posted June 23, 2008 at 12:54 in Triple Crown Betting Trends

The blame game is a nice little distraction for losing horse race betting fans but the best horseplayers around do not allow themselves to get caught up in the process because it is futile.

Anybody that has played an online betting wager in this sport for any amount of time has wagered on a horse and did not get the dream ride from a jockey that one expected. But it’s part of the game as much as the zebras are in the NFL, the refs are in the NBA or the umpires are in baseball.

And any sports fan can probably count on one hand the times a play has been reversed because a player complained to the official.

It’s the same thing for horse bettors. Considering that jockeys are dealing with animals going 40 miles an hour and have to adjust to making decisions not only on the fly but within milliseconds, the argument that a rider made a mistake can be accepted every day at every racetrack in the world.

Kent Desormeaux was vilified for his ride on Big Brown in the Belmont by people that probably didn’t know he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004 and has won nearly 5,000 races in his career.

What did the blamers want him to do?

Did they want to send him so hard from the rail that he would be useless later? Did they want him to just settle and maybe drop back to last? Or did they expect him to change the rank demeanor of the horse as soon as the gates sprung?

They probably didn’t want any of those things, they just wanted the horse to win but that’s why they race them.

The experienced horse bettors know the best make mistakes. Bill Shoemaker misjudged the finish line in the Kentucky Derby. Chris McCarron is still being criticized by trainer Jack Van Berg for his Belmont Stakes ride aboard Alysheba and legends like Laffit Pincay Jr. and Angel Cordero have been taken off of horses because of perceived mistakes.

Bettors, like politicians, presidents and CEO’s have to have the air of accountability about them or they have no credibility.

I used to have a colleague that I worked with that never made a bad selection. Every single time he lost, it was the rider’s fault, or the trainer’s fault for using that rider or the trainer’s fault for not getting one more work into the horse.

I dubbed that guy with the nickname ‘Sour’ and it stuck like duck tape because the name fit. To give this colleague credit, he bet with both hands, knew the game and was a good handicapper, but he lost a huge part of his winning edge because he cried and complained and blamed the wrong people and not himself.

Remember, clever horse bettors take into consideration options and different scenarios how a race will play out. They embrace versatile runners that can adapt, but what they don’t do is scream and cry and blame the riders that they are betting on because they realize that the jockeys have forgotten more about horse racing then some grandstands combined.

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