Jockey Edgar Prado is a front running jockey is this always wise?

Question

Alot of horses Edgar seem to ride run out of gas as he pushes the pace early ,do you think its ok to do that? Shoemaker usually came off te pace..

Answer 1

Up until just before Edgar's broken leg at Saratoga, he was rarely a front runner. I always counted on him as a closer on the turf, finding that seam along the hedge to come from off the pace or from the back of the pack.

You are the second person who has made this observation recently ( to me at least), and I'm beginning to wonder what is going on myself. I have to believe it's under instruction from the Trainer as he has never had a problem bringing in the late runners or closers.

Answer 2

It depends. Some horses are speed horses and run their best on the lead all the way around the track. Others stalk the pace and stay right behind the front runners until the stretch. Others are closers and run at the back and make dramatic stretch runs to get to the wire first. Most horses are pretty consistent and run their best in only one of the three ways.  In some cases, more than one speed horse in a race results in an early speed duel on the front that burns out all the speed horses and leaves the race open for stalkers and closers. Probably Edgar is being told to ride these mounts as speed horses and things just are not setting up right in the race for this style of runner.

Answer 3

I assume Edgar is following the trainer's instructions, on how to ride the horses he's named on.

When I first started training, I had one horse, who always took the lead from the gates. Early in his race career, it was hard to get him to relax out front, he just ran as hard as he could, all the way to the wire.

My regular jockey broke his pelvis, on someone else's horse, and I had to switch riders. A new rider rode my horse, the way I'd told him, ride hard gate to wire, won on him, and agreed to be my first call rider.

Our next race, as I legged him up, and said ride hard all the way, he laughed and said, nope, he was gonna back up the field, just gallop, and not give those "off the pace horses" anything to run at, and jogged out onto the track! I was fit to be tied, but all I could do, was go up and watch the race.

They broke on top as usual, and Carl did what he said he was going to do, shucked the reins loose, and let my horse relax on the front, slowing the pace way down, and took a nice long breather, in the process. As they came into the turn, he sat down, took up the reins, my horse dug back in and started to roll, they won pulling away.

He explained to me, that the horses that appear to run faster at the end of the race, don't. They run the same pace, for the whole race, and the speedballs on the front, slow down, allowing the plodders to catch, and pass them. He said now that my horse had matured a little, it was easy to get him to relax out front, slow the whole race down, and then fire again, for the finish.

Perhaps Edgar's rides, haven't matured enough, to relax on the front yet.

Answer 4

As long as Prado has been a jockey, I'll take your word that he favors the front just like Calvin Borel favors a rail trip.

But neither Prado or Borel would be as successful as they are without being able to adapt running styles to the horse they are mounting.