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Did Mike Smith mess it up?
Commentators seem to think he did.
As I was watching I thought there was no way she’d get within ten lengths at the finish. Credit to the horse to finish where she did but goodness me, surely he should have bustled her up early to keep tabs on them.
- Total Posts 17716
No.
I think everyone’s looking for someone to blame. The fact is she was unlucky to get pushed so far back but Smiths fault… no.
High drama. Absolute heart break. Mike Smith f***ed up no doubt. Best horse in the race easily. She really doesn’t deserve to lose today. Shocking, totally shocking.
The 30+ length start, the number of whips, the goggles….
Emotions are high and spirits are low.
Did Mike Smith mess it up?
Commentators seem to think he did.
As I was watching I thought there was no way she’d get within ten lengths at the finish. Credit to the horse to finish where she did but goodness me, surely he should have bustled her up early to keep tabs on them.
It doesn’t matter how good a horse is, letting the leaders get a furlong lead is a REALLY BLOOD STUPID idea.
Twitter=@PGHenn
So don't run, just like the others always do
Smith didn’t do as much wrong as I first thought. Infact, from where he
had
to come from, he and Zenyatta did remarkably well….ish
Is she deveoloping a bit of a temperament, that made her hard work early? One to ponder, but we’ll never ever know now.
I know that – in her last of her incredible career – I’d have liked to have seen Mike Smith absolutely throw the kitchen sink at her earlier than he did, but I don’t suppose he wanted to ruin their relationship….
The leaders you talk about finished out the back, they went way too fast, it probably wasn’t Smith’s greatest day, however the reactions are way over the top, she was 5L behind the winner before they hit the final bend.
JohnJ
‘Like a greyhound that’s detached and lost sight of the hare’ – Matt Chapman! Ha, very good.
Doesn’t look quite so bad after a couple of viewings. If you froze it at the turn when they bunched up you’d have been hard pressed to say he’d got it badly wrong.
I think Steve Miller is exaggerating when he keeps repeating that she was ‘a furlong’ behind.
What an old windbag McCririck is though isn’t he?
I think the body language of Mike Smith when the camera zoomed on him shortly after the finish spoke volumes.
Head bowed and a probable feeling of knowing he messed it up and let the eventual winner steal a good 4-5 length advantage which proved just too much to claw back!
IMO the best horse by far did not win the race, for that reason the jockey was at fault for me…
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Well, it looks like Santa Claus isn’t coming this year.
I think the body language of Mike Smith when the camera zoomed on him shortly after the finish spoke volumes.
Head bowed and a probable feeling of knowing he messed it up and let the eventual winner steal a good 4-5 length advantage which proved just too much to claw back!
IMO the best horse by far did not win the race, for that reason the jockey was at fault for me…
Totally agree. I don’t
want
to blame anyone but it certainly wasn’t the horse lacking ability that got them beat. Fact is, if she was closer she would have won. I feel sorry for
all
concerned and to be perfectly honest. If Frankie admitted crying after Swain – imagine how Mike Smith is right now. And in the circumstances, I don’t care if Blame won or not. There was no way that any winner other than Zenyatta would get any recognition en masse. I feel sorry for their connections too.
Will she ever be the same? With her dancing etc. Thats if she ever races again. (If we’ve given her this personality, how will she take defeat?)
I think anyone judging Mike Smith’s ride should totally ignore those who went a suicidal pace clear of the main pack. It did seem more than 5 lengths from Zenyatta to the main group though.
I thought Zenyatta was moving poorly early on. Also had her head held a bit high and ears pricked. She had to put up with a great deal beforehand. Flash photography on racecourses is banned in GB, for good reason. The shouting and screaming did not help either. Zenyatta probably put off by all the antics of the crowd. Took even more time than normal to warm to her task.If Smith did not believe something was wrong, then he overdid the waiting tactics a little. But do feel a lot of people who should know better have gone totally OTT and allowed emotion to hinder their judgement (possibly like Smith).
Value Is Everything- Total Posts 17716
Mike Smith was always going to look dejected after a defeat; who wouldn’t? His disappointment by no means indicates guilt.
The crowd beat Zenyatta today. She was flanked by what looked like a small army on her way to the saddling enclosure and was visibly affected by the rapturous applause she received upon her entrance.
As they turned in to the straight she was close enough if good enough and Smith’s diabolical use of the whip aside, he did absolutely nothing wrong. He worked her in to the race after a slow start, wasn’t all that far behind the eventual winner half-way down the back straight, had the entire field come back to her owing to a fierce early pace and lost out by a short-head.
She was second-best on the day and no amount of despair-driven scapegoating is going to change that.
Just wondering?? They said pre-race that they had put ear plugs in her to drown out the noise…does anyone know at what points they went in, and maybe more importantly when they came out?
A long shot, but could that have made a difference and made her start so poorly early on?
From 1f Mike Smith was in an impossible position. Not from the winning the race perspective like some think but from when to go and how to go. Should he have set off Bernardini style 4f out and tried to circle the whole field and hang on if Zenyatta hit the front?
I’ve thought this following thing for a long time, and some will say disagree with me, I think she’s a horse who probably would be better at 12f.
This might have been Zenyatta’s greatest performance. The performance for which she is forever remembered by because of the ride. As a result, the next time we have a horse like her, or one in a similar position regarding number of wins, I hope we don’t receive ridiculous hype over the unbeaten record.
Zenyatta came out of her comfort zone tonight by racing top class Dirt horses at 10f on Dirt. Silent Witness won 17 in a row and lost at a Mile.
With her greatest asset being acceleration it was always likely Dirt would mean she couldn’t get out of trouble as easily as she did last year on the Pro-Ride.
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