Casetllano needs a nickname

[TempletonPeck]

I should say, he didn\'t set me off, or upset me. I think I have come across that way in this thread, which is my fault. I felt a little foolish about responding to Frank so sarcastically, but otherwise I\'m feeling ok :-)

As with many things, it\'s a matter of perspective. On the one side of the coin, you see a ride where he did not panic when stuck at the rail, and on the other side of the coin, I wonder why he ever was stuck there? His horse broke well, has previously showed some early lick, at least by the standards of a 12f euro turfer, and he allowed a situation to develop down the back and into the turn where he could get pinned at the rail.

Maybe the horse needs cover or prefers it, as I know some euros do, and in that case my beef diminishes, but it seemed to me he let a situation develop where he needed to get on the brakes pretty hard, make a pretty sharp right turn, and then the horse was enough to overcome it. That he won, to me, speaks to the quality of the horse, rather than the quality of the jock or the ride.

Said another way, in a 4 horse field, he ended up 4 wide and didn\'t get there entirely of his own choosing. To say after the fact \"He won wrapped up anyway, he clearly knew what he was doing,\" feels like results-oriented thinking, to me.

And I guess I\'ll say it one last time, I\'m not saying the guy is a bum! I\'m only saying that I don\'t think this was his finest work, and that I don\'t think the distance between him and the pack is as great as some think it.

[Tavasco]

An aside -

For the few horizontal players who had to leave Flintshire off their tickets (on what they\'ll insist are sound handicapping principles) the race gave them an emotional thrilling few seconds in an otherwise unemotional objective day to contrast with the many who gulped when it appeared he might not get out of the box.

The thrills of the sport.

[TempletonPeck]

\"It\'s like Papa Wallenda said, \'Life is on the wire. The rest is just waiting.\'\"

[RICH]

based on the last yr
stakes/alw 717-153 21%
clam 265-57 22%
msw 279-56 20%
mcl 189-46 24%