GOMEZ commited to Dunkirk
fbwinners
Senior Member
Just got word tonight from a strong source bascially the horses mouth, GO GO has chosen Dunkirk.
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I don't think Quality Road is worried. Thanks for the info fbwinners !!! good job.:surprised:
Easy Game.........................
and if you want someone who will get into his ass at the top of the lane......r. baze
would be my choice.....and they can put some whip-cream on their humble pie
the 1st sunday in may....LOL
That might even have something to do with his decision to ride Dunkirk, who knows.
Dunkirk or Pioneerof the Nile?
We're announcing Sunday which horse I'll be riding for the Kentucky Derby. I think it would just be better if we split the field, 10 and 10, and I ride in two Kentucky Derbies! Dunkirk or Pioneerof the Nile? I'd really like to ride both of them.
These are talented individuals. They both have similar upsides - neither one of them has peaked, they both have long careers ahead of them, they both have a lot of room to grow. Both trainers, I ride a lot of horses for. Both owners, I ride a lot of horses for. It's hard to tell either one of them that I'm taking off their runner but that's what I'm forced to do, and thankfully I have good relationships with both Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert, and they'll understand that whichever way we go, we're glad to have had the opportunity and sorry to give up the mount we can't ride.
I'll tell you a little about both runners, things I'm taking into consideration leading up to the Derby.
With Dunkirk, I wasn't able to ride him in his first start because I was supposed to ride a horse for Bill Mott in the Sunshine Millions - we stayed in California and Edgar Prado rode him that day (Jan. 24) when he broke his maiden by 5 3/4-lengths. For his next start, Edgar was tied up on another horse or something so they gave us a call and we were happy to go ride him. He was a colt that they thought had a lot of talent so we were excited to go see if it was really true.
I rode him in the allowance race and he was very impressive, he showed a lot of ability and had room to grow. It wasn't like he was all mature and did everything right - he was still babyish - but he's got a beautiful stride to him. He's like a rocking horse; he just floats over the ground with a long, fluid stride, and he's a good-looking horse, too.
His prior two races he was on the inside - the first time he got left and he rushed up and didn't eat too much dirt even though he was down inside. The second time when I rode him I was wide the whole way so he didn't eat a lot of dirt; I put him in behind a little bit but it wasn't enough to really get him. In the Florida Derby I dropped in and it was pelting him pretty good and he was taking it - he wasn't liking it, but he was taking it - and that's a good sign, he was moving forward off something he'd never done.
The fractions in the Florida Derby were a lot faster than the first time I rode him and he kept himself within seven or eight of the lead and when I called on him he made a solid run, a really good move. There wasn't a horse making up ground all day during Florida Derby Day, but he made up a lot of ground and looked the winner (Quality Road) eye-for-eye. When he turned for home he sustained his run, it was just that the other horse quickened and I couldn't quicken any more than I already had. If you watch the replay, galloping out I'm in front, so I don't think a mile and a quarter will be a problem with him at all. He's a nice colt with room for improvement and he's moving along at the rate you would want him to.
Most of Todd's horses do their learning in the afternoon; he does enough with them in the morning, but not a lot. He doesn't do any :58 works whereas Baffert, on the other hand, will put the hammer down on some of them and make them work fast and kind of see what he's got. They're just two different kinds of trainers as far as the way they do things and personality-wise as well, but both are very capable, they just have different methods.
Pioneerof the Nile and I are perfect together, 4-for-4, we've won two grade I races and two grade II races - he's put a lot of cash in our pockets so far and there's nothing negative about him, but he's not a flashy horse. He's like one of those boring golfers that all they do is win and they don't catch nobody's attention because they don't hole them off from the fairways, they don't hit brilliant shots, because they don't have to, they're never in trouble, they're just always where they need to be. He's one of those. He just puts himself where he needs to be and it might not be the prettiest thing but he gets the job accomplished.
He's doing it all within himself. The only race he might have extended himself a little bit with me was the Robert Lewis (Feb. 7). I thought he was going to run a bad third and I wheeled him out and he just dropped his head and sprinted home and I was like, Wow, look what I've got here! He's always showed me that he's got tactical speed and wants to be up close, so that's the way I've ridden him, but in the mornings we've always worked him starting out six, seven, eight lengths behind another horse, to kind of give him a target.
In the mornings he doesn't pull, he just kind of gallops along. As we get around the track he gets a little closer and a little closer to his workmate and by the time we turn for home I'm waiting to tell him when to go ahead and go on and level off and do a little more running. Usually he'll run by the workmate and after that all the sudden he gets into this buboom, buboom kind of stride and it's almost like he loses focus completely and turns into a gangly 2-year-old on me and runs all over the place. He's getting a little better, though. When I first started working him he wouldn't gallop out after a work he'd just kind of stop and barely be galloping and I'd be going Yah, yah to get him around there. But I've got him where he'll gallop out by himself. He's maturing that way. He's a big colt, he's got a big, long stride to him.
He hasn't really done anything wrong when I've ridden him in the afternoons, but in a couple of races on him I've been a little uncomfortable because the simple fact is,
I know there's more to him. When he makes the lead he has pulled up a little bit in a few of his races, and it feels like you've got a target on your back and somebody's gonna come and nail you. He'll go with another horse when they come to him but it's a matter of who's coming and where they're at for him to see them and how much time he has to get up on his feet before we get to the wire. He pulls himself up just enough to make you uncomfortable when he makes the lead, because you say, Okay, I can't call on him and say 'Let's go' and he's gonna go and keep on going. He doesn't work like that. So there's that nervous thing that kindof plays in the back of your head and that's probably one of the reasons he's run a little slower in his past couple races, because he's made the lead so early.
Well, regardless of who I ride in the Derby, we've got our mount for the Oaks figured out. Stardom Bound is a talented filly and her performance in the Ashland just wasn't up to her usual standards. Hopefully she'll rebound off that loss and once she gets onto the dirt hopefully she'll move forward. It's a good mount to pick up.
I was JUST going to post this, but with a different view on it.
With Gomez off, depending on who will be on POTN, it makes me worry. POTN as of lately does not seem to be an easy horse to ride. He likes to pull his way to the front (although last 2 were slower fractions than we'll see in KY). Not to mention he likes to slow it down once he gets the lead. He seems like a horse that a rider needs a race to get adapted to his racing style. I just don't like that it adds another question mark on top of his no dirt experience. This will either lead to a great win payout or him running up the track.