New Poll, Kent D’s Ride
Kent Desormeaux, prudent, a quitter or irrelevant in that Big Brown didn’t show up? (~ RAYMOND)
There’s plenty of discussion going on about Kent D’s ride yesterday in the Belmont, primarily here but also here (mixed in with other discussion) and perhaps elsewhere too.
I’m vacillating between prudent and unsportsmanlike, but what you do you think?
Our last poll was one of the more uninspiring polls of late with only 19 voting! 6 of you thought that the Governments involvement in racing is the only thing that could make it worse, 5 of you thought it was about time and 4 of you didn’t expect much or thought it was the coming of the 4th horseman, so to speak.
As always, thanks!
Posted by dana on Jun 08 2008
Filed Under: 2008, Raymond Haddad, Sportsmanship, Kent Desormeaux, Belmont, Racing
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The horse didn’t have it and there was nothing KD could do. Why beat the shit out of the horse when you know there’s nothing there? He did the right thing. And anyone who booed him and the horse when they finally corssed the finish line is a complete asshole and doesn’t deserve admittance into a race track. That was totally classless. Why not just start throwing shit at the horse cause he spoiled your Triple Crown fantasy? The people booing the horse and rider was the most disappointing part of the enitre thing for me. Neither of them deserved that.
Race horse or stud - which is it - Don’t put him on the track if you are no ready to take the risk. The rider was wrong to hold him back and baby him. Was he given this direction or was it his own decision?
Something obviously was a miss. If you ever saw Big Brown run, it was obvious he was not himself yesterday. No one knew that better than the rider. So, the rider should’ve got after him and drove him to the wire not knowing if the horse was sick or injured right? And, if the horse happened to break down, no big deal right? Race Horse or Stud? neither; Animal, that what it is and it dererves to be trated with respect; that is what Desormeaux did.
Wow, you both have expressed it for me… on the one hand if your horse doesn’t show up there no sense in whipping the shit out of him and asking him for something he doesn’t have. On the other hand, what if every favorite was eased out when it was obvious they were a no show instead of allowing them to finish the race in whatever position they would have ended up in, that’s not a pretty picture either.
When it comes down to it I’m not jazzed about the ride up front but I’m relieved he was prudent with him because as Charles points out, it was so clearly not the normal Big Brown. I think in this was a particular instance it was understandable.
And yeah, I was wicked annoyed with the boo-ers! It totally made a not so great day much worse. C - Would have loved to have met you! It’s tough on big days, I’m also looking forward to seeing your stuff!
Let’s see if KD is still up when Big Brown runs in the Jim Dandy!!
Totally!
I’ll be interested to see about that, but then again going back to Pino after his hid ride of Hard Spun in the Preakness (and Gomez’s hid ride in the Belmont) worked out just fine.
I am glad this was brought up. I was talking about this last night (Belmont Night) with my father. If this was done in the 4th race on a Wednesday Desormeaux would be fined and suspended. If the horse is hurt (or there is a belief he is hurt) that is one thing. But to say that you knew that you couldn’t win so you pulled him up….uh wrong…Not when there was 100 million bet on the Belmont Card on Saturday. Exacta’s, Triple’s and Superfectas are all in play. There seems to be a sense that if you ease the horse up and get a DNF on your record than that race never occurred. Wrong, tell that to the guy who had Da’ Tara in his superfecta and needed Big Brown for fourth.
There seems to be a divide on here from the fan’s who view this game as a sport and that of the gambling fan. I am involved in this game right down the middle. I will give Desormeaux the benefit of the doubt he made the comment without thinking due to the fact that he was put on the spot by the media. Remember this- injuries are a valid justification for pulling a horse up but the fear of failing is not.
Great points Jason and well put… as both a fan and a gambler I agree whole heartedly that easing a horse/fav out of race because he’s not gonna win/do well absolutely wrong, unsportsmanlike and unacceptable… I guess I didn’t think to bring up the gambling issue because I didn’t have Da’Tara in any of my supers or tris, lol.
