Preakness

Man, Prado gave C P West a hell of a ride there. Nearly had a heart attack, with my last words being something along the lines of "Go, you mother! Go!"

So close.

 

Those were three fine horses, all well rode, in that race. If it had been the Derby, we'd never have heard the end of it.

 

Atrocious ride by Pino. Presence of Zito's horse didn't help, but Pino pulled the trigger far too hard, and far too early.

 

Now, which of these horses -- Curlin', Street Sense, Hard Spun -- has the endurance for a mile and a half at Belmont?

 

Wrong. The only chance he had was for Curlin and Street Sense to get caught in traffic. Those two horses in front of him flat died. He had to get around them. He didn't even really pull the trigger. The horse just didn't have enough in the end. Hard Spun is the third best horse out there. That's just the reality of it.

 

Vic Ziegal of the NY Daily News made a good point:

Hard Spun went 1:09.80 for the first six furlongs and that was two seconds quicker than a horse named Secretariat, who was on the way to breaking the track record.

Now, he may have felt he had to pull the trigger early to get around the other two horses, but it seems to me that getting out there too quickly cost him any chance of winning the race without Street Sense and Curlin' both falling down on the stretch.

 

I love Jones. I respect Pino, especially when he's operating in the Maryland/Delaware area.
But that wasn't a good ride, and I'm pretty sure he knows it. Early hints are that they'll go to New York for a race which has eaten up speed horses handled by trainers loyal to secondary-circuit riders.
His speed makes him dangerous, but he's got to be rated properly.