Florida derby 2017

this race is noteworthy for the truly jackass race ridden by the jockey on the very favorite Gunnervera...J J Castellano one of the top riders around at the moment

Castellano may be a top rider but put  him on a closer and he is iffy indeed.  the way he rode Gunnevera was the the way he rode closers all day long..and lost all day long

a closer depends on the speed in a race exhausting itself, falling  back tired, at which point the closer runs past them.  if the friggin  speed does not  stop the closer loses the race

but even if the speeds take off in suicidal pace duel, the closer must be roused early in the race to get a decent position to have chance to race down the failing  speed.  failing speed or not if the closer is too far back, dead last in fact, he still has no chance to win if the speed fails.  one of the speeds will still struggle home ahead of the closer..coming late, blazing up the track for second third or fourth.

Castellano maintained Gunnevera dead last for far too long in the race on saturday.  I was shocked. I kept shouting rouse the dam horse, rouse the horse, get  moving!!!  but Castellano made no move until it was totally out of the question.  none of the speeds were stopping so dat he could catch up

but the winner Always dreaming......is one to look out for Derby day. 

Always Dreaming has established that he has the pedigree of his sire for sure Bodemeister..although none his first crop relatives had displayed any such talent up to now. 

I guess there must be at least one of the progeny to be as good as his parent in every crop of a sires horses.

I was worried about Bodemeister as a sire up to this point.  but Always Dreaming ran well indeed.  that race demonstrated this he has real talent and is a Derby 2017 contender

jackass ride it was.  I don't like how those older, formerly star jockeys ride horse now man.  all of them have assumed some kind of jackass older man stye of riding that is lunatic indeed. 

if you count on them as you may have in the past to routine ride their mounts properly forget it.  they just don't ride well anymore save on big horse in big races.  and as the Florida Derby proved with Castellano you cant even do that with any level of certainty

here is a list of older Jockeys to be very wary of
J R Velsaquez
Mike Smith***
Victor Espinoza
Gary Stevens
Kent Desormeaux
J J Castellano
Eddie Castro

Mike Smith, the rider of Arrogate the great champion is the worst of the lot.  he will ride well such a horse as Arrogate but in regular races he 3ill eff the dog constantly.

any time he rides a horse in California he is the fave at  very low odds..because he is Mike Smith but he invariably loses...for no good reason at all.  for no observable reason unless he does not care to try hard enough to win the race.  it is best to bet against him which is what I usually do..and turn out to be right

there are some older riders who try hard still:  2 of them are Martin Pedroza and Corey Nakatani