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"Well, he had horse at the start, but rode not to lose, overwhelmed by the moment, not wanting to be questioned for moving too soon as many had wrongly said about his move on Real Quiet in the 1998 Belmont Stakes that finished a nose shy of the Triple Crown."
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I'm so sick of this anti-ride crap.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=52lcq6bIAf0
This Youtube video shows the break from a head-on at the very end of the video. Notice how BB does not break smoothly, Kent straightens him out, but boom, Eibar comes over. It was good race riding!
No matter what Kent did, he would be wrong to a lot of people, and I'm not a big fan of his either. The jockey is always the easiest to blame, but that horse was fighting him right from the start, and I don't see how letting him run up the backsides of the two horses in front of him would have been the right thing to do either.
On the backstretch, he had the horse right where everybody in the world wanted him to be - stalking the speed with clear sailing in front of him. The horse just didn't have it Saturday, for whatever reason or reasons you want to apply.
Travis,
I'm not on the bash Desormeaux bandwagon, although I do believe his ride was questionable, if not the reason Big Brown lost.
However, I thought you might be interested in Hall of Famer Gary Stevens' opinion, as told to an Idaho newspaper.
From: Idaho Statesman
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, an Idaho native who got his start at Les Bois Park, blamed jockey Kent Desormeaux for Big Brown's poor performance in the Belmont Stakes.
Desormeaux should not have held Big Brown back early in the race and instead taken him right to the front, Stevens said on KTIK's "Idaho Sports Talk" with Jeff Caves and Statesman sports columnist Brian Murphy on Monday.
Stevens said he told his son that Big Brown would lose as soon as he saw him hung up early in the race. Stevens attended the race.
"It's the first time I have wanted to have had my boots on since I retired," said Stevens, who won eight Triple Crown races during his storied career and now serves as a race analyst.
Stevens should be watching tapes of the '97 Belmont Stakes.
I beg the question -- what would he have done different?
Travis, nice rejoinder. Stevens has often said Silver Charm didn't see Touch Gold coming.
Funny how it always gets easier the farther away you are from the action. It wasn't Silver Charm's job to be looking in the rearview mirror, that's the jockey's job.
Big Brown was not used up chasing crazy fractions and was out in the clear on the backstretch. If Big Brown was what everybody thought he was, he would have roared past them all and won going away.
He didn't, and for those looking for the 30 cents on the dollar there has to be a fall guy. The jockey is always the scapegoat because he's in full view.
I expected Dutrow to be the first to bail on him - it's a doper's trait to blame everybody else but themselves. Some of the others jumping on are a surprise. It wasn't a hall of fame ride, but you know what would have been said no matter what he did.
He goes to the front? What are you chasing that cheap speed for - especially under those weather conditions?
He rides the hide of him down the stretch and comes in sixth, and then goes down. Then what?
Maybe Big Brown was just rank. Missed his morning blowout. Missed the Winstrol. Just didn't have it.
Gary Stevens on Idaho Sports Talk? Oh Boise.
sorry.