That, in hindsight, would have been a good idea. I think if letting go would have been safe, the outrider would have let go.
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I was wondering that too. Why I didn’t see any guards on the ponies.
He’s pretty inbred or closely line bred, if you prefer. True nicks F. Bred by Calumet.
So happy for all of his connections. I hope they all had a bet!
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I mean true…but also all the other horses galloped back on their own. To me, it seems like just letting him gallop off like he’s used to doing may have been better after he was so fractious being held like that, but who knows. In any case they didn’t let him do that and instead he got beat on the head on national tv. And I’m not saying that’s not what the outrider should have done, Rich Strike was a serious handful. I am surprised they left the cameras on him as long as they did with that situation though. Between the pony getting yanked around, Rich Strike biting everything and anything, it just was a scene.
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Gotta give props to the jockey for guiding him through the field. Great job.
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It was a great job!
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Can anyone point me to a replay that includes RS’s post-race antics? My husband wasn’t watching with me and I’m trying to explain to him what happened.
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If he had turned the colt loose and the colt had kept coming at him and his horse, now without a lead to try to pull him back/redirect him, then what?
If the horse had then ran at other horses loose and really get into a fight, then what?
If the colt had teared loose, then it would not have been on the pony man’s hands, some times you have to turn loose and hope is not a worse wreck.
Could the fellow had fought the colt better?
Maybe, he sure seemed a bit out of his league, but then, horses don’t really go on a full attack on another horse and rider very often, hard to say what you would do.
Another track rider tried to help, don’t know what was said, he backed off.
Guess the track may have a release on that incident later.
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That was a lot of fun. I’m not even mad I lost money.
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That was an entirely satisfying finish to the race. And I see that Baffert’s horses finished back in the field, which was also satisfying. Nice to see the jockey do a Borel with the inside rail.
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Darn, I was hoping you’d hit it big!
As I told someone else, I would have scheduled a lobotomy if I thought to place serious money on an 80-1 long shot without serious insider information. 
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It is interesting to watch the aerial view, Rich Strike wanted to eyeball nearly every horse he passed. I’m thinking the blinkers are a good call! Definitely must have a personality. Impressive turn of speed over the last quarter mile!
I’ll horrify some people here…honestly, the outrider probably could have done better; but that wasn’t as bad as I was expecting based on comments (I didn’t see it live). Horses that really, really want to bite are extraordinarily rare and extraordinarily hard to manage. And frighteningly good at biting for an herbivore! There is no pretty way of dealing with a horse that has decided that biting is the thing to be doing Right Now… And letting go in that situation would have been impossible
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Yes, yes, yes. Too many things could have happened. Better one person deal with it rather than putting multiple horses or people in harm’s way.
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Helluva ride!
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I think people who have never been bitten by a horse may have a difficult time understanding the seriousness of that display by the colt.
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Yup! I agree, we don’t think of horses as biting; but they can and they mean it. It is always an aggressive move with them, not like dogs or cats at all.
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Yep. A stealthy biter is awful. They know just how to get at you. You reach high then they go low.
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I’ve been bitten hard twice in my life, by two different horses. I’d rather be kicked.
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Just catching up after a long day elsewhere … watching the race replay, was trying to follow Rich Strike throughout, knowing he would win … but he had so much chestnut-colored dirt plastered on his hood I couldn’t find his hooded self !!! 
(Finally managed to find it – it’s as if right at the end he convinced himself that he really is a fast horse.)
