top five big race rides in history

[charleym]

Along with those mentioned, especially Shoe in \'86, Valenzuela in the \'89 Preakness.

by the way,is jerry p going to LV?

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Best rides are so hard to judge. The way I figure it if my jockey has to give the horse an outstanding ride in order to win, I\'ve screwed up the bet because the horse should win relatively easily.

I really thought the only thing Bailey did on Sea Hero was find a seam to go a couple paths inside of Best Pal. But Sea Hero sure looked to want to run the distance to me. Didn\'t he win the Travers too?

As far as A.p.Indy goes I thought the further he went the better he was and it had little to do with the jockey. He won the Belmont and Breeders Cup. I seem to want to believe it was a light year in the Breeders Cup. Didn\'t A.p. lose the Jockey Club Gold Cup that year? It probably was already just 10 marks, my memory is getting bad.

One of the larger bets I ever made was a first time starting two year old that was a sure thing. (I know what you knowledgable are thinking...\"how the heck can a first time starter be a sure thing?\"..lol.) It was an early year five furlong sprint at Calder which are typically won by precocious horses that immediately bound to or very near the lead. My jockey was a leader at the track, but the horse still went off at more than acceptable odds. The jock however stiffed the colt right out of the gate. He wasn\'t ready for the start and not being so caused him to bump and then lose ground to last in the field. Came to find later he was repositioning his foot in the stirrup for some unknown reason when the gate opened. I know I\'m beat and am bemoaning the cash lost on a two year old firster, so I go to the restroom not wanting to heighten my agony by watching. The track announcer is callin the race on the bathroom speaker and my horse is mentioned once or twice placed near the back of the pack. As the race is in its final call the goofy track announcer says my horse, like a comet, has come out of nowhere to photo at the wire. Not wanting to jinx my good fortune induced by not watching the race I decide I had better not watch the photo finish replay. Finally the race is official and the announcement is made that my horse has somehow become the winner.

It was a race where my horse really couldn\'t lose and one which out of the gate he really couldn\'t win and then somehow, (Probably out of fear of bodily harm), the jock was able to win when he shoulda but couldn\'ta all at the same time.

Was it a good ride? Not from my perspective. The jock may believe otherwise.

lol

CtC

[Chuckles_the_Clown2]

Michael,

You\'re right about Touch Gold\'s Preakness...he should have won it. Still you can\'t take away from Silver Charm. He danced every dance and probably helped break down a couple horses by making them run real hard. He was a good one but he wasn\'t head or shoulders above the others in this crop, I think its fair to say that he did race more soundly than they did though.

CtC

[Michael D.]

SC fought like the old buckpasser, my father once said. take a look back, it\'s amazing how many recent derby winners decend from the buckpasser line. i wish i was around when that one ran.

[P.Eckhart]

The guy that rode the Japan Cup winner on Sunday looked remarkably well balanced considering he was simultaneously spraying egg over the faces of the 17 other jockeys.

[derby1592]

Ask me again next week and I am sure I will have a different answer regarding the best ride but right now I am pretty partial to Julie Krone\'s ride on Sweet Return at HOL Sunday - Popped the gate, got the lead and the rail, slowed the pace down to a crawl then got the jump on everybody turning for home and held off the hard-charging stablemate for the win.

Toss in the the juicy 16-1 odds and she gets my vote - at least for now.

Of course, I admit that I viewed the race with a major bias.

Cheers.

Chris

[Silver Charm]

Hey CtC,

Your comments on Silver Charm are probably dead-on. In the Romans Study relinked to this site recently I thought the panel had him way overrated. Something like the 70th best horse of all-time. Not Hardly, though he is number one in my book.

When this topic got started, about the best rides, I said to myself that probably no one would say a wire-to-wire trip was a great ride. However rides like Pat Day on Wild Again (BC Classic #1) or Cordero on Spend a Buc in the Derby or Bold Forbes(?) in the Belmont are probably just as deserving.

[sheba87]

Santos on Steinlen in the 89 BC was an incredible ride.  The patience he showed and the hole he got through was unbelieveable.

[jbelfior]

I\'ll add another-- PVAL on FRAISE in the 1992 BC Turf. Perfectly timed and saved ground the entire 1 1/2.

When evaluating great rides, I think we need to consider when a horse beats a superior horse strictly due to the ride. No way FRAISE is within several lenghths of a horse like SKY CLASSIC, but Valenzuela\'s ride compensated albeit by the slimmest of margins.


Good Luck,
Joe B.

[gowand]

I agree Day\'s front-running ride in the preakness was great and often overlooked.  It almost makes up for his hatchet job in the same race in \'89.

[MO]

McCarron on Alysheba in the 87 Derby.
Especially thrilling because I had my first $100 wager ever on him ($100 WP - pulled in over $1800). When he won, I was sure of 3 things: 1. I saw the greatest performance by a horse - ever. I mean he falls down, gets up, gets shut off again by Bet Twice, recovers again and after the race is still eligable for a NW2. 2. McCarron put in the best ride I ever saw. 3. I was a great handicapper.

But seriously, any time a rider comes back alive it was a good ride........

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all and to all a good night.

[TGJB]

You mention a race dear to my heart. I bet Alysheba, and was as far as I know the only \"public\" handicapper to pick the horse before the race. More importantly, my friend Steve Nagler was producing the race for ABC, and had one iso camera left, and asked me which horse to put it on. I said Alysheba, they were in tight for the replay when McCarron almost came off, and it helped ABC and Nagler get Emmys.

A few years later Steve got another one when he had an unusual idea for where to put a camera during a race:

\"Mrs. Genter, Mrs. Genter, you won the Derby. I love you, Mrs. Genter...\"

[affirmedny]

If Bailey \"just followed\" Best Pal with Sea Hero it WAS the greatest ride ever...considering BP ran in the derby 2 years before SH.

[Silver Charm]

Very interesting your selection of Alysheba and Congrats.

I would be curious to know what your \"handicapping\" thoughts were. The horse was wheeling back on 8-9 days rest from the Blue Grass Stakes. (That was the schedule in those days) I have seen his line and it did look good but he was coming in on short rest.

[TGJB]

TG sheets for the previous Derby winners can be found in the Archives section of this site.