I’ll have to go back and look at KD’s quotes but in this case I’ll go with he thought something was wrong, not so much in there was a specific injury but that there was no point in pushing him.
Great, great photo by Raymond.
My oh my—the only thing Kent can be blamed for is humanity—there was zero horse out there. Keep pumping away and a dual Classic winner could be lying in the stretch, before a zillion televised eyes, 8 Belles the sequel.
See that is exactly the reason why some folks insist what Desormeaux did was great–the tragedy of Eight Belles is fresh in our minds. The difference is, NOTHING was physically wrong with Big Brown. The on-track vets said that, the jockey himself said that, the tests afterwards said it. He was tired and didn’t want to run. Now, how many horses every day in America get tired or don’t run their race? And how many of their jockeys would get suspended for doing what Desormeaux did? I’m not saying he needed to whip him or force him to do anything, and certainly not drive him to the wire, but he needed to ride him THROUGH the wire.
“Could be lying in the stretch” is OUR fear of what COULD have, but that is not based on the facts. Was the horse in distress? No. If you read Desormeaux’ own words after the race, he said, “He’s not lame; nothing was wrong. When I turned for home, I had no horse. I thought the race was playing into us, but when I asked Big Brown to engage, I had no horse. I was done.”
I just don’t think Desormeaux should be given a pass on this. Not just for bettors, but also fans of horse racing. He also rode a terrible race. If Big Brown races again, we’ll see if he gets the ride—I doubt it.
I watched the replay at home, and these are the first words, verbatim, that Desormeaux said after the race: “”Long before we went into the last turn, I had no horse. I could not be fifth, this horse is the best horse I’ve ever ridden, and something’s wrong, so I took care of him.”
Seems clear to me that he thought something was wrong; it was one of the first things out of his mouth. He was wrong, yes, to mention placement, but he obviously thought something was off with his horse.
When he said “something’s wrong”, I took it to mean this isn’t the powerful machine that ran by everyone and crush his competition as in previous races…not “something’s wrong” as in he’s about to breakdownt so I wanted to get him stopped as quickly as possible. Semantics, I know. That’s why Desormeaux needs to be asked the question, for clarification. It’s not the first time he’s been accused of not riding horses through the wire…
Over on his Bloodhorse blog, Jason Shandler is reporting: “There is an article coming out in this week’s B-H where Billy Turner, the last living trainer to win the Triple Crown says, and I quote, “We had a disaster yesterday. You never, ever pull up a horse who is structurally sound. If he had bobbled, that’s one thing, but he had a hard time pulling him up. He was sound! He took him out of the race. In the 6o’s 70’s and 80’s the NY stewards would have run (Desormeaux) out of NY and told him not to come back.”
Turner goes on to say much more.”
Should be interesting.
I can understand the range of opinions on this matter, and when it comes to opinions, everyone has the right to their own. Regardless of your take on this, we were all obviously disappointed by the outcome. There seems to be no clear explanation as to why everything went the way it did. Maybe the Horse Gods needed to dish out a little humility to a few certain folks. That is all that seems to be making any sense to me right now.
There is a horse racing show on Sirius called “At The Races’ that is on daily. even if you don’t have Sirius, you can listen live online at:
http://www.thoroughbredracingradionetwork.com/
It’s on from 4-7pm ET weekdays. Enjoy.
If there was anything wrong with the horse, Desormeaux would have jumped off. You don’t gallop an injured horse to the wire. That’s the proof right there. This belief that Kent was concerned for the welfare of the horse is BS. You don’t continue to ride him out if “something is wrong”.
In addition, I never criticized Kent D. for his Real Quiet ride. I thought it was fine except the outcome was not to his liking….however his legacy will forever be tarnished with this ride.
