… their jockeys manage to get them off the track after the race without an outrider.
The commentator interviewing the winning jockey does so on foot with a mike on a pole.
Why can’t American racehorses and race riders be that mature?
american horses and jockeys get off the track without an outrider.
do you watch racing?
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I’ll also chime in–ponies to the post usually pick up the horse after the walking ring when they are handed off by their grooms. So they are actually ponied only a short distance before the race. After the race, the horses turn around and come back all by their lonesome where they are picked up again by their grooms (or someone else’s grooms if they have been claimed). I’m sure there is an occasion when outriders are necessary after a race but I haven’t seen it much.
To the OP, are you talking about Donna Brothers’ interviews on horseback? Because that is not an everyday occurance.
I’ll add that if you go to a racetrack in the morning, there will be a hundred horses doing what you say American horses don’t do–walk from the barn, jog, gallop and then break off and work either accompanied by another worker or by themselves before being pulled up and going back to the barn. There are not enough ponies to accompany every worker although there are certainly some out there along with outriders when necessary. The pony to the post thing is a custom and part of it is because American horses tend to stay at the same track that they run at whereas British horses are kept at yards and vanned in. Logically the ponies would have to be vanned in too and that is not the custom.
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Do you? Have you never noticed the outrider who comes up to interview the winning jockey? :rolleyes:
Then since American horses are stabled at the track and exercised there I should think they would be more at home on the track and not need lead ponies to escort them in the post parade.
And the British interviewer on foot gives a clearer view of the winning horse after the race than the American on the horse does.
There are 50k odd races in the US every year, with 400,000 odd runners. The number of times an outrider catches a winner for an interview is tiny.
Your comment was off the mark.
An outrider catches the winner of the Melbourne Cup every year, you think the Aussies lack horsemanship and riding skills?
seems like you were trying to get a dig in at American racing, but did so from a uneducated stance.
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That only happens on SOME of the really big races that are on network TV. There are 100,000 races a year in the US and less than 100 are on network TV and have an outrider catch them and escort them back to the winners circle. That is .1% of the races.
Your statement is based on what you see on TV. Obviously you don’t actually go to the races.
Spoken from the viewpoint of an observer, not a horseman.
US race horses gallop and race counterclockwise. They are not allowed to gallop clockwise, just walk and jog. They absolutely know they are racing on race day and are pretty amped up. They probably don’t understand that they have to go load into the gate and wait for the break before kicking into racing gear. During the post parade, the horses go both ways (clockwise and counterclockwise) at all gaits. They normally walk past the grandstand and then walk, jog and gallop around the track, in some specified order and direction depending on where the starting gate is placed on the track. BTW, the gate is blocking a large portion of the track unless it’s in a chute. You can’t risk a horse getting strong with a jock and running off and the gate being in the way. The horses know they are racing, and they are ready to race, and they are not accustomed to galloping the wrong way, and they are ready to roll when you head the right way, and they absolutely know where the finish line is.
In Europe, the horses train on gallops and there are usually multiple gallops and places to do fast work, so there is no “finish line” that they understand. When they get to the race course, it’s not firmly embedded in their mind that the finish line is THERE and they need to race to it.
I’m sorry you need all this explained to you and you get such a kick out of dissing jockeys of one nationality or another, or racing in a specific country. Maybe you can get out there and show us all how it’s done! Do you ride?
A lot of British racing ( hurdles for instance) do not use starting gates either. There are so many differences between racing in each country I am not sure a comparison is apt. British racers tend to hack out to gallops to exercise, and so are pretty bomb proof on roads, around heavy equipment, etc. As posted above, they are vanned to the track, run, and go home again. British tracks tend to be on undulating ground, if turf racing, not the completely flat surface of American tracks. There are different rules on the use of whips, etc, etc…
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That’s not an outrider. That’s a TV commentator on a horse–and the only reason she is there is to do the interview.
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And if she works more than 10 days a year at that, I’d be amazed.
At Santa Anita, jockeys are sometimes interviewed by inhouse folks after stakes races. It doesn’t happen on the horse. The jock has already galloped out past the turn, turned around, galloped the horse back generally without help, had the picture taken and his valet pulled the saddle off. Usually the jockey talks to the trainer before the interview because that obviously who hired him. Then he steps up on the track next to the winners circle which is broadcast in the livefeed.
What happens in BC races and the Triple Crown is very different than day to day racing or even stakes racing in the US. Calling Donna Brothers an “outrider” underscores that the OP doesn’t know what one is.
To be fair, an outsider does usually catch the winner of US classic races as seen on NBC, and then Donna Brothers meets up with them to ask her questions. The outrider sometimes wears a go pro camera, and may have a mic/speaker strapped to his right shoulder.
But on a daily basis, no, an outrider does not catch the winning horse in American racing and jockeys are perfectly capable of loping back to the Winners Circle on their own. I think it comes off better having Donna comfortably on a pony, instead of trying to run alongside a jazzed up horse, possibly in sloppy mud like at this year’s Derby or Preakness.
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You know that’s Donna Barton Brothers, right? She’s had a good career, first as a jockey and then as a racing commentator. Unlike the other talking heads she is out there on the pony in all types of weather.
I don’t want to speak for Pronzini, but I’m pretty sure she meant that there are only a handful of race days each year that are big enough for Donna to be doing post-race interviews on horseback.
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I thought including the phrase “at that” in response to “TV commentator on horseback” quote was self explanatory but I guess not…
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Ummm since I used her name I know who it is. So how many times a year do you think she works as a TV commentator on horseback for a network? More than 10?
I’d guess right around 10 as some of the Win And Your In Series where NBC (usually NBCSN) covers the race, she isn’t there. Having said that, she shared equally in the yucky weather this year at the Derby and Preakness (didn’t have mud thrown in her face but she was out on her horse before and after the races).
Me? Just don’t like her “style”… sound of her voice or some of the questions she asks and how she asks them. But yes, knowledgeable.
I took your first statement completely literally, meaning 355 days a year she doesn’t work. Apologies. And she retired from race riding quite a while ago, and you did not use “Barton,” hence my comments about her career.
No problem 
It’s hilarious (I’m being kind) how you “explained” things to me that had nothing to do with my post to which you appeared to be responding.
Yes. I ride.
You, OTOH, obviously can’t write. 
But you are right about one thing. I am not a horseman. I am a horsewoman.
