A Derby for the ages

[58pinson]

Been a trackie for 45+ years. The game will keep you humble. How many players who loved the Asmussen or Brown horse flushed their tickets for not buying a bottom wheel? Most all I would imagine. Sometimes, although pricey, the "all" button is the horseplayers best friend.

How would you like to be Mattress Mac who wagered $1.5 million on Epicenter and had to watch the bomb fly up the rail. The suicidal front end burned out the front runners.

One thing did concern me. The handling of the winner by the outrider on the backstretch struck me as outrageous. Yeah, the winner was full of himself but the jock is perfectly capable of jogging the horse back to the front of the track. Not much was said about it, and I was surprised the camera stayed on it so long.

Heck of a story. Anyone want to hazard a guess on what price he'll be in Baltimore? Don't want to be a grinch, but I will bet against fairly aggressively.

[D. Bergin]

Damn. Incredible!

What a gear that horse and jockey found at the end. Especially considering they were held back and navigating traffic for much of the race.

That's a movie, right there.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by 58pinson

One thing did concern me. The handling of the winner by the outrider on the backstretch struck me as outrageous. Yeah, the winner was full of himself but the jock is perfectly capable of jogging the horse back to the front of the track. Not much was said about it, and I was surprised the camera stayed on it so long.

I'm not a Horse Racing expert by any means, but if you're talking about the part after the race that I think you are...it actually made me smile a little bit.

I was thinking..."Man, that's a salty horse, and he don't want to be touched by that dude. Good for him." LOL!

Fits the narrative in my head of the wild uncultured horse beating the field of bluebloods and nobles. Whether that's actually true or not, I don't think I want to know.

[Snapolit1]

At one point the guy on the pony basically punched the horse in the face to get him away from the pony. That was a really unfortunate moment, much less one to be caught on live television.

And a horse that worked up will leave some people with the belief (mistaken) that the horse was drugged and that's why he was acting so crazy.

It's not really that unusual for a horse to try to savage another horse. Even in mid-race. But when the winning horse kept going at the pony I have no idea why the jackass on the pony didn't just back off and leave the horse by himself. He just made a situation worse.

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I'm not a Horse Racing expert by any means, but if you're talking about the part after the race that I think you are...it actually made me smile a little bit.

I was thinking..."Man, that's a salty horse, and he don't want to be touched by that dude. Good for him." LOL!

Fits the narrative in my head of the wild uncultured horse beating the field of bluebloods and nobles. Whether that's actually true or not, I don't think I want to know.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

At one point the guy on the pony basically punched the horse in the face to get him away from the pony. That was a really unfortunate moment, much less one to be caught on live television.

And a horse that worked up will leave some people with the belief (mistaken) that the horse was drugged and that's why he was acting so crazy.

It's not really that unusual for a horse to try to savage another horse. Even in mid-race. But when the winning horse kept going at the pony I have no idea why the jackass on the pony didn't just back off and leave the horse by himself. He just made a situation worse.

Gotcha. Didn't watch it close enough to see the punch when I first watched it. Just saw a winning horse that still had a bit of wildness left in him after running a helluva race.

[JollyElm]

For us horseracing beginners, that aerial coverage offered an incredible insight into the reality of a race. You always figured the fastest horse wins a race (an obvious simplification, so don't throw shade), but seeing the countless maneuvers made by the winner(s) trying to find gaps to exploit was a stunning realization of the high speed strategy involved. What a fantastically electrifying clip that was!!!!!!!

[carlsonjok]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

At one point the guy on the pony basically punched the horse in the face to get him away from the pony. That was a really unfortunate moment, much less one to be caught on live television.

And a horse that worked up will leave some people with the belief (mistaken) that the horse was drugged and that's why he was acting so crazy.

It's not really that unusual for a horse to try to savage another horse. Even in mid-race. But when the winning horse kept going at the pony I have no idea why the jackass on the pony didn't just back off and leave the horse by himself. He just made a situation worse.

I don't have any use for the horse racing industry, but I do own horses and handle them every day. I watched the video and I saw nothing cruel or potentially injurious. Certainly, it looks bad, particularly to folks who don't routinely deal with horses. But, I didn't see anything that I would consider abuse

Here is the thing. A horse weights 1200 pounds or more. They can injure a person in a blink of an eye, even when they are just being inattentive. So, you train horses to pay attention to you and take their cues from you. You are the head of the herd and they need to respect that authority.

Add in that we are talking about a stallion (who are recalcitrant just on general principle) that is pumped full of adrenaline after running a race, and I can assure you no good would come from releasing the horse and letting him "work it out on his own." I am reminded of something I heard the natural horsemanship trainer John Lyons say:

"The horse never ever has the right to kick or bite you. Biting is more dangerous than kicking because it is a more aggressive act on the horse’s part. You can’t ever justify that action in your mind.

I don’t want to be bitten. If the horse tries to bite me, I will try to kill him. His act is that dangerous and my rule is that simple. I have three seconds in which to kill this thousand-pound beast. The only limitation I’ll put on the murder is that his head will be off limits. Remember, I don’t want to blind him, I want to kill him. Immediately after I’ve exhausted the three seconds, I’ll pet him to reassure him that I still like him, but he knows that he made a serious mistake that almost cost him his life."

Added in edit: To state the obvious, you can't actually kill a horse with your bare hands. You are also extremely unlikely to injure it. But, they don't know that.

[clydepepper]

I don't watch horse racing much, but the the drone-view video of this was amazing!

This is the third memory I'll keep about Horse Racing.

The other two?

Secretariat's Belmont

and, tragically...

Ruffian breaking down.

.

[Peter_Spaeth]

The Belmont was sublime, but to me Big Red's defining race was the Derby, coming from well back to run down Sham down the stretch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MycODLdqcg

BTW while Sham's time was unofficial, it remains the second fastest time in Derby history.

[pclpads]

Most of the posts here are all "woo-woo" about the outcome. Granted, exciting to watch, but . . . I'll take the contrarian view: I have to wonder if the fix was in. Given the 80-1 odds, how does such an animal even come in 1-2-3, let alone win such a prestigious race? Perhaps a little monkey biz - or horsey biz - behind the scenes prior to the race? I think the outcome vs odds struck a huge blow for the legitimacy of racing and odds makers. After the Baffert mess last Derby, horse racing is on thin ice. This doesn't help.