Reading Too Much Into Things? (1749 Views)
Posted by:
Molesap (IP Logged)
Date: April 24, 2018 09:40AM
As I sit here listening to Mike Welsch explain that Baffert is not planning on bringing his horses to Kentucky until fairly late so they will not have a work over the track (for the first time he can remember), I thought it was odd for Baffert to do that. Arguably one of the better (best?) Derby trainers in recent history, he wants to change up what seems to be a successful pattern. I guess my question is why? I know all horses are individuals and he knows so much more about training them than I do, but it seems odd to adjust his normal pattern, especially given his past success. Is he hiding something? Protecting something? Worried about the weather (long term forecasts are for some rain for most days, but outside today, most chances are relatively small although trying to predict weather an hour out in Kentucky is sometimes hard, let alone 10 days)? Doing what is best for his charges? Or am I reading just too much into it?
While on the subject, what about JJ hopping off Bolt d’Oro in order to ride Audible? Is it as simple as loyalty like he said? Or is it something else? I cannot imagine a jockey jumping off what they thought was a live Derby mount, unless they thought it was to ride another even “liver” mount (that is live-er mount, not liver mount as in the organ - :)). He ran second on the track to two of the top Derby prospects in many people's minds, so was it something else? Ruis seems like potentially a really tough person to work for and he did fire his own daughter (or whatever the story was - I just know she has not officially trained a horse since and that was after she won a G1 stakes at Del Mar), so was it just not worth the hassle? Again, am I reading too much into that as well?