There are numerous reports coming out about Kent D.’s past riding indiscretions….here is a forgotten one. KOTASHAAN in the JAPAN CUP. Here was the result “Desormeaux was fined $460 by the Japan Racing Association for easing his horse before the finish.” Costing him the race.
I’m just taking what he said at face value:
“Long before we went into the last turn, I had no horse. I could not be fifth, this horse is the best horse I’ve ever ridden, and something’s wrong, so I took care of him.”
If he’s full of shit, that’s on him. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Bottom line is, we all had another Triple Crown failure, and everyone’s upset about it. These discussions will continue, I’m sure.
I know Steve Haskin has an article coming out in the Blood Horse this week regarding the ride, and Dutrow voices his displeasure with Desormeaux as well.
I still don’t think Big Brown would have had any say in the exotics though. But, what Desormeaux did has obviously rubbed alot of people the wrong way. Everyone has the right to feel however they wish about it.
If we ever do get to see another Triple Crown winner, I think the then President should make the following Monday a national holiday.
Wow… this was the comment thread to finally motivate me to add the new “Recent Comment” section on the sidebar… thanks everyone! AND, thanks for an excellent, well mannered discussion (that you should feel free to continue if you want!).
I noticed over at the Rail that Iavarone has come out in support of the ride and in general I noticed that he’s been doing all of the talking instead of Babe.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the Turner and Haskin pieces… overall I think the whole TC was kind of a disaster with a perfectly weird ass disappointing ending that leaves way more questions unanswered than answered.
Jessica has another great point that plays into the whole questionable ride quandary, there’s absolutely no transparency when it comes to the stewards…
And thanks for the Sirius link C!
I guess the rules vary from state to state (as usual), but I was under the impression that if a jockey was found guilty of “failing to persevere”, he or she would be suspended and it would be publicly known etc.
I have to agree with you Dana, this TC season was kind of a disaster, and it’s ending left everyone, racing and non-racing fans befuddled. Friends have called me and asked “What the..?
And the only thing that I can tell them that makes any sense is “That’s horse racing.”
Remember what I wrote on here prior to the Derby, about the mystery of the equine athlete? — “No one really knows.”
If only Big Brown could talk.
The booing thing got me pretty charged up and upset. To be honest, my heart ached for KD’s wife and kids, especially the kids. They had to be heart broken already and then have their dad treated like that, wether he deserved it or not, it just bothered me.
The second reason is the horse. You hear trainers and jockeys talking about the sensitivty of these horses all the time, and how important it is to stay relaxed and not to convey the wrong emotions to the animal. They pick up on, and are very sensitive to people’s emotions, energy,etc. So, for this horse to have to come back to the wave of negativity and chorus of boos that were directed towards him was just kind of cruel and undeserved. Maybe they were just booing the jock, but, I couldn’t help be feel bad for the horse.
Alot of people ’say’ that the horse is the most important thing at the track, but I think cashing tickets wins out in the end with most people.
Do you know, that if he won, there were a bunch of writers who were already working on their “he didn’t beat anyone” stories? The reason I bring it up is because racing, as a whole, is never satisfied. This game will always be ‘broken’ because that is the way people want it to be.
Yes Pravata, how true–If only Big Brown could talk. Then we could ask him the following:
1. Were you bothered when Kent pulled you up when you were on the rail behind Da’ Tara?
2. Did you get tired when he took you wide around the first turn into the backstrectch?
3. Were you already tired going into the race. Did you feel Rank entering the Gate?
4. Did the Crowd stress you out?
5. In the final turn when asked to go, did you have anything left?
6. Did you want to finish out the race or be pulled up?
7. Are you physicall fine now?
8. Do you feel up for more racing? If so, when-the Travers?
As he can’t talk, who knows, I think it was not his day-he was tired and was not going to win. I do think that Kent should have simply eased him up a bit and gallop across the finish line. He was through around the final turn and would not have placed, but he should have continued to run (even if he just galloped) and finished across the line, either 7th or 8th.
Fabulous post