Look, opinions are like bums, we all have them, and my opinion is J.Lloyd dodged a bullet midweek and then might have been a touch unlucky to get suspended Sunday at Murwillumbah.
Let’s start midweek in Brisbane when he rode BOLD ADVENTURE, he led and after being tackled he appeared to sit up on the Edmonds trained horse and there is no doubt it cost it a placing. It looked shocking side on, terrible. After seeing the front on vision I don’t think it was as bad as it looks front on but still looked like he had a stride or two to push the horses head out again. He escaped on that occasion and may have been very lucky to survive.
On Sunday at Murwillumbah he got 7 days for his ride on WALLANDER and if I hadn’t read it in the stewards report I’d have said it was a complete stitch up if you told me he was suspended because of it, simply because I have seen so much of it over the last 12 months and so many obvious where nothing has been mentioned.
I haven’t seen the head on but they are saying there was one stride in which he didn’t ride and has received 7 days because of it. I have been critical of Jeff and one or two others for not riding horses out in the past but it seems NSW are going to be the first to stamp it out.
If he’d been done at Doomben I wouldn’t have blinked an eye, probably deserved to be wiped out to be honest, he may be a touch unlucky on this occasion but what makes it fairer is that M.Bennett at the same Murwillumbah meeting also got done for not riding one out the last two strides. They definitely didn’t miss the lads with the suspensions.
*If QLD follow NSW we may not have enough jocks to ride at meetings. When you watch a lot of replays you see a lot of bad rides, rides that cost a horse a lot more than the fact the jock sat down for one stride, what about the fact a jock lost 3L in running from a bad decision 100m after jumping? Surely that’s even worse? Or the jock that sits on a hot tempo 3/4 in front of the horse on the rails and works like a slave the entire, therefore giving the horse very little chance of winning, it happens all the time… You could make a case to say the ride by Byrne on Wallander on debut was far worse, horse jumped last and he drove the guts out of it to lead and keep going, possibly why the horse was ordinary at it’s next run?
Anyway, I’ll leave it with you and might just follow NSW a bit closer this month to see how many get wiped out.
Here is DOOMBEN
MURWILLUMBAH
*Here is M.Bennett on PHAST LAD
http://racing.racingnsw.com.au/FreeFields/Results.aspx?Key=2018Jan07,NSW,Murwillumbah#Race7
*Thought i would just mention this as jocks sitting up has been a big issue on social media for a while now. I’m sure it will get people thinking and watching a few more rides and see how consistent stewards are in coming months.
