I have yet to see the head on replay. I’m not sure if Ortiz came in on Sierra Leone or if Sierra Leone is his own worst enemy.
Despite the ground loss, if Irad doesn\'t crack the #10 left handed hard twice in mid stretch he wins. He lost his momentum and veered out several paths as a result of the excessive whip, by the time he was corrected it was too late. A very talented but inexperienced horse - who had cantered in his last race. Irad should know better - he cost the connections the race.
At the start it looked like a little of both. SL didn\'t break smoothly, and then Irad bumped him a little. But in the stretch it was all SL - it looked like he may have bumped Honor M and then veered in sharply and bumped someone else. I was surprised there was no inquiry. I\'m wondering if he gets spooked by crowd noise, and maybe they should try those Gate Dancer ear muffs on him.
Was not HM but Protective/Tyler that fanned SL out 7 wide in the turn, then just exiting the turn took a stride to straighten, then a right hand turn directly into SL (who hadn\'t had a chance to start bearing in yet, which he did later). A little revenge riding by Tyler? This was the most significant and questionable contact that took place IMO.
EDIT - To be clear, dont think SL was catching leaders regardless, floating wide on the turn was a suicide mission all day, and a definite inside bias on paths 1-3 vs 4-8
No, not crowd noise
This is a very dominant colt but he is very very \"herd bound\"
He wants to be the leader by taking out the leaders
He\'s just not making the leap to \"leader\"
Hate to say it, but at this point he has arguably messed up other horses trips and chances
Personally, without his interference, I think Forever Young would have won the Derby
And that is horse racing,
Saez and Dornoch are a good match, and when their moment came they hit it
Congrats to the connections and those who kept the faith
Why hasn\'t Chad put a full cup blinker on the right side of SL\'s hood?
Sierra Leone lugs in.
He has to do something to correct his habit of lugging in.
IMO,the bit he switched to was the correct first step
IMO, the next step would be a full cup, or very nearly so, blinker but on the left eye
other than that, there is something called a burr, it would be used on the left side of his bit, that can be used as a different deterent to his lugging in
He is still a tremendous horse. And full confidence in The Chad to make the next best move for him
And must say, from Lov9ng Room Downs, the track looked very sticky and tiring. Solid early speed had an advantage
Left eye , correct.