LeBron's Teammates Could Learn Something From Restoring Hope In The Belmont Stakes

[ESPN] - Long shot Restoring Hope’s run in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes is being questioned by some competitors, who suggest the horse might have been used to block other horses from catching stablemate Justify on his way to the Triple Crown.

Bob Baffert trains both Justify and Restoring Hope, which went off at 37-1 and then broke fast to the front and settled into second place for much of the race, just off Justify’s shoulder, before falling to eighth at the finish.

Mike Repole, who co-owns fourth-place finisher Vino Rosso and last-place finisher Noble Indy, and Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez both found fault with the ride by Florent Geroux aboard Restoring Hope.

“It baffled me,” Repole told the Daily Racing Form. “I would have thought Baffert would have wanted Restoring Hope nowhere close to the pace.

Finally some drama about possible cheating in the horse racing industry – something that this sport has been lacking. Really though it’s just being a good teammate. I mean perhaps LeBron’s teammates could have learned something from Restoring Hope about helping out the best player on the court or the best horse in the field.

I don’t have a problem with this. Why? Because no one was beating Justify to begin with. It’s sort of hilarious to see Repole complaining about this. Noble Indy sucked and Vino Rosso was a decent amount behind Justify and finished fourth.

I mean shouldn’t we be applauding Restoring Hope here? We applaud the enforcers in the NHL. We applaud roleplayers in the NBA. We applaud the line doing the dirty work in football. It’s time to appreciate the enforcers on the horse track. You know, I’d even consider giving the triple crown to Restoring Hope. Or at the minimum we let Restoring Hope win a race similar to Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr. using the slingshot method in Ricky Bobby.

Horse racing – something Jordie can’t ask if it needs enforcers.