I think I have been consistent in maintaining that it was a farcically run race and that I think one trainer having the 4 runners up front contributed to it.
BUT maybe I should be blaming Josh more for not seeing that with 4 from the one stable in front of him - he could not afford to let them dictate
I think that Lang or Alford would have seen it that way if they were driving Hector but I got the feeling that Josh was put off from making the move
BUT maybe I should be accepting that the Yarra Valley Cup meant pretty much nothing to a few of them because of what they have coming up
I am not the form analyst that you are - I am just trying to keep this board ticking over and my opinion of the 'no moves' YV cup is only that - my opinion
Don't get aggressive Breno or I wont love you anymore - this board is not an aggressive place anymore or haven't you noticed that
I will have a stab at how things could have been different to make you happy.
Often cups see a bit of a death rotation going on early. It didn't happen - maybe this was because Guaranteed was in the death but some would argue that with Gavin driving him, it would NOT have been "I am keeping it no matter what" so the tough horse problem may have been cancelled out by the gentle driver argument
I think it is possible if someone else was the trainer (and driver) of Guaranteed he may have worked the Leader a bit more early on. I don't think under the present training arrangements that he was ever going to work his heavily backed stablemate who was resuming.
If someone else was the trainer of Yankee, they may even have left the 1x1 when they were going that slow - in anticipation that Hector is going to come because he is not going to let them get away with this. I dont think that with his team-mates in better spots Yankee was ever likely to do this as 'the team' were already beautifully positioned (and it would have turned out to be a wrong assumption
)
These are all big hypotheticals but one thing I do know from being a serious cyclist and runner in my day that although collusion is not allowed that does not mean you cannot feel satisfied with how the team is positioned and just go with the flow