Mistake costs Sutherland coveted mount

The cliche “you’re hired to be fired” is used over and over again in sports.

Terry Francona was let go by the Boston Red Sox after two titles. Even Bill Belichick was once fired by the Cleveland Browns.

The best do get fired because it’s easier to ax a coach or manager than an entire team.

In horse racing, the person constantly on the hot seat is the jockey. Lose one race and there are a dozen riders ready to take your place.

It was announced this week that Chantal Sutherland was being taken off multiple grade 1 winner Game On Dude by trainer Bob Baffert. I know Sutherland has been fired before. All jockeys are at some point. But the sting of losing the mount on the potential favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic has got to be deep and hurtful.

She’ll be replaced by leading rider Rafael Bejarano, who is the go-to guy for Baffert. Expect Bejarano and Game On Dude to team up in the Awesome Again at Santa Anita on Sept. 29 as a lone prep before the Classic on Nov. 3, also at Santa Anita.

The crime that got Sutherland fired occurred at the 16th pole of the Pacific Classic. She dropped her left rein as eventual winner Dullahan was coming to them on the far outside.

Did Sutherland deserve to get fired? Probably not. But the words fair and horse racing are seldom used in the same sentence.

There is no guarantee that if Bejarano had ridden Game On Dude in the Pacific Classic that they would have won. However, making a mistake at a key point in the race is hard to dismiss.

To her credit, Game On Dude was a good, but not great, horse until Sutherland began riding him.

Their first union was in the 2011 Santa Anita Handicap. Baffert could not find a rider for his long shot horse until his wife, Jill, suggested Sutherland. Game On Dude went off at 14-1 odds and won a controversial nose photo over Setsuko.

Sutherland was taken off Game On Dude after the Big Cap. Two losses later, they were reunited in the Hollywood Gold Cup, where they lost by an inch to another Baffert colt, First Dude.

The race cemented the fact that this horse ran his eyeballs out for her. That happens in racing when a horse and rider have chemistry and potential is reached.

All told, in 10 graded stakes races together they won five times with three seconds.

The switch to Bejarano is understandable. With two more wins, Game On Dude should be the Horse of the Year. I suspect Sutherland will be rooting harder than anybody else at Santa Anita for Game On Dude to win the Classic, but she’ll do it with a melancholy heart.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick