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Scene of the crime: 8:35 Hamilton
Another day, another woefully inadequate jockey.
Kept 6 lengths last for most of the 12f trip, and a full 15 lengths off the leader, he inexplicably doesn’t move a muscle until everything had turned into the straight. He then proceeds to jerk the reigns a few times as if he were a few lengths off the lead and not wanting to get there too soon…. Push eventually comes to shove 20 seconds after the race had began in earnest, and the horse finish’s like a train to grab 4 length second.
Not suggesting any skullduggery – just a really really poor ride.
Scene of the crime: 8:35 Hamilton
Another day, another woefully inadequate jockey.
Kept 6 lengths last for most of the 12f trip, and a full 15 lengths off the leader, he inexplicably doesn’t move a muscle until everything had turned into the straight. He then proceeds to jerk the reigns a few times as if he were a few lengths off the lead and not wanting to get there too soon…. Push eventually comes to shove 20 seconds after the race had began in earnest, and the horse finish’s like a train to grab 4 length second.
Not suggesting any skullduggery – just a really really poor ride.
on a similar note, Ahmed Ajtebi again, shocking aboard a godolphin horse at Beverley today, he should get into Camel racing, he’s awful.
What made me’ chuckle, was tommo singing his praises on talksport this morning
Onthesteal
You clearly haven’t watched Regent’s Secret race very often have you? If there were prizes for finishing fast just in time to avoid winning then Jim Goldie’s less than committed charge would be a champion. The gelding has numerous previous offences to be taken into consideration.
My standard pre-race comment for Regent’s Secret reads ‘capable of winning but probably won’t’!
Rob
Clearly you’ve never seen the horse run before because that is how he is always ridden.
Always has been,always will be.
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on a similar note, Ahmed Ajtebi again, shocking aboard a godolphin horse at Beverley today, he should get into Camel racing, he’s awful.
What made me’ chuckle, was tommo singing his praises on talksport this morning
Ahmed Ajtebi was a camel jockey, Matthew.
on a similar note, Ahmed Ajtebi again, shocking aboard a godolphin horse at Beverley today, he should get into Camel racing, he’s awful.
What made me’ chuckle, was tommo singing his praises on talksport this morning
Ahmed Ajtebi was a camel jockey, Matthew.
Hahaha
You’ve made me’ smile mate.
Onthesteal
You clearly haven’t watched Regent’s Secret race very often have you?
Rob and Grey Desire, I must confess, I’m not familiar at all with the horse and the way it usualy races or is ridden, but in this case I feel it’s completely irrelevant.
Taking everything into account, to still defend this ride leaves me gobsmacked. The horse was and IS good enough; it won by five lengths a few runs ago, hardly a dog that needs putting there on the line!
Infact, looking at his form this year, are we sure we’re talking about the same horse?
Comments in running from ATR:
held up in rear,
still last and plenty to do 2f out
, ridden over 1f out, ran on well inside final furlong to go 2nd final 100 yards, no chance with winner
I’d of loved to have been a fly on the dashboard of the owners car on the way home.
If this wasn’t an attrocious ride, then there isn’t such thing.
that is how he is always ridden.
Always has been,always will be.No, it isn’t. Just looked through all his previous runs over 12f or more on the flat and he was never held up last, six lengths adrift of the nearest horse. Whilst you may know the horse, something tells me you either haven’t seen the race in question, or you don’t know the horse as well as you may think!
"REGENT’S SECRET (USA) didn’t need to improve much on his course-and-distance second the week before to take advantage of a good mark, the race very much run to suit (dropped out a long way off the strong pace) and slightly flattered by the extent of his winning margin. 2/1f (9/4)"
Timeform perspective comment for the horse’s win earlier in the season (his only turf flat victory in his last 29 tries).
Up to the horse’s last win, it was his second victory in 27 tries on the turf for what it’s worth, Rory, with most attempts at inadequate trips too, considering it gets 2 miles plus over timber and birch nowadays.
Still, I digress, and reiterate that the horse was held up inexplicably a full six lengths last and was never put in the race. If the video was available to view for anyone that hasn’t seen it, I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone. It was a shocker which ever way you look at it.
