...down the stretch they come

[richiebee]

Mandown:

  I appreciate the explanation. I\'m sure Euro riders come in all shapes and sizes (I guess thats a bad phrase if were talking about jocks). My comment about Alydar was more a backhand shot at the other jock in those Aly/Affirmed races.

  I guess Cruguet is still the last Euro born rider to win the Derby.

  Hey Mandown is there any access to video of English races from the 70s? I am
particularly curious to see some of The Minstrel\'s races in 1977.

[big ant]

I always thought Shoe was a strong finsher. I know very little about European racing, But in this country there have been a few guys that seemed to excel  at long distances; Shoe was one, Jorge Velasquez another, and I really like Edgar Prado, or even Santos at the longer routes.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Cauthen predates my serious handicapping days, so all I can really comment upon his ability, but here are my impressions:

1. He had a very short career. In the United States I would summarize it in one word, Affirmed;

2. Running off to England before he had firmly established a record in the United States was not good for his career or reputation;

3. After his retirement, as a network analyst he was commenting upon a race and was asked about a specific horses change of leads. He could not make out the lead change and commented erroneously in regard to same. I was perplexed that a jockey that had won as many big races as he couldn\'t discern a lead change or even which lead a horse was on. He didn\'t last any longer as an analyst than he did as a jockey.

Many times jockeys are passengers. I think Cauthen was on a good horse in Affirmed. As for Dettori he stunk the joint up with Wilco last and he owes me money. The Swain ride was a beaut, but I was not displeased Awesome Again got up that day. I won\'t say I won or got back some of the money Dettori owes me. I\'ll just say I\'m pleased Awesome Again got up that day.

CtC

[mandown]

Richie,

I\'m afraid I have no idea where you would find clips of The Minstrel. The material would be copyright of the BBC or Independent Televison (they\'ve changed hands many times since) and is probably archived somewhere but I\'ve never seen it available online.

You could always try going to the BBC website (bbc.co.uk) and then e-mailing them with a request for footage. They might do something though I would doubt it.

George

[SoCalMan2]

Hey Mall!

Did see Gators and Bears.  He was a good bet on Saturday...just wish he had won.  That exacta was the only bright spot in an otherwise down day for me. My second best race after the Commonwealth was the Blue Grass and that was only because I chose not to bet it (if I had, I would have taken a position against Bandini).

Glad to hear that the connections of Tizawinner are feeling optimistic.

As for Moscow, they no longer offer betting on American racing here, so I am stuck with the internet.  They have said I can special order the Derby, but we will see.  The last time I special ordered the Derby here, they had all the pre-race coverage and everything and then they shut off the signal and the betting at 12 minutes to post, so I was stuck high and dry and could not get my bets down.

Sad to hear they are not sending Blues and Royals over.  It would have been nice to get the horse at a healthy price.  Dettori would have really created a conundrum for me.  With 20 horses, I do not even want to think about the trouble that guy could find.

[Wrongly]

Dettori\'s Ride on Swain view it for yourself.  Now that Blues ans Royal is out he\'s probably back aboard Wilko

http://www.equinevision.com/vsg/index.cfm?fuseaction=video&horse_number=1095&video=performance2