Showboating

A

Ardross

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 8, 2007
Messages
5,468
Perhaps I am just getting old but I found Jamie Spencer's antics on Keys very irritating . There is just no need for that sort of nonsense.
 
I enjoyed it. Mind you, I had 5.6 on Betfair about Keys. If I'd backed anything else in the race I suspect I'd have been hugely annoyed by Spencer's antics. As it was, I watched it again several times.
 
Was it really showboating? I don't have a problem with a rider giving a horse an easy time of things as possible. Worth looking at Key's response to pressure at Kempton last time, in particular how he hung both ways when ridden and how many times his rider had to switch the whip, before criticising Spencer in this instance.
 
I love showboating - really enjoy them taking the piss out of each other, standing up as they cross the line, waving whips, clenched fists, whoops, you name it. As long as none of it has a negative effect on the result or causes interference, let's lighten up a bit and enjoy it. Who complains when winning tennis players hurl themselves to the ground in glee? Or the triumphant footie team runs around with their shirts over their heads? Yes, Ardross, you're getting old - we're all getting old - but you're getting cranky, too! Just toss that wig into the air next time you win a case and yell out "C'mon, my sonnnn!" You'll feel better for it - honest.
 
davidjohnson said:
Was it really showboating? I don't have a problem with a rider giving a horse an easy time of things as possible. Worth looking at Key's response to pressure at Kempton last time, in particular how he hung both ways when ridden and how many times his rider had to switch the whip, before criticising Spencer in this instance.
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What has that got to do with his absurd looking round antics ?
 
It would be pretty embarassing if a jockey got to the front on the bridle, didn't ask a horse for an effort and then got beaten by one that finished strongly from behind him. Makes sense to look round and make sure nothing is finishing.

Spencer was guilty of no more showboating than what Philip Makin was on York Glory at Haydock the previous afternoon.
 
"If" - but "if" didn't happen, did it, and Spencer is an experienced-enough hand to know the difference between a bit of mickey-taking and allowing his horse to lose a race due to overestimating his horse's pace.

God, if there's anything that's needed in racing, it's a touch of humour - there's enough of real concern, you'd think it'd be appreciated for what it is, not conjectured upon negatively.

Showboat away, boys 'n' girls - give the punters a bit of a giggle (with the usual nannying that it mustn't lose you your position).
 
Ardross is right I'm afraid, and Spencer's experience has still not taught him to steer a horse in a straight line. He's lost a couple of races I've seen by shifting his weight to look around only for the horse he was riding to become unbalanced. I'm not sure if there is ANY benefit to looking around except when making a manoeuvre which may hamper horses behind.
 
Ardross is merely speculating about the what ifs and maybes, Rory. Nothing other than a winning ride occurred, regardless of whether he sat still as a toadstool; rode it Indian-style under its belly, shooting arrows at the judge, or en pointe on one booted foot. (Now, that would be showboating.) I just cannot get excited about conjecture based on - in this case - nothing going wrong. I'm surprised that, for someone's whose career in based on the presentation of plain facts, Ardross is quite so hot under his Brookes Bros. collar.
 
There is no great speculation in Ardross's original post - Spencer took several lingering looks round at his rivals, and anyone who thought they were designed to calculate the finishing speed of any challengers is kidding themselves.
 
Blimey, talk about battering a minor subject to death! :surrender: Rory, you seemed to be making the point, like Ardross, that the lingering looks (surely a horse has to be called that some day?) were just there to wind-up the trailers and/or to show off. You and Ardross are determined to try and convince us that these could've cost him the race. They didn't. :nono: I don't imagine he had, for a second, to calculate the speed of the trailing field - he had the race bagged and knew it. :whistle:

When you're both proved right in future :adore: by Spencer casting long glances backwards and missing the win because of doing so, I'll eat a bowl of tripe and onions - minimally less sick-inducing than eating one's hat. :mad:
 
Pity we had to see KENTAVR'S DREAM break a leg in that - where does Spencer look round for dangers? I only see him riding out to the finish. But if he was looking round, he wasn't showboating.

I want to see much more celebratory showboating now the subject's been raised - handstands, round-the-worlds (spinning right round in the saddle), shirt over the head, toy trumpets, streamers, and those things that spray that plasticky goo all over everyone. Racing's got a bit dull, and we could do with jockeys showing just how much a win means to them, rather than some bland twittering to camera post-dismount.
 
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A fine example of catatonic complacency just now at Ballinrobe... down into third gear, thoughts of a hot shower and an early night... nutted for second by Andy Thornton who clearly thought "I'll have that, thank you".
 
Keys is up 16lbs from Saturday and will therefore go for Friday's Brown Jack at Ascot under a 6lb penalty.
 
Ardross said:
Roger Charlton had been up to cunning Sir Bloody like tricks running poor wee horsey over an inadequate trip !
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I don't agree. The horse looks like a two-miler now but when he won a bumper at Cheltenham on New Year's Day he looked like the extended 14f stretched him - made smooth headway turning in but only just held on at the finish. I think that's what influenced the trainer to run him over slightly shorter trips on the AW.
 
gus said:
I don't agree. The horse looks like a two-miler now but when he won a bumper at Cheltenham on New Year's Day he looked like the extended 14f stretched him - made smooth headway turning in but only just held on at the finish. I think that's what influenced the trainer to run him over slightly shorter trips on the AW.
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Cheltenham in winter is a more tiring affair than Kempton AW !
 
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