This is exhaustapating (so tiring I can’t give a poop) Espresso Martini Palm Beach!? with a straw of course because why work those arms when ya don’t have to.
In all but some strange exotic wagers you can only bet win place show. That’s why in a close finish it takes a few minutes to make the race official. They need to determine placings, and also watch the replay to make sure it was an honest finish; everyone rode hard and there were no fouls. They are mostly concerned about the first 4, not so much the rest of the field.
They can and do call riders to come in and explain their ride if need be. But I’ve never heard of a rider getting called before the steward because maybe if he rode a bit harder the horse would have finished 6th instead of 7th or 8th.
Can you contribute to the discussion. If racing industry media is covering this topic. why hasn’t it been covered here?
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Oh it has been covered here AD NAUSEUM. Every barrel has a few bad apples how dare we allow baseball and football to continue. Very rarely will a 1,000 lb animal be scared for life by a whip, and I won’t even try and calculate how many multiples of times more the whip is used for control/safety rather than for speed. As for the starter hitting the horse in the gate, well again the rare exception and human self preservation against something about 100 times his size. For the most part race horses fare better than some in backyards.
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Well, we have some disagreement here. Palm Beach says it is laughable to think that the whip is used for control/safety:
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I watched the Delaware starter video as many times as I could handle it. The horse had already settled, so not sure why punching a horse in the face 4 times at that point was necessary.
I have personally never seen anything like this, and I’ve watched a lot of races.
Not that this makes the incident any less bad, but the starter did not knuckle punch the horse – the hits were open handed – heel of the hand hits that side-swiped the horse’s nose. If you replay the video in slow mo and freeze frame at the 21 and 23 second marks this can be seen. Could be the reason or part of reason starter was reinstated.
The slo mo also shows how high this horse actually reared up and then how low, which unseated the joc – you can see air between him and the horse’s back.
And for those of you who have never broken a horse from the gate I can tell you from experience that it’s one of the most dangerous places to be when you’re on a horse that’s having a fit, not only because of the obvious danger but also because if you’re not tied on properly and the gate opens the horse will leave the gate without you = another chance for injury + loose horse. Starters have a tough job coordinating a horse with his joc – split second between not ready and ready before "…and they’re off! "
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Agree, tough and dangerous job. Admire the people who do it.
I was just asking you guys about “slapping” the horse AFTER he had settled. Are my eyes deceiving me that that is when the starter’s actions took place?
I think, personally it just escalated the situation even further. The horse settled down and then the striking began, horse became frightened, then tried to pull the same stunt again before the gates opened.
I see no excuse for hitting the horse like he did. It would be nice if they explained what protocols are used in determining what is acceptable behavior for an assistant starter. I just can’t think of a reason, other than attack, where hitting a horse like this guy did is a form of correction, training, or behavior modification.
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I don’t think anyone thought/thinks it is acceptable behavior.
However, I think how things turned out, with the starter being given back his job, is where things may have gone off the rails for some people?
Yes, he has a good employment history, yes, he works a dangerous job, etc.
But isn’t this sorta like when a spouse suddenly “loses it” and starts physically hitting the other spouse in a moment of high stress. After years of marriage and not ever acting out like that?
And there would always be some kind of psychiatric evaluation before putting back into previous situation and/or combined with counselling/anger management in order to continue in present situation?
(Find me another example of a somebody going to town on a horse in the gate like this. Out of hundreds of thousands of races here and abroad?)
The other larger problem is further tarnishing the reputation of racing…Joe Public ponders: “gosh, I wonder what they do to these horses when nobody is looking??”
There are just some things in business that cant happen without a serious demotion of your business/industry ala perception, and when that train starts to roll, it’s best to come down loud and hard on the initial event/behavior that sent that train into motion. JMHO Otherwise, you don’t recuperate.
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Just my 2 cents: I don’t think the horse was ever really ‘settled’ – I think he was in that flight, fight, freeze ZONE, and after those smacks to the nose there was just that golden, split second moment where all things came together enough for starter to say go. Sometimes the more time you take the worse things can get. And we can’t forget that the joc was probably offering his own 2 cents on how to deal with this horse so they could get on their way.
Easy to arm-chair criticize.
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"The investigation, the statement said, involved video review, interviews with those involved, and conversations with people “knowledgeable regarding the standard protocols of handling a fractious horse in the starting gate when a horse becomes a danger to the jockey and/or assistant starter.”
When the dust had settled, “the assistant starter was cleared of any wrong doing,” the statement said.
That cheered John Mooney, Delaware Park’s director of racing.
“I feel that justice has been done,” Mooney said. “He used all the techniques that starters have used for the last 50 or 60 years. The rider was in a very dangerous setting, and when you really take a serious look at it, he used the flat of his hand and fingers to control the horse.”
According to Mooney, in a situation like that, the assistant starter tries to distract the horse and cause it to focus on him, rather than on whatever has agitated him “to keep him from making these erratic movements.”
He is apparently well respected by the riders. I guess “acceptable behavior” and “cleared of wrongdoing” are not the same. But still.
I like the rule that they have in California. And they do enforce it and fine jockeys for overuse all the time. They cannot hit the horse more than 3 times without giving the horse a chance to respond. I think the whip has its use. It helps with the lead change and to let a horse know its time to get going. I don’t like to see a jockey keep hitting a horse that is obviously done. In some races it appears that the jockey keeps using the whip so that it looks like he is still trying to finish. They seem to get judged for using the whip too much and also not enough, so the rule also helps them to some extent.
