Chief Stipe

Some are some aren't. Some were never very good in the first place so how could they spot a good or bad ride when the only time they rode a good ride was when they were on a good horse! What was she supposed to do to get in the first 3? Your suggestion is that she should have followed the other horses out into the middle of the track and whipped the shyte out of it. Well there are rules against doing the latter. Have you reviewed the race again? The first four horses drew 8, 7, 10 and 6. They ALL travelled wide the trip. Those that were on the immediate outside of Bello Mio turning for home didn't do much better than Bello Mio. The horse wasn't going well enough.

The horse couldn't keep up early with the field and it had no chance of moving out. She gave the horse 5 clips with the whip up the straight and the horse barely held its ground. She had two choices tactically - ride the shyte out of it at the start and hold its position or ride for luck and move off the fence if the opportunity arose AND the horse was good enough. The first option wasn't an option for that horse. Simply on the day the horse wasn't good enough and when it drew one well it was all over.

Come on @SLB2.0 you are bagging the Jockey don't try and draw a distinction. You are being hyper-critical of her ride i.e. the decisions she made. The difference is I don't see did as wrong. The horse wasn't up to it on the day. Didn't you read my comment about the competition proposal? Hardly hypocritical - it was my comment in response to the proposal that probably kiboshed the idea. As for having no time for hypocrites haven't you just kissed and made up to one so you can post in the echo chamber? Yes I will critique a bad ride if a horse wasn't given every chance and/or decisions were made that eliminated its chances but that wasn't the case in my opinion with Bello Mio. I'd say Hassman has more talent than some of the ex-Jockeys bagging her ride.

It couldn't hold its position in the first instance even when those drawn to its immediate outside could. It had no chance to get off the rail until turning for home. How do you know the inside was "much deeper" leading up to the home turn? Hassman didn't have an opportunity to do that until turning for home. It would have lost lengths even if it was going good enough to get to allegedly better ground. Which by the look of it was in the car park! The horse hadn't been going very well the whole trip. I can't understand why it was favourite. Its best races of late have been on Good tracks and it has only been able to manage one race a month. Sure it won on a Heavy 10 at Matamata but that was 2 years and 4 months ago. Yes it ran second over 1000m at its previous start at Riccarton but one could argue that wasn't a Heavy 10. The horse wasn't going well enough. I'd argue that the fact Hassman didn't ride the crap out of it shows she has some horsemanship skills. If the horse felt flat and wasn't responding to her urgings then why flog it just to satisfy the grandstand critics?

I've looked at the race again. Bello Mio was going that well from the get go. It had no opportunity to get off the fence until turning for home and even then it was going well enough to move out. It would have lost a couple of lengths doing so before it got to better ground and would have had not chance of getting to the ground that the winner finished on. Nothing worse than average ex-Jockeys bagging an apprentice for no reason. From my observation the horse was only plugging the whole way! In the next race Hayley Hassman's mount draw 12 and she rode it perfectly.

That's how it looked to me. If a horse draws one on a Heavy 10 then at some stage you need to use some energy to get off the fence and find better ground (assuming the inside is off). The horse didn't look to be travelling well enough to do that at any stage. LOL if the Jockey had starting riding hard a long way out @SLB2.0 might have been happier!

Basically if you draw 1 on a rated heavy 10 track you have zero options if the inside is a heavy 12.

A very good point @jess . My understanding is that it is so important that the sand for the AWT's was imported. I might be wrong on that but can you imagine rocks in a Poly track fill?

Sure it does but if your horse is aiming for a BM65 or even a maiden does the extra cost to travel to Hawera instead of Woodville really matter? Some owners gain some lose. Swings and roundabouts. The point is everyone is looking for flexibility in shifting meetings to avoid abandoments and when NZTR is proactive in doing so you all still complain!

Spot the Clegg hammer! Where are the stones! If you want to comment please comment on this thread: