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![]() Insiders will tell you that the "jockey title" race at the Spa is as much about the agents as it is the riders.
Johnny and Angel no longer care about titles in even the most vague way, they realize its a money game and Johnny has already won titles and set records up here. They also realize that riding first call for Todd leaves them up against it to get catch mounts. So its come down to the two very best agents in the business, with no love lost between them, going for the title. At the start of the meet I posted here that I made Edgar Prado 3-5 to win it and now I wold go as far as to take 1-2 if I could get a line on it. Bob Frieze is the man who engineered Jerry Bailey's incredible meteoric rise from journeyman to eclipse award record setting rider. Dumped by Bailey for Gomez' current agent Ron Anderson, Frieze worked like a man obsessed and beat bailey and Anderson for the title with his then new rider Prado a few years back. No love lost between them and now its carried over into Frieze/Prado vs Gomez/Anderson. Anderson is a great agent regarded by most as the bets agent. he does an incredible job getting his riders on big money mounts in stakes races. But Frieze is no slouch himself. A totally different guy than Anderson, he always has a gameface on and is the best I ever saw at picking up live catch mounts. By this I mean snaring mounts in allowances, maidens, and claiming races that he hasn't been riding. He has almost a sixth sense of what horse is sitting on a win in what condition and noone alive has a better record of choosing between two live mounts for his jockey and picking the right one. Frieze will work tirelessly between now and the final entries taken on saturday for Monday's card to win the title and he will prevail. Even after entries are closed he will make sure if a rider on a live mount is injured and they need a replacement, that he is the first guy to call and get the mount. Make no mistake about it, insiders know that this race the last week is a clash of the agent titans, and the smart money is on Frieze to prevail. He'll pull out all the stops and put Edgar on live horses in claiming races as well as the others. |