Lol, well said. People are really coming out of the woodwork with their clearly expert suggestions, it’s really amusing. I saw one saying the jockey should have grabbed the other rein and pulled RS’s head away, or separated the two horses and hopped off. Yes, because getting in a pulling match with an amped up young colt, your odds of winning are oh so high. And even better, steering the horse away from the lead pony into the crowd of innocents onto the track, what could possible go wrong?
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Here’s how I used to explain it:
Take a healthy, fit, athletic 16 year old boy and put him in a serious training program. Stuff him full of the best, high quality food you can and get him as fit as you possibly can, until he’s just about bursting out of his skin. Then shut him in a small room for 22 hours a day and only let him out to train and work out.
Separate him from all of his friends except for training time.
Don’t let him see, touch or even smell girls.
Then put him in a large, chaotic crowd with lots of stimuli he’s not used to and expect him to behave.
Let me know how that works for you.
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Question for those who know a lot more about this than I do: As I’m watching the race replay, when Rich Strike starts to move up coming through the turn and into the stretch, there are a couple times where it looks like he may be trying to make a grab at another horse as Sonny moves him through a hole. Is it just a bend to make the move or a potential grab?
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I am honestly surprised he was able to continue on as he had with that much of a hard right turn around horses. he was already cruising at that point and that photo really shows the amount of ground he had to make up by that point, but once he has steered around Messier; that gap was even wider. Pretty eye opening
I still liked the looks of Crown Pride at this point. If the pace hadn’t been so blistering he may have looked a bit different here.
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You either described the race or what it’s like being a high school teacher in 2022. 
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Rich Strike handled like a quarter horse. For me, the end of that race looked like the scenes in horse racing movies, where they have what they call the “blow by” horse bolt to the lead. He really was phenomenal in that moment. I love the fact that the jockey was so in tune with the horse, and that the horse was so brave. Not every horse would have done what they were asked, in that moment.
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I’m also a member of the Horse and Hound forum, which is sort of the UK equivalent to this one, and with one or two exceptions, Brits are pretty critical of how the outrider handled the colt. However, what they find truly baffling is ponying, and they keep asking why Rich Strike needed to be caught in the first place, and why would anyone in their right mind take another horse near an amped up young stallion. Saying it’s SOP at the Derby doesn’t make much of an impact. And the last 147 Kentucky Derby winners haven’t tried to eat the pony. Racehorses in the UK are never ponied. They are ridden by their jockeys to the starting gate before the race, and ridden back to the barn at the end. That’s both flat and NH.
I thought that, at least, was an interesting question. Why do Americans pony racehorses, while other places don’t? Does anyone know?
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What does that even mean? They have been entered at a premium price? And no the Preakness definitely does not have the shortest field. It’s the shortest race of the three, is that what you meant?
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Like a post entry fee?
Americans pony racehorses because it is generally safer. Have you seen videos on the Racing Post or RaceUK that show loose horses running amok prior to the start? Just a while ago, a chaser lost its rider in warm-up and the hapless officials spent at least 10 minutes trying to catch him. That’s 10 minutes of other horses and jockeys standing around…creating further opportunities for misbehavior. A loose horse can be incredibly dangerous…especially on American tracks, which inevitably puts the loose horse back in contact with the field, or jump the rail and splat. Would you want a hyped up 3yo colt coming at your mount, in jockey length stirrups? To fight? To get you dumped?
Jockeys are remarkable athletes, but with ridiculously short stirrups you have minimal chance of riding out a duck, spook, buck, or rear. Often a jock will just jump off, abandon ship, and get back on when the horse is under control. Lead ponies ensure that each horse makes it safely to the starting gate…also ensuring the security of bettors who have wagered on each horse that their chosen one will start and have a chance to win.
Overseas, their horses train entirely different from here. They hack out alone, in a string. They cross roads and see traffic. They are ridden differently, handled different, race differently (slow to start, then sprint to finish) and as such become more like a typical independent riding horse, not like US racehorses who are amped up waiting to explode from the gate.
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There is no such thing as a post entry fee. None of what she said has any basis in fact nor made any sense. I was just hoping she would provide further information so I could try to decipher where her understanding was coming from.
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They do not use Pony horses in the UK or most of Europe because they do not use Pony horses in Europe but we do here. Europeans shipping over here may choose not to use one. Tradition. Though the European tracks usually are quite spacious and lack huge right up to the track grandstands plus the saddling areas are much quieter.
That was an excellent suggestion upthread that the jockey should have just jumped off the attacking stallion onto the ground next to him, maybe between him and the Pony trying to defend itself. Smart idea there….
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Sometimes the media make a big deal about late nomination to the Triple Crown. Maybe this has been the source of some confusion?
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Glad I’m not the only one who finds his breeding bizarre.
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Rewatching the race replay I think he had the race won out of the gate. Broke from 20 and immediately took the back of the pack. never hustled. never rushed. Just broke from the gate and chilled. Meanwhile the rest of the pack was burning rocket fuel for the next mile.
A lot of risk in doing that, obviously. In a 20 horse field the holes that opened up were an act of God coming from that far behind.
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I can’t quite figure out how Calumet thinks with regards to breeding. Some of the horses they’ve chosen to stand, like Melbourne Cup winner Americain, don’t make any sense in the American bloodstock market.
Rich Strike’s pedigree does look like they used the blindfolded dart throwing method of selecting a stallion.
They stand Oxbow; did they also breed him?
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Yet he beat the other 19 horses, and I would imagine some of them were very well bred.
Because… horse races. 
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Yup, it’s been bizarre to watch to say the least.
And no, they didn’t breed Oxbow but they did race him.
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The BloodHorse says he was bred by Colts Neck Stables.
