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Smartly done! Bravissimo... and a very emotional win for sure. Owners, breeder, trainer, all very old school—this sport has been their entire lives—and the first Derby win for all of them. Way cool. Waaaaay.
I'm going to have to wait for the race to come up on YouTube, I guess, because I think Gary Stevens either totally lost to his ego... or... he threw the race.... He said he'd learned to let Oxbow have his way, but it looked to me as though he was so fixated on denying Revolutionary the rail that he forgot he was in a horse race. Then I could swear I saw him hauling on Oxbow a couple times. Then he started smackin' him with his whip and it was pretty clear Oxbow actually slows when you do that. Stupidly done... to be generous....
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I really do know all about this stuff. My family has had at least one horse on the track for most of the last forty-plus years. The one we've got running now sulks her head off if you touch her with the whip. The trainer keeps insisting the authorities will ding them if they do not look as though they are making every effort to win the race, and that means the jockeys must whip the horses in the stretch. I call bullshit on that. We all know lots of horses are the opposite of encouraged by that action, and this was not Stevens' first ride on Oxbow.
First he pushes him too hard out the gate, then he tries to slow him up after using up that much juice to keep that rail. Then he lets the horse do what he wants and Oxbow gets back up at second in a heartbeat... then he hauls on him again! That's fucking nuts! Unbelievable! Then he starts rhythmically whipping him and Oxbow slows more with each beat? I do not want to seem like a sore loser, but that was puuuuh-thetic.
Oxbow is like our horse. You get on him. You keep him out of trouble for the first half of the race. Then you just go along for the ride. Wave the stick around near the hindquarters a little if it looks like it's going to be close.
That was either Stevens being killed by his own ego or him throwing the race. I mean, I know that's harsh, and I am going to watch again—maybe he had excuses for that shit—but that was an idiotic ride, okay?
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So far, the next day, I haven't found any videos where the camera is close enough to see what went on. We see Oxbow making a spectacular break out the gate. Truly. Any sprinter would've died of envy. We can see the tote board for the back stretch run where he keeps dropping back and pulling forward, and we can see him pulling up from the whip on the way to the finish line. But we can't see Stevens hauling him back. Because the camera is too far off... or it didn't happen and Stevens' elbows just went too far back and made it look that way. [I don't think so.] Or he did haul on him but had to because he was trying to close holes or open them. I don't think anyone got close to interfering with him, so that wouldn't be the excuse.
A funny thing I notice in the replays is that while Stevens was drawing Oxbow to a stop with his whip, Orb's jockey was doing the cowboys and indians thing to egg on his horse... way forward and flapping the loose reins against Orb's neck. LOL It works!
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