Post by cliff on Mar 28, 2010 12:07:17 GMT -5
I typically am not critical of drivers, and I do like Wyatt Irvine, especially with trotters, but I have to wonder what he was thinking in last night's 10th race. He had the rail with Standing Room and left aggressively. The horse does have good gate speed and protecting his post advantage was expected. But Marvin Raber also leaves with #7 Winbak Len, also expected as this one only races well when he has the front end.
Why Wyatt doesn't let Raber go, then retake is beyond me. We see this tactic constantly at Northfield. If he does the take/retake that puts a pretender (Winbak Len) in the pocket and places Merriman third on the rail, and forces him to come first over at some point. Irvine controls the pace and is in much better position to win. Instead we saw what happened, an early speed duel, Merriman gets sucked along and has plenty of horse to go on by in the stretch. Couple this with the amateurish driving we saw in the first race, and it makes us fans just shake our heads in disbelief.
Why Wyatt doesn't let Raber go, then retake is beyond me. We see this tactic constantly at Northfield. If he does the take/retake that puts a pretender (Winbak Len) in the pocket and places Merriman third on the rail, and forces him to come first over at some point. Irvine controls the pace and is in much better position to win. Instead we saw what happened, an early speed duel, Merriman gets sucked along and has plenty of horse to go on by in the stretch. Couple this with the amateurish driving we saw in the first race, and it makes us fans just shake our heads in disbelief.
