Surprisingly, to me, Down The Jazz had gone back to his three weeks and the turn Sharp cycle which fit perfectly into the scheme of things. The reason for this is probably because of the demands that I put on him in his last race by changing his jockey instructions and asking him to run against his natural style. So, I thought Down The Jazz was coming into this race in pretty good shape especially after his gutsy performance in the Fountain Of Ute. The extra 1/16th of a mile difference between the two races should also be to his liking. I would definetely change his jockey instructions back to "Jockey Select", but there was one other slight detail to think about. His regular jockey, N. Fry, who rode Down The Jazz to a win in the Holy Bull and rode him in to a 2nd place finish in the Fountain Of Ute, all of a sudden abandons me, I was assigned a different jockey; A. McKeller. I made a mental note not to ever ask for the services of N. Fry again, for any reason.
Down The Jazz again finished a perplexing 2nd place, beaten 8.5 lengths. Again, he finished above Woody's Smurfs, still rated the #1 3yo horse. That he finished 2nd and was beaten 8.5 lengths didn't bother me, what did trouble me was the way in which he ran the race, his running style. I expected to see him at the back of mid-pack waiting to make his huge middle move that would propel him to a win; That didn't happen. Instead he situated himself right on the pace, eliminating any possibility of making a good middle move. Had I ruined him?!?!
Looking at this matter today; June 3,'00 . Down The Jazz performed just like I had trained him. To improve a horses tactical speed you have to expect the horse to situate himself in a tactical position in his next race by himself. At that time, I didn't think of it this way at all, I was sure I had made a big mistake, I felt that I had ruined his beautiful and natural running style, ....Forever!!
How could I help him find it again?
