Switching blame there. Both yesterday and at Goodwood with Quirat the pacemaker had done his job perfectly. Its every other Jockey who lost on those occasions whos to blame. Can you criticise Buick yesterday ? His job was to get Ombudsman to win. He did that so no matter how the race looked as a spectacle he got it right.
So much I agree with Danny about here, but I will just focus on this.
I haven't talked about it much here, but I've been involved in football as well as racing over the years and there are so many parallels.
You can only properly assess a football manager on their results relative to their resources and the same is true of a racehorse trainer.
And in any individual football match or horse race, the only thing that actually matters is the result - the result ultimately defines the quality of how well a manager, their players, a trainer or their jockey did their jobs.
I used to have football fans come up to me at final whistle moaning about a performance and the manager's tactics, even though we'd won.
"What's the score? We got three points - the result vindicates literally everything the manager did today, you just saw the Club you support win, so I suggest you go home happy and enjoy your Saturday night," I'd reply.
The same is true in racing - Buick won the race and that's actually all that matters.
If he gets beat, sure, crucify him, but he didn't - it's a game of fine margins, a nose either way can be the difference between hero and villain, that's how it works, we surely all know this.
A bullet dodged is still a bullet dodged.
And I don't see how Havlin on Birr Castle (or Kingscote on Qirat the other day) can possibly be criticised.
They led, they aren't responsible for what the other jockeys do and they got their mounts to outrun their odds, one winning and the other finishing third.
I've only met Aidan O'Brien the once, really nice bloke, I thought, very polite and modest, but anyone who buys into this "genius" stuff about him needs to give their head a wobble.
He was a good young trainer who got picked up by a huge outfit and hasn't looked back since.
That's how elite sport - and life - works.
A tiny edge over the next person can lead to the opportunity to turn that rizla paper superiority into a gaping chasm in terms of results and wealth.
O'Brien was knee deep in blame deflection yesterday on a day when he, his jockey and his operation had a right shocker - plus O'Brien is his employer's marketing mouthpiece, bigging up every winner as the best yet and having every excuse under the Sun for getting beat.
Football managers can be like that too - in his entire managerial career I don't think the great Bill Shankly ever conceded that any Liverpool side he sent out was ever beaten on merit.
That's why I don't listen to these people (not just O'Brien, any of them) and have to smile at those who do and cut and paste their every word as if they're tablets of stone.
They got a job to do and an agenda to promote and everything they say reflects that.
Instead of using your ears to listen to them, use your eyes to independently figure out what YOU think actually happened and rejoice, not fret, if your analysis differs from the crowd.
For that way betting value lies.
