A fool and her money (Warning: not a derby post)

[richiebee]

With all the sublime and nearly sublime racing taking place at this time of the year, I would like to spend some time discussing the ridiculous side of Racing.

For your consideration, I give you the last place finisher in yesterday\'s Pleasant Colony at Aqueduct, Blue Mon.

Blue Mon has listed as trainer Wayne W Rice. I am not certain if Wayne W. Rice is a son of Clyde Rice (who put over a 2YO named Titillating in one of the craftiest betting scams at NYRA in the past couple of decades) and thereby a brother of Linda Rice, who has become unbeatable in 5 furlong turf dashes.

No matter what his lineage be, Mr. Rice should have his license to train horses evaluated. Under the conditions of the Pleasant Colony, Blue Mon, as a non- winner of 5 races lifetime, was eligible to carry 118 pounds in this 14 furlong marathon, yet BM carried 126. You would think the owner of this animal would have complained that trainer Rice didn\'t take the 8 pounds BM was entitled to.

But wait. The owner of BM is also the jockey, Arienne Cox. Ms. Cox apparently also trained BM for the latter part of 2006. I am assuming that West Virginia racing rules prohibit trainers from riding their own animals, so in December, when BM appeared at Mountaineer, Wayne Rice took over the training chores.

Blue Mon\'s 2 races at Mountaineer produced 2 of the most eye- catching running lines I have seen in the DRF. On December 9, carrying 125 pounds in a 2 mile race (I\'m assuming this is the lowest weight Ms. Cox could tack), BM went off at odds of 5/1; he trailed by 28 lengths after the first call, by 16 lengths at the second call, and according to the DRF made a \"quick 4 wide bid\", going by 6 more lightly weighted rivals like a freight train goes by a hobo, winning by 18 lengths.

21 days later, BM is back at \"the Mountain\" as an 8/5 favorite in a 2-1/16th mile race carrying 124 pounds. In a 10 horse heat, he trailed by 49, 68, 52 and 21 lengths before splitting the field and getting beat 20 lengths.

BM shows up at the Gulf in March in a turf marathon. Carrying 128 pounds, most of which is made up of Ms Cox, he presses the pace set by a Todd Pletcher wire to wire winner, tiring at the end, beaten less than 3 lengths by 2 rivals carrying 8 less pounds than BM carried that day. The comment was \"steadied both turns\".

I didn\'t bet the Pleasant Colony, but watched closely. For the part of the race that BM was in contention, both horse and rider looked very uncomfortable. I am wondering why (a) with all the concern for the health of racehorses, why are we allowing this owner/ trainer/ jockey to burden this animal with excess weight; and (b) with all of our concern for the safety of jockeys, why is this woman (who looked awful on this horse yesterday) allowed to ride?

Team TVG never mentioned the weight issue on Blue Mon, saying only that he was a contender based on the Florida race. The sad part is that this could probably be a useful animal at some level, if only the owner would fire the jockey.

[marcus]

I hear you richiebee and happy easter - these days , it\'s almost as though apologizing for being stupid is some kind of badge of honor ...
From yesterdays SA charts , it looked like on the front end or inside was not the place to be for much of the early part of the card - did you see anything ?

[miff]

Bee,

I was under the impression that the race office asssigned the weights(off the conditions) and they were double checked. Agree the connections are totally responsible for this.

Mike

[SoCalMan2]

That horse carried 8 lbs of overweight in the prior allowance race.

Also, why doesn\'t this jockey get a bug?  Is it possible that she has won enough races to not be entitled to a bug?  Can a jockey turn down a bug?  If that is what happened, then the overweight on this horse was far greater than even what has been talked about on this thread.  It is conceivable this horse has carried 18-20 lbs more than required by the rules of racing.

[miff]

Bee,

From PJ Campo NYRA Racing Secretary:

The Trainer of Blue Mon at entry time waived the allowances which was all the weight so that his normal jockey could ride the horse. The jockey couldn\'t do less then that required weight.
Pj Campo




Mike

[marcus]

so they were doing their best given the situation , i guess spoke to fast - now it\'s time for me to apologize ...

[djck_29]

       Article about owner/trainer/jockey FYI

[richiebee]

Lets see, Djck-29, the article was written by Dave Joseph. Any relation between
poster and author?

Ok, the article was written in Summer 2006, when Ms. Cox was able to tack 120
pounds.

In the spring of 07, the horse has carried 128 and 126 pounds in his last 2
races when he could have carried, I think, 120 and 118. The distance of these 2
races was 1-1/2 miles and 1-3/4 miles.

This is obviously a very good horseperson, able to break young horses, pinhook
horses etc. I admire anyone who makes a living doing anything remotely related
to thoroughbred racing... I certainly wasn\'t able to.

But since Ms. Cox is so busy, let me supply her with some information, without
being overly cynical:

1) Weight is a factor;

2) Arguably, weight is more of a factor at increased distances;

3) 8 pounds is significant weight;

4) Usually inexperienced jockeys are given a weight allowance of 5-10 pounds;
usually inexperienced jockeys do not carry EXTRA weight.

In the Pleasant Colony, easily the toughest race Blue Mon competed in recently,
BM did not look comfortable on the track and Ms. Cox looked rather tentative on
BM. The result (and I hope horse and rider both returned healthy) was that when
the winner Malibu Moonshine crossed the wire, BM was somewhere near the Home
Depot (inside Aq joke).

[djck_29]

No I am not the author, though you are correct that is my first and middle name.

Was just reading the board and remember reading the article so I googled it and posted it.