Charismatic

As most of them have been. I’d forgotten how messed up Antley was. Poor guy.

First, if I were Bob Lewis, I’d never have another horse with Lukas, if he even had the slightest doubts about the competency (read: sobriety) of Antley then you switch jocks. No questions asked, no input needed. Anyone would’ve ridden him. Hell, half probably would’ve dropped their ride that day in NY for the chance to be part of history.

Second, while you certainly can’t say that Antley’s ride had anything to do with the horse breaking down, you simply cannot deny that the jock put in a terrible ride in the Belmont that day. In no way shape or form was he a speed horse, and furthermore, you can see Antley PUT him there just off the lead. That wasn’t the horse just being aggressive (as many are prone to do) this was the jockey making a huge mistake.

Third, I got it, Antley is an amazing comeback story. But the amount of revisionist history that was presented as fact was a little frustrating. He’s dead, I got it. He was a great story, I got it. But you know what? You can’t say he did a good job in the Belmont simply because he’s dead now. Now granted, the perspective of the years passing has certainly added some depth to how those involved viewed the circumstances surrounding the non-win (hard for me to call a show in a G1 a loss) and I’m sure that the writers involved are just LOOKING for signs that Antley wasn’t all there at the time, but you simply cannot brush off the fact that he did not put the horse in a position to win. You watch the Derby and he comes from about 6 or so lengths off the lead and in the Preakness he looks to be about 5-7 lengths off the lead in a deep stalking position. But in the Belmont he’s a head off the lead? Horrible.

Fourth, If you didn’t know better and were a casual watcher of the Triple Crown, you’d assume that Larry Bramlage is the only equine vet in the world. I just think that’s funny.

Fifth, knowing more about horses now than I did back then, it is really interesting to see that Charismatic really dislocated that ankle about 3 strides short of the line. You really see him shorten up and start to favor the injury at that point. But an amazing response by Antley, that without doubt saved the animal from having to suffer through what is usually a horrific injury that can result in the horse being euthanized shortly thereafter.

Overall, I thought it was very good. Anything that gets horse racing on national TV is a great thing, and this was well presented. I know it looks like I’m picking it apart, but I enjoyed it immensely.

but the name of the film should have been “Antley”, not “Charismatic”, since it focused much more on the jock than the horse.