Silver Pivotal should have won the Winter Derby, whether I backed it heavily or not is irrelevant. She was given an appalling ride, even the Racing Post report says "he was still at the back of the field threefurlongs out, Jamie Spencer yet to make a move, and there were only two behind her into the straight, where she was forced to come wide."
Yes, but as the RP, myself and now Dave Johnson have reminded you, her race position was due to her nightmare draw. She needs to be dropped in, so to do this Spencer had to let the horses on his inside go on. This meant he was shuffled to the rear. When Dream Lodge decided to stack the field up at the top of the hill, any chance of winning went, as Silver Pivotal was forced wide and the race turned into a bit of a sprint to the line off the home turn. You can clearly see Spencer is riding for all his worth as they start to swing in, so he was not sitting motionless and showboating. In the end the filly picked up late, but there is little Spencer could have done differently. If he had ridden her to get handy, and she had run too free you would have blamed him for not adopting her usual hold up tactics. If he had not dropped in and sat out wide on the course (a la Summers Target) you would have blamed him. In the end he did what any jockey would have done - sat and suffered, hoped for a truly run race (which it was not), made a decision coming down the hill to go through horses or come wide, and then went for it. What if he had elected to come through horses and finished unplaced? Would you have preferred that? If she had reappeared at Windsor and won douing handsprings, then people may have a degree of sympathy with you. However that Windsor run has shed new light on the Lingfield ride, and in the final analysis Spencer probably gave her a brilliant ride to finish as close as he did given the draw and the pace of the race.
You're hardly comparing like for like by looking at her run with Dettori on at Windsor as that was on turf and she's evidently a better horse on the all-weather. If a sensible jockey had been riding her, she'd have a group win to her name.
Oh, but doesn't the same RP analysis that you selectively quote from go on to state that she should be every bit as effective on turf? She has had 7 lifetime starts, one of which came on turf. It is far too early to conclude she is evidently better on the sand that turf. Indeed, being by Pivotal one might assume her best form will emerge on truf with some give.
Commenting on the form of runners that beats him doesn't strengthen your argument at all. In fact, it weakens it.
Why? Surely if the horse that beat her has proven Group Class, and she does not, and he then goes on to confirm that Group Class level of form then surely it is relevant. Until she proves herself up to winning at Group level this season, then surely it is not wrong to assume she was simply beaten by a better horse.
You believe that if she entered the straight on the girth of Hattan she would have won. I totally, 100% disagree. Hattan may be inconsistent, but on his day he has proven Group winning form, unlike Silver Pivotal, and when on song is a dour battler and very hard to pass.
You talk of the Betfair forum as being full of morons in one breath and then use their targeted baiting of certain jockeys to defend your questionable critique of Spencer.
I am not so blind as to say Spencer has never given a horse a bad ride, but imo he gets it wrong less than most. You need to also bear in mind that his four main patrons, Bell, Fanshawe, Meehan and Cumani - who currently stand at 19th, 28th, 20th and 28th in the trainers lists. Yet Spencer still manages to hold his own in the top 5 jockleys riding. I wonder how he would perform if he had the resources of a Stoute or Hannon at his disposal?
