Focus

[Silver Charm]

\"Lukas, Sellers Spar Over Jockey Weights\"

The above is the headline from a story on the Bloodhorse site:

``Anything Shane Sellers says, I wouldn\'t take too seriously,\'\' said Lukas

``He showed he never had any compassion for riders and he never will,\'\' said Sellers

``There\'s no common sense in that logic at all,\'\' said Lukas

Sellers``It\'s time to stop listening to guys like Wayne Lukas.\'\'

My question is why is Sellers engaging in these wars before the biggest ride off his life. His horse has a big chance and yet between this Documentary, the spitting matches, and lawsuits over the rights to wear advertisements you really have to wonder where his head is right now.

Believe me regardless of what you interpret from the comments, Lukas has gotten into his head, perhaps thrown him off his game. The qestion becomes one of whether or not he (Sellers) is going to be answering these questions constantly over the next few days and then again if he isn\'t then why isn\'t he.

He and the other Jockeys brought this up, the advertising litigation, the PVAL no vote and are forcing the issues at a time when they should be thinking about trying to win the biggest race of their lives.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

You\'ve got 40 year old men trying to make 115 pounds and 2% total body fat and to do so many of them are absolutely punishing themselves and risking their health to do it. Did anyone see the HBO special \"Jockey\"? Mall mentioned it. I missed it, but looked it up on the net and read about it.

Making weight has been a battle for Sellers and others. This in an age when people are bigger and stronger just like the horses. To continue to hold men to the light weights is unjustified. Lets give them some breathing room, so they can have an ice cream cone or a beer now and then. It may be marginally tougher on a 10K claimer to carry 122 rather than 116 pounds, but I\'m pretty sure that carrying six more pounds is easier on the horse than the jockey having to reduce six pounds and I\'m not arguing for changing the Triple Crown imposts.

You got a guy like Lukas who has argued for changing the distance and spacing of the Triple Crown and yet he can\'t find it in himself to support compassion for the riders? If anyone remembers what this heartless ghoul said about Chris Antley they\'ll understand and applaud why he\'s on the bum\'s rush out of town now. Typical Lukas unadulterated B.S. God I hate that man. Thank You Silver for reminding me why.

Now the issue of the Nasty Little People. Theres quite a bunch with Derby mounts so if you employ the Chuckles Derby Commandment to disqualify the little money hungry, greedy,  grubby fingered, you\'re on your way to cashing big time in the Run for the Roses.

The disqualified:

Rion Hart - Mike Smith
Master David - Alex Solis
Imperialism - Kent Desormeaux
Borrego - Victor Espinosa
Castledale - Jose Valdivia
Quinton\'s Gold Rush - Corey Nakatani
St. Averil - Tyler Baze

Please note that Victor Espinosa doesn\'t really know much English and its really hard to believe he knows exactly what the heck the petition he signed said. He may have thought he was petitioning for automatic citiznry for all foreign Jockey\'s. The same could be said of Javier Santiago, but Baffert alleviated that problem by benching that particular little bread snapper. The other guys know English perfectly well and it is believed they can count. Riding horses well is another matter entirely. You have to recognize with the retirement of jocks like McCarron, Pincay, Delahoussaye and Stevens infrequent riding that theres a talent vacuum out West and Pval was the only guy with the ability to fill it.



Post Edited (04-27-04 22:02)

[Silver Charm]

I looked it up for everyone else.

de·crep·it--Weakened, worn out, impaired, or broken down by old age, illness, or hard use. See Synonyms of weak.

Wayne is 7-144 this year and you would think he would keep a little lower profile, but he never has and never will. I would go to my grave for the guy so you are never going to hear any criticism from me.

Excellent piece by Marty McGee at DRF on Sellers. Marty is one of the MANY talented writer/handicappers Ed-in-Chief Steve Crist has at his disposal. Some athletes thrive on controversy, Reggie/Billy/Boss for example, others become distracted by it. There may more to this Wayne/Sellers fued than meets the eye. Who knows.

When some of these jocks go home at night who do they call first, their agent and ask how he worked today, or their lawyer and say sue the hell out of them. Maybe they call the arbitrator and say we aren\'t giving an inch--its him or me I\'ll cleam out my locker tomorrow.

This will all go away in a couple of days and The Race will be the focus as it should be. Whether or not Sellers is capable of fighting multiple wars on duel fronts and ride the Race-of-his-Life, well only time will tell.

By the way CtC nice post.

[Michael D.]

CtC,
there are a lot of good posts regarding the triple crown candidates (many from you). could you do us a favor, and stop cluttering the board with this crap about the greedy, grubby fingered jockeys. you are making it more difficult for the rest of us to find the thoughtful posts.

[Silver Charm]

I see The Board Police nailed you too CtC.

LOL

See you guys tomorrow.

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Michael...its not just a revelation of the self interested nature of select diminutive horse mishandlers. I\'m utilizing it as a chaos-handicapping tool this year similar to Steve Haskin's \"Derby Commandments\". My theory is that little men so self interested and petty lack the ability to go out and attain upon their own. That their attempt is to utilize forces bigger, stronger and more efficient than themselves to gain the advantage reflects a self-assessment of their ability. In essence its the epitome of the  \"Napolean Complex\" manifesting itself. I don\'t think these guys are good enough to win and that they realize it themselves. Espinosa gets a pass on the language but he\'s still disqualified and Desormeaux is just the same old Desormeaux. Buttered snails anyone?

Seriously, if you disqualify Haskins disqualified and disqualify CtC\'s disqualified do you really need dosage?



CtC