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Ok EZ, as the great Warner Wolf would say... Let's go to the video tape.
At 28-29 seconds, your 1 horse is in front, and relaxing which you know because the reigns are slightly slack. He is NOT pulling the rider out of the saddle.
At 34 sec. the 1 horse is on the lead, on the bit and now pulling, and the rider is working to get the horse settled somewhat and back in a rhythm like he was 5-8 seconds earlier. The 1 horse is doing that because feels that outside horse and it's knee jerk reaction is to run off and not relax, but duel right there. You can tell because the jockey was getting pulled out of the saddle for a few strides where he was settled about 6-10 seconds earlier. Try hard to see that. It is the key to seeing this stuff. Watch the reigns , the riders hands, and the tightness of the horse overall as compared to the fluid motion the horse had at about 25-29 seconds where he was settling into a pace . Because of the relaxing and then pulling, the breathing patterns change. Obviously the pulling portion is exerting more energy and it shows through the reigns and the riders hands.
By 47 -57 seconds, your inside horse has decided to listen to the riders hands, and look at the reigns. They actually have a little slack in them. That is what you want EZ. The horse is comfortable, not panicking, but in stride focused on breathing in rhythm and working WITH the rider instead of against the rider. With no panic, the right eye is no longer a problem. The horse does not care if he is covered up in that eye because he is in tune with the rider, not the other horse. That is the key to seeing this stuff EZ. If you have to, run this rerun as often as need be. If you cannot see it, we can watch it together while over the phone and we can go step by step. This is not easy to understand and I am not joking when I say that there are trainers out there that cannot see this, or realize what all this is. Trust me on that.
As the inside horse continues, the reigns stay slack, the horse is relaxed and all the sudden it is the outside horse who is working to inch in front, but your inside horse has not been asked yet. At this point, the race has flipped in that your 1 horse is actually controlling the outside horse. It was the other way around coming out of the 1st turn, right?
By 1:15 to 1:20, the outside rider is engaging his stick on the horses shoulder and your rider has not. Your rider , although slightly pinned, is comfortable and has plenty of horse. At about 1:23, your rider is going to go. He starts moving his hands and his stick in the right hand is brushing along the shoulder of the 1 horse. By 1:27 the outside riders hands are all the way up the reigns near the horses heads. He is at full ask at that point.
Your riders hands are just starting to move in a circle motion with the reigns. He is kind of resetting the bit. What that is , is your rider shaking his horse up and saying, ok dude, let's do this.
It seems like the outside horse will just draw away and yours will fade. But, the reigns , the hands, all say just the opposite. Your 1 horse has a gear left. That outside horse is in his last gear and all out.
By 1:36, your 1 horse is in front again, and your rider is urging with the stick but it is still downward and he is being tapped on the shoulder and responding very well. Your rider switches to the left hand, real smart move there, and hits your horse for the first time lefthanded and your horse immediately responds and is back in front. I always LOVED having riders ride the horse left handed when it came to the stick. I know I have said that 20 times in this thread Lol.
By 1:45, your horse is not tired yet because he was not set down to be all out until about 10-12 seconds earlier. Only way he loses from there is if he is a hanger that stops exerting effort on his own. He is NOT a hanger, and finishes well. He does drift just before the wire which was probably from the bright lights at the finish line, but he is well clear of bumping the outside horse.
To conclude, the horse ran GREAT. That rider rode a perfect race. Don't know who that rider is, but he/she is damn good within that jockey colony.
Great race to re watch EZ. Plenty to learn about the riders hands, the reigns, etc.
Keep me posted.Comment -
^ THX STR I knew your analysis would be complex compared to my green take. LOL. the rider in question is Walter Rodriquez. I saved your analysis to my email. and I can watch the replay any time on RTN. One question. So the #3 horse appearing on the scene on the outside had little or no factor on the #6 Fading?Comment -
just watched the race again. see some of the things you pointed out. tough for novice like me to see that in real time. thx again.Comment -
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Well that was worth getting up early for!! Wow... looked like he was on Cruz control! and haha, yes almost said something about the bandages..... you had me looking!
Another thing about the race, he galloped out nice and no one was getting to him past the wire.Last edited by batt33; 02-22-25, 09:16 AM.Comment -
Oh My Goodness !!!
BATT... The maturity and the professionalism that your horse showed just now was unbelievable. He is not the same horse he was last summer. He is a true pro!
That was a tremendous effort. It was beyond what he has done before. He was so professional, so in charge, so calm and cool. Not sweating and wet or all worked up. He is now a pro.
This horse loves what he is doing right now. Your trainer has done a superb job allowing this horse to come into himself the way he has. Only thing left for me to say is... WOW ! And , congratulations my friend.
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very impressive win batt..congratulations
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good deal Batt on the score.Comment -
by liam's map..tam R5 #5 senor poncho (8-1) @ 2:46
with LM post one's I like on occassion when i see them vs AM anything I find
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<br>Oh My Goodness !!!
BATT... The maturity and the professionalism that your horse showed just now was unbelievable. He is not the same horse he was last summer. He is a true pro!
