coasted down the back stretch and never really moved when asked.
Bob B thought maybe Arrogate should have been trained slightly differently in Del Mar leading up to the San Diego but who knows. Sounds like Arrogate is still being targeted at the Pacific Classic.
Silver Charm did the same thing to Bob when he ran in the San Diegoā¦ last 
There were some comments about him looking bored or slightly flat at one of his last works. At the very least, some of the shine was off. Perhaps they needed to vary his routine or maybe it just wasnāt his day.
IMO ~
I believe Mike Smith knew there was an uncontrolled horse on the outside of him,
so didnāt even ask to his horse to really move:
Rule 1: Do NOT put your champion to risk!
^ only my observance/ opinion ^
Rule 2: NEVER blame someone for cheating, if you canāt prove it. Poor sportsmanship.
I think when #2 stumbled, and rider lost his irons, he should gone to the outside for safety.
That the jock ākept keeping on ~ GOING on w/o ironsā seems very suspicious to me.
He (#2) very effectively kept Mike Smith from going around #2 ānot-very-controlled horse.ā
Would YOU risk an Arrogate to an uncontrolled horse??
I think #2 jock should be set down for awhile, due his not directing his ānot in control horseā to the outside rail.
I hope we are not seeing a new brand of āsubtle cheatingā
I wondered about the impact of the out-of-control horse on Mike Smithās tactics, too. However, Arrogate still didnāt look like himself from the break on to me. I was hoping he hadnāt been kicked in the melee at the start.
Even champions can throw a dull clunker now and then, sometimes with physical reasons coming up later, sometimes just second guessing fitness or training. Seattle Slew in the Swaps Stakes. Secretariat in the Wood, Whitney, and Woodward. Holy Bull in the Kentucky Derby. Chrome in the Pegasus.
Given his last four races prior, that clearly wasnāt a representative result for Arrogate. Iām just hoping heās okay and looking forward to another day, as I still think heās a wonderful horse.
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:eek:
Iāve seen riders loose their irons before and yes, the horses are often not well controlled. Evin Roman, IMO, tried to get control of El Huerfano and was unable to for quite some distance. Even the race caller observes that the jock doesnāt have much control. Have you seen many races where the jock looses their stirrups??
I have to wonder if you watched the same ride I did. Arrogate was well off the pace with El Huerfano on the outside of the front pack of 4. After Roman gets his feet back in the stirrups and has some control, he starts to get El Huerfano slowed down and Arrogate goes by him on the inside. El Huerfano was only briefly outside of Arrogate briefly after El Huerfano stumbled and Roman lost his stirrups and briefly again when Arrogate passed El Huerfano on the inside going into the far turn.
Where did you see/hear Mike Smith even implying that Roman was ācheatingā??
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I have been watching Arrogates works lately. I havenāt been overly impressed. He appeared sluggish, needed lots of encouragement and the jock even went to the whip after the finish line.
With that being said; Every good horses has a bad day now and then Perhaps Bob shouldāve trained him over the track a bit before just shipping in to race. I certainly hope we do not see the downslide of Arrogate but maybe the horse just needs to refresh his mind a bit. I think boredom can definitely be coming into play here with the same old routine everyday on the horse.
Easier to tell how to best train for the race after the race is overā¦especially somebody elseās horse.
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When a jock uses the whip after the finish line in a work it has nothing to do with a horse being sluggish. Horses learn pretty quickly where the finish line is and many quit running (or slack off) as soon as they get there. Just like every other horse, racehorses sometimes need to be reminded that the rider is in charge. āThe work ends while I tell you it ends, not when you decide to stop running.ā
yup, lol. They also learn pretty quickly what it means when the rider stands up in the irons and give the horse its head. But the good ones IMO and experience will continue to gallop out at a strong but nice pace and gear down to a jog a good distance from the āfinish lineā.
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Baffert is still saying Arrogate came out of the race fine and still being aimed for the Pacific Classic in mid-August.
Sounds like Bob is maybe second guessing himself on the works that Arrogate had over the Del Mar track and that maybe he should have trained him a bit more?
Will be interesting to see how the Pacific Classic shapes up. I hope the āoldā Arrogate shows up and not the one we saw at the San Diego Hcp
my point, LaurieB, is that the horses works have been very sluggish and going to the whip is perhaps a signal that arrogate has figure out the name of the game. He will still be one of the most impressive strided horses I have seen, but in the last work I saw of this horse; his work mate looked more impressive.
The Baffert ācurseā continued today with Drefong in the Bing Crosby (racing a horse after a fairly long layoff). Mike Smith had Drefong on a loose rein at the break to encourage Drefong to hustle out of the gate (Baffert wasnāt happy with PP2 for Drefong).
Drefong broke well and was clear of the PP1 horse when they raced by the opening where the main track joins up with the 7f chute. Drefong took a pretty hard left and Mike was unable to control him well with the loose and ended up popping off the right side. Mike was taken to the track care center but said he was ok.
Drefong did manage to, IMO, mess about with a few of the horses pushing them wide coming out of the far turn and did put in an honest try for the win (too bad it didnāt count).
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Youāve never galloped race horses. There is a reason why we ride with shorter irons. You cannot pull up a horse who is flat out running when you are sitting on itās back; shorter stirrups give you some leverage. The racing saddles are so tiny and light that you might as well be riding bareback. Itās quite a feat to even stay on a racing horse without stirrups, and to keep the horse out of trouble and eventually regain control is a job well done.
What I didnāt realize at the time I wrote my first response was that there was a ātheoryā from, IMO, the less horse racing knowledgable (gee, seen that before? ) that Mike Smith should have pulled up Arrogate to keep him out of harms way and that there was a theory that there was cheating (not sure by whom) going on because of the out of control horse. Brigidās reply was right in line with some of the replies I read to online articles about the race.
Easy to sit on the living room couch with no understanding of the obligations of the jock to the horse and the betting public. :eek:
The jockey is required to make every effort to win or finish as close up as possible. If continuing on will pose harm to horse or human, he is allowed to pull up or alter course, but the stewards will review the actions. Many who are not familiar with racing donāt understand this - they believe the owners are racing the horses for the purse money. They donāt understand that millions of dollars were bet on the race itself, and those dollars are the dollars that racing revolved around.
Plus, in an outfit I was once with, the instructions to the exercise rider often times was ābreeze 3/8s from the quarter pole,ā or ābreeze a half from the 3/8s.ā
