As a racing fan, you had to love the battle between the Saint and the Ghost.
Prado did a great job of imitating Cordero but still got zapped in the end.
Now that was a horse race.
Chris
Funny you say that. As I watching the race, I was thinking the same thing. A Cordero ride by Prado.
I actually thought Prado rode a great race. He saw nobody coming on the inside, so he drifted Ghostzapper, trying to intimidate him, and gave everything he had. You could see early in the stretch that Prado was working his horse harder than Castellano and since I had Prado, I felt doomed. But he gave it all he had.
I really think Prado is at the level of the best right now, bar none. Curious what other people think about him.
Prado and John Velasquez, a coin flip who is the best rider in the country. Bailey isn\'t in their league anymore,IMO.
there where two incidents of bumping, and I heard at one point that prado carried him so wide they went off the \"head on\". He may get days for the ride, he clearly bumped the other horse intentionally. I dont care, just pointing it out.
jimbo,
in the east, i make bailey, velazquez, dominguez, castellano, and prado the ones. bailey is the best, possibly the best ever (although his excellence has been priced into the market for a while now, not much there in terms of making money). i think velazquez is the second best. in todays wind em up speed game, he adds so much to his mounts in terms of getting them on the engine early, in a fast but comfortable pace. the amount of races the guy steals is amazing. i make castellano the third best. he is even better than johnnyv in getting his mounts on the engine. if you are wondering why he has been on a lot of the horese recently running the huge figs, it is because he has an unbeliveable ability to get horses to run fast. sounds awful simplistic, and most sheet players won\'t agree with this, but just look at the way he has moved up so many of his mounts, and look at the prices his horses have paid. the guy is a natural, and will be regarded as one of the best in a few years. i make prado the fourth best overall. i think the first three do a better job of getting their mounts in good position in quickly run races. prado has learned the wind em up game quickly though, just look at yesterday\'s ride in the woodward. if he keeps on improving on dirt, he might jump to the top of the list quickly. as for turf racing, edgar might already be the best. when it comes to rating a horse, and making one winning move, i think the guy is the best. since most jocks tend to play the rating game on turf these days, having edgar aboard is a big plus. i have not seen dominguez ride that much, but he wins everywhere, and when i bet him, i always get a good trip. has to be considered up there somewhere.
>bailey is the best, possibly the best ever
Not hardly, he has been on a strong 10 year run. Starting in about 94 and we will give him thru the current date even though the overall quality of his riding has slipped. And keep in mind he doesn\'t ride anything unless its totally live, look at difference in the number of rides between he, Johnny V and Prado.
There have been too many others before Bailey such Cordero, Day, McCarron, Shoemaker and for my money pound-for-pound the best there ever was Laffit Pincay jr. who rode at an extremely high level for over 20 years.
These guys were \"doing it\" when they were in their twenties. Bailey was working as Eddie Maples back-up at that point in his career.
As far as yesterdays races go, the grass winner was more impressive to me. That was some kick he put in.
Bailey was not even the best in new york until smith went over the hedge
case in point regarding castellano: today he had winners that paid $28 and $17 (and one more as the favorite). it\'s not often you can get these kind of prices on a jock riding so well.....
It reminded me of Meadow Star and Lite Lite