I ran one at Tampa yesterday and was chatting with some Jockeys about it. Their consensus was that Vaz should get a lifetime ban and Santos should get 90 for being stupid enough for hitting him back. If I owned either of those horses, Vaz would be a dead man.
[QUOTE=lily04;4608115]
I cannot believe that they let Vaz ride the rest of the card after that. Both riders should have been escorted off the grounds and not allowed to return until a hearing and some anger management. They put many horses and riders lives at risk.[/QUOTE]
They can’t because there’s a process that takes time to get these things dealt with. Just another form of stupidity in the sport. I guess a jockey would have to shoot someone with a pistol to get escorted off the grounds.
I think these guys are going to be out for a while. It’s starting to get around the media and not penalizing (strongly) such a breach of safety standards is going to look pretty bad for PHA.
Nancy
[QUOTE=NMK;4611605]
I think these guys are going to be out for a while. It’s starting to get around the media and not penalizing (strongly) such a breach of safety standards is going to look pretty bad for PHA.
Nancy[/QUOTE]
Most racing jurisdictions - especially those with the one-arm bandits - could give a rat’s arse what the public thinks about their sport.
[QUOTE=DickHertz;4611440]
They can’t because there’s a process that takes time to get these things dealt with. Just another form of stupidity in the sport. I guess a jockey would have to shoot someone with a pistol to get escorted off the grounds.[/QUOTE]
If two spectators in the grand stand did this they would have been escorted away in handcuffs.
I forgot, this wouldn’t have happened in the Philly grandstand because everybody is in the casino and can’t find access to the grandstand even if thty wanted to watch the races.
An interesting article from The Daily Racing Form on jockey fights (1/28/10) - excerpt:
In the wake of the Philadelphia Park fight, students at the North American Racing Academy run by retired Hall of Famer Chris McCarron peppered their mentor with questions.
“The first question was what kind of penalty they’d receive,” said McCarron, who retired in 2002. “I didn’t know for sure, but it would have to be pretty severe, because the stewards have to put that to a stop right away. What they did, though, isn’t usually something that just happens. There must have been some kind of battle going on between them prior to the incident.”
McCarron was once fined for slapping Patrick Valenzuela with the whip going down the backstretch of a race at Hollywood Park. McCarron attributed his actions to frustrations and anger over the way Valenzuela had been riding close to the edge with apparent impunity.
“It was stupid, and you feel terrible about it afterwards,” McCarron said of his actions. “It’s just something that can happen in the heat of battle.”
McCarron tries to be realistic with his student jockeys. He does not tell them that they might someday get into a fight with another rider. He assures them that they will, especially if they are displaying the kind of competitive fire that it takes to succeed in major league racing.
Cited also was this race - see on youtube of Seabiscuit vs. Ligaroti - a 1938 Match Race where by either George Woolf, riding Seabiscuit, or Noel “Spec” Richardson, on Ligaroti, who initiated the rough stuff.
When is the ruling coming down? I hate how the process takes so long.
And the verdict is …
Jockey gets 200-day ban in Philly fight
Erilius Vaz, the jockey who punched fellow rider Ademar Dos Santos in the face during the stretch run of a race at Philadelphia Park on Jan. 8, was suspended for 200 days by Philadelphia’s stewards on Friday, according to state racing officials. Santos was issued a 90-day suspension for his role in the incident.
During the terms of the suspensions, both jockeys will be banned from all Pennsylvania racetracks, according to Justin Fleming, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission.
edited to add - TVG with Simon Bray was incorrect in stating these are “racing days” - they aren’t - they are calendar days
Both jockeys have not ridden since the date of the race, and the suspensions handed down on Friday were retroactive to Jan. 9. Vaz will be prohibited from riding until July 28, and Dos Santos will be banned until April 9.
I’m content with that penalty, even though it’s calendar days. It’s long enough to put a good dent in his earnings and perhaps reconsider his choice of career.
What is wrong with these guys! Racing is dangerous enough! If I owned either of those horses I would be absolutely LIVID!!! Not to mention if I had been another jock in the race! They were risking alot of lives for stupidity!