RUK haven’t put the last race up on their site
I agree with Onthesteal here, it was an extremely poor ride.
Why is it, that when someone criticises a ride, people refer back to previous runs to try and justify the poor ride. Personally I think it’s irrelevant.
Take this thread for example. Someone has said that the way the horse was ridden tonight is how the horse is always ridden. Well no it isn’t. If the horse was always ridden the way it was tonight then the horse would never have won a race in its lifetime.
I’m sure what is really meant is that the horse is usually held up in rear, as it was tonight, and comes with a late run, as it did tonight. And if that’s the case then it backs up what Onthesteal is saying, that the horse was held up too far back tonight, came far too late, and never had a serious chance of winning – which equals, poor ride from the jockey.
The race isn’t available to view online, so I’m not going to say that the OP is wrong in saying it was a poor ride, but he’s certainly wrong in various of the points he makes to back it up. If Paul Norton has done anything wrong it is in producing the horse too late, but various of us on the forum, particularly Rob North I suspect, know this horse extremely well and will tell you that Regent’s Secret is a horse who runs his best races when allowed to do his own thing and that he will either pick up on his own accord or not at all and that last night’s jockey, being fairly inexperienced, and an employee of Mr Goldie’s will both know the horses’s quirks and be riding very much according to them.
A look back at his last two runs at Hamilton will show Regent’s Secret settled a long way off the lead (deatched in one instance) before making ground coming down the hill. In the ladies’ race he won he was not asked for any effort until almost 1f out, by which time he had been able to catch the field without effort. A look at previous runs where he has been asked to race in a more orthodox manner will see that his response to pressure isn’t always the most generous.
Regarding stamina – it’s a flawed argument to suggest that stamina is absolute or that winning form over hurdles/fences at 2m means that a horse should stay that sort of trip on the flat and Regent’s Secret’s only win beyond 9f on the flat came in that ladies’ race in June. His good efforts come courtesy of his excellent cruising/finishing speed rather than because he has ever outstayed a rival, and my personal view is that he would look a non-stayer if asked to race "properly" over middle distances.
The OP admits he knew little about the horse but considers that irrelevant – I beg to differ. Treating all horses as if they are much the same in their capabilities (within class parameters) and preferences renders the sport of horse racing tedious. They aren’t, and it’s not.
Another possibility to consider.
Paul Norton has ridden winners at Hamilton before, one each on Botham during 2008 and 2009. Both times the winner was held up.
He’s had 13 rides around Hamilton in the last five seasons. Five of those have come in the last fortnight, and again, on all of those occasions he held up the horse in question.
He has had a further seven rides in the last fortnight around the other Northern / Scottish Flat tracks in operation during that time. Once more, everything he rode got a hold-up ride.
I’m on a job just now, which prevents a more forensic study of Norton, but does the possibility not exist from that admittedly limited evidence that he is something of a one-note, one-trick rider; and that the hope that everything else going off too fast and coming back to him close home is one on which he is far too reliant?
If so, you do as usual have two options – throw things at the screen on the occasions he’s proven horribly wrong and you’ve had money on his mount; or else regard his mount as a reasonably safe lay proposition in any race which promises (as far as can be ascertained beforehand – Timeform in-running symbols are as good a steer in that regard as any) not to be run at anywhere near the sort of pace to reward that sort of racing tactic. Suptayoo.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
He’s not a jockey I’ve been particularly aware of though I did note his name quite recently having had a few pennies on his mount and I decided there and then that I would be giving him a swerve thereafter. Can’t remember the name of the horse or what it was about his riding that I was unhappy about other than possibly an apparent lack of energy. Is he related to the Norton training dynasty?
I can see why punters unfamilar with Regent’s Secret or River Falcon might be miffed with the rides, but having seen both many times before I have no problem with the way either was ridden. That doesn’t suggest that the rides were perfect, but they were perfectly adequate in the circumstances and neither horse was robbed of a chance of victory in any way. Regent’s Secret, in particular, was flattered to finish close to a clear cut winner who was eased considerably close home.
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