jimbo66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> p-Dub
>
> Almost too easy...
>
> But to be clear, I am president of the "deport
> Frenchie" fan club.
>
> Just an occasional griper about smiths wide
> rides.
>
> Also, we do have data on his trips. Thorograph
> tracks it on their sheets, as you know, and wide
> Mikey consistently is in the bottom quartile of
> ground savers.
>
> It is a funny stat though sometimes. Frenchie is
> in the top quartile of that stat. But does
> taking horses with tactical speed, like Union rags
> in the derby, and grabbing hold of them out of the
> gate to drop back to last to save ground, really a
> good thing.... Whereas u have to love the way
> mike smith rides a speed horse and uses tactical
> speed when his horse has it. (Also seems as
> strong physically in a stretch duel as he was 15
> years ago - as much as I love Stevens from a
> brainy ride perspective, he is not as strong in
> the stretch as he used to be)
>
> BTW, in these eastern parts, the current version
> of Johnny V. Is not one to go through a hole on
> the inside either and is not as good a rider IMO
> as he was 5-7 years ago. (We are all getting
> older though....)
>
>
>
> Jim

I'm looking at sheets from Sunday. I don't see anything that shows what paths a jockey uses on average. It shows the paths of each horse runs per race.

Unless I'm missing something, where does it show Smith is in the bottom quartile of taking horses wide??

This horse looked pretty hopeless on TG, and got up to win by a nose in a blanket finish. No way she wins without Smith cutting the corner and saving several lengths with a ground saving trip. Turf races are often won by getting the best trip, so having data on who saves ground would be important.

So maybe its tedious to you Richie, you are one of the many that have made that assertion, but if there is data showing where a jockey puts his horse it would seem to be important instead of relying on assertions based solely on what one wants to believe.

P-Dub