That was a tremendous effort. It was beyond what he has done before. He was so professional, so in charge, so calm and cool. Not sweating and wet or all worked up. He is now a pro.
This horse loves what he is doing right now. Your trainer has done a superb job allowing this horse to come into himself the way he has. Only thing left for me to say is... WOW ! And , congratulations my friend.
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Thanks all! What a rush!Comment -
[COLOR=rgba(77, 76, 76, 0.9)]Back at the Barn with SNC
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The champ is back at the barn and appears to have come back in good order thus far. Enjoy these clips of Straight No Chaser and the team, including thoughts from trainer Dan Blacker.
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A totally different horse IMO. His mentality and composure is miles better than last summer. I am blown away at the difference Batt.[COLOR=rgba(77, 76, 76, 0.9)]Back at the Barn with SNC
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The champ is back at the barn and appears to have come back in good order thus far. Enjoy these clips of Straight No Chaser and the team, including thoughts from trainer Dan Blacker.
Great job by all involved.Comment -
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Army mule in the Derby prep race at Turf way tonight race #7 number 5 "California burrito" 8-1Comment -
Congrats Man!! Looks like many more to come. Dominant against the best. !!!!!!![COLOR=rgba(77, 76, 76, 0.9)]Wednesday Update
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Straight No Chaser had his first day back on the track this morning following Monday’s breeze and couldn’t be doing any better. He ended up only jogging this morning over the training track and will gallop tomorrow over the main track.
Enjoy as Joe Moran, Head of Bloodstock and Racing who is onsite in Riyadh provides another video update as well as a check-in with trainer Dan Blacker and his feedback on how today went.
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Wow nice run by "california burrito"! Wire to wire.. and it looked like he jumped the tracks at the 16th pole...Comment -
yeah very nice and showed the AM resilience when challenged ..looked like he changed leads just before the 1/16th and that helped give him the extra boost needed to get it done..never sure of myself with these observations so see what str says ..not sure I saw the jump batt but see what str says about that also
with all the following we do nice to have an AM derby contender..assuming he will go in the next and final prep there and a top 2 (possibly 3) he'll probably be going to the derby ..another positive is his 2 races at churchill resulted in a win by 6 and a close 2nd by 1 length..connections have a right to be excited
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thanks batt
geez I really can't see what you mean with the jumping in that time frame..I guess you're talking the you tube replay..only jumping I'm familiar with is a shadow on the track or maybe could be the horses if the angle of the sun is right.. don't think that's what you're referring to here..it's ok .. I'm still not sure I get lead changes correctly all the time so mechanical observations still a bit shaky for me
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play the final sixteenth back at half speed..ca-li-for-nia - bur-ri-to sounds great this way lolComment -
Good eye Batt. He did indeed jump the tire tracks from the gate. Looks like they were raked out like they are supposed to be by a member of the gate crew, but the horse saw the difference in the dirt and jumped it.
As for the lead change, the horse DID switch to his right lead about 6 strides before the jump, which was late switching leads, and was drifting as soon as he did switch to that right lead. That drift could have been from him seeing the upcoming dirt change and deciding what to make of it, which means he was thinking about things other than winning. He will need to improve on that but they typically do with a bit more experience.
He then did jump the tracks and disturbed dirt which means he was seeing that which might very well have led to the drifting I just spoke about.
Once he jumped, he was outrunning his closest rival from that point to the wire. That was impressive.
All in all, that was an excellent race. To be more focused on the dirt than the race or the horse next to him tells you he actually could have run better with more focus on winning.
We might see him next out wearing a small shadow roll. That is the noseband that is fluffy and can be blue, red or white that you see on horses that run with their heads up a bit. He is wearing a figure 8 now, which is there to keep his mouth closed. He seems to run with his mouth open a little, which takes control away from the bit a little at times. Hard to wear both and the shadow roll will help keep his mouth closed so we will just have to wait and see.
Best part of all of this was after he jumped, switched and got all that nonsense out of the way, he was actually starting to draw away from ,the 2nd horse. Always a positive to see that.
Bottom line is, a bunch of talent in this guy, and if they can straighten out this stuff in the next race, he could be on his way to the Derby. A lot of that is on the horse to help straighten it out so we will see. But really cool to see an AM on the Derby trail.Comment -
When you watch that replay when he is getting ready to jump, and then does, he has several strides that look weird. You know when a cat is getting ready to attack a ball of string or whatever? They kind of bend like a banana a little bit and run kind of sideways for a step or two? Well that is exactly what this horse did. It is more subtle but he did and it cost him lengths, speed and momentum. And he still is drawing off at the wire.Comment -
I will have to give this another look guys ..ultimately if I don't no big deal but certainly will attempt..seems like extra distance might not be a problem if he gets over this quirky behavior..excellent slightly below the radar trainer so good chance he'll be able to help
like caldera this one also has a lot of stamina in the female family and my early observation is this is more important with army mule than liam's mapComment -
by army mule(s)
oak R3 @ 2:02
#11 brooklyn drew (15-1)
gulfstream R7 @ 3:50
#1 bel pensiero (9-2)
turfway..R6 @ 6:45
#2 lalily (5-1)
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