In yesterday’s 5 th race at Parx, Paco Lopez rode the winner of the 5th race. The horse is a 2 year old Maiden special weight going long. If you watch the replay the horse looses interest as he is easily drawing away from the field as they turn for home. When the horse looses interest he starts pulling up and going to the outside. I would bet a lot of money that he galloped in company and pulled up just past the wire everyday for months and my guess is recently he either stopped galloping in company, which can be somewhat typical once the horse starts running races. I assume the horse has run a couple times but did not see the form. Anyway, if this is the case all this would make a lot of sense. I saw it all the time when I was there.
so assuming he did start galloping by himself but even if not, if he was used to galloping past the wire daily and now that it is colder outside especially in the morning, the rider might choose to start pulling up a little earlier than usual because it is a long jog home on the outside fence if you go past the wire to start to pull up but a lot quicker if you start pulling up at the 3/16ths or 1/8th pole. And… it’s cold .
So the horse, if I am right and I’d bet on it, over thinks it and starts taking himself to the outside fence to pull up . Paco starts hitting him on his neck that is a complete waste of time as the horse is now thinking and Paco is not in charge.
The horse still wins but it’s ugly and when finally pulling up about an 1/8 of a mile later, Paco losses his cool and hits the horse hard on the neck when the horse is no longer galloping out.
The outrider then steps in and gets him back home. Next day, he is suspended and probably gets the rest of the year off. So stupid! A bad temper within a really good rider.
A couple of things. The horse was wearing 3/4 blinkers which are very common. He ran in the mildest bit trainers use meaning he must not have shown any signs of this previously.
It will be an easy fix unless the horse latches onto this habit and hopefully it doesn’t happen again. But like I said, this horse just did not do this from out of nowhere.
I doubt you will get the real reason it happened but plenty of people already know.
The trainer Durarte seems to win often I think and probably has a barn full of horses. He only made matters worse when asked about what happened. He defended the rider and might not have seen the problem after the race. But a little diplomacy would have gone a long way there. Gotta be better than that . This isn’t the 70’s anymore and fans get upset and rightly so. I remember it happening too me back then and I was so pissed I could hardly breath. I was upset for the horse. But OMG I was mad at the rider.
We will see what happens. A quick note. This horse could have and should have won by at least 10 length’s yesterday. He won by one length. When he runs back he should be a tough out. Maybe keep an eye on that. He is a lot better than this race will show on the form.
To watch the replay go to http://www.parxracing.com/ Tuesday 5th race.
so assuming he did start galloping by himself but even if not, if he was used to galloping past the wire daily and now that it is colder outside especially in the morning, the rider might choose to start pulling up a little earlier than usual because it is a long jog home on the outside fence if you go past the wire to start to pull up but a lot quicker if you start pulling up at the 3/16ths or 1/8th pole. And… it’s cold .
So the horse, if I am right and I’d bet on it, over thinks it and starts taking himself to the outside fence to pull up . Paco starts hitting him on his neck that is a complete waste of time as the horse is now thinking and Paco is not in charge.
The horse still wins but it’s ugly and when finally pulling up about an 1/8 of a mile later, Paco losses his cool and hits the horse hard on the neck when the horse is no longer galloping out.
The outrider then steps in and gets him back home. Next day, he is suspended and probably gets the rest of the year off. So stupid! A bad temper within a really good rider.
A couple of things. The horse was wearing 3/4 blinkers which are very common. He ran in the mildest bit trainers use meaning he must not have shown any signs of this previously.
It will be an easy fix unless the horse latches onto this habit and hopefully it doesn’t happen again. But like I said, this horse just did not do this from out of nowhere.
I doubt you will get the real reason it happened but plenty of people already know.
The trainer Durarte seems to win often I think and probably has a barn full of horses. He only made matters worse when asked about what happened. He defended the rider and might not have seen the problem after the race. But a little diplomacy would have gone a long way there. Gotta be better than that . This isn’t the 70’s anymore and fans get upset and rightly so. I remember it happening too me back then and I was so pissed I could hardly breath. I was upset for the horse. But OMG I was mad at the rider.
We will see what happens. A quick note. This horse could have and should have won by at least 10 length’s yesterday. He won by one length. When he runs back he should be a tough out. Maybe keep an eye on that. He is a lot better than this race will show on the form.
To watch the replay go to http://www.parxracing.com/ Tuesday 5th race.
