This is the outrider people are questioning…
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10228567647962223&id=1414579027
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Yes, they did. The pics I saw show him being well behaved.
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Just illustrating what I mentioned about the race calls in my last post! 
Mine that Bird call… one mention as they come into the backstretch… dead last… and then after blazing his way up the rail, the next mention is after he is a couple of lengths in front! Durkin was as surprised at the rest of us!
Rich Strike… mentioned near the back as they come into the backstretch… then not again until he is getting his nose in front!
I am not faulting the callers - a huge field like that is hard to keep track of… I just think the similarity is kinda fun…
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I am still trying to find any post-race report or comment about White Abarrio. And also looking for early prognostications about who is headed to the Preakness.
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I think the desire for an interview, and the fact that the horse just became very valuable - are two reasons they wouldn’t want this young horse gallop back around. Also, unless the jockey was prepared, it might put him in danger as well. Presumably, no one expected him to respond to the outrider as he did. (Or at least, they weren’t expecting it to be quite so extreme.)
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there was a lot of traffic, for sure.
the other 19 race horses, people, outriders…not easy to pick your way through on a good day. Much less with an ornery colt on the strap.
(I don’t think anybody suggested the jockey yank the colt’s head around. but they always drop the reins when they outrider has them. Then this happens.)
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Interview with Eric Reed. Says his horse is a kind horse and that the aggression towards the pony is not characteristic-- he thinks the behavior was just a carry on from the racing instinct and effort the horse had just gone through.
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ROFL. If you’re going to say that, maybe don’t pose in front of your horse wearing a lip chain.
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Its a young colt. The stud chains seem to be pretty standard equipment. I don’t handle racehorses or stallions. I imagine they know what they are doing and do not do it for any reason other than necessity. A kind horse can still be in a stud chain. A kind horse is still a horse, after all.
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Its all relative.
They all go with a chain somewhere, or a chiffney. Or both.
They are too valuable and too athletic to take chances.
You don’t have to use a chain if its on, but you sure can’t use one if you don’t put one on… like wearing spurs or carrying a crop/whip.
.
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Nearly all racehorses wear lip chains or at minimum a chain over the nose when being led outside their stalls, regardless of their temperament. You are literally holding a young, fit, keg of dynamite who has been trained to run fast in an environment where there are hazards everywhere. A web halter and a cotton shank isn’t going to cut it if something goes wrong.
I can count on my fingers the number of fit racehorses I have worked with that I could trust without a chain.
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better have it on and not need it than need it and not have it.
this is a fit colt, fed to the max. Silly stuff happens, and usually in the blink of an eye.
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In our tracks decades ago, chain shanks were practically mandatory.
If a horse were to act up, even one that “never” acts up, and cause serious problems, if one was not used was a cause to blame the one handling the colt.
Chain leads are a courtesy to all other horses.
You not only protect your horse from trouble, but others from trouble a loose horse may cause.
You may never need it, but is there that one time you may.
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I would say you never take a colt anywhere without a stud chain. Usually over the nose. Sometimes run through the mouth. But a lip chain, to me, represents a little step up. I’ve never seen a barn where every colt was lead out with a lip chain.
It’s like seeing a horse tacked up with a ring bit, a tongue tie and a yoke and rings. Maybe the trainer sends out everything tacked up like that. But I’m going to assume I need to have eaten my Wheaties and put on my gloves before riding it.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SGc5OZcsH0 Part 2 of Eric Reed interview. What a humble, down to earth man, you can tell he really cares for the horses he trains, and also for all of his work crew and connections.
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Churchill Downs during Derby week is an insane place!
That is not normal for anybody involved. I think even people who have done it for decades still get the jitters. You can’t practice for the atmosphere there! Unless you are lucky enough to go to the breeders cup the year prior.
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Then You have never been to a thoroughbred yearling sale. Almost every Colt goes in a lip chain without exception.
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Have you ever worked in racing?
TBH, I’d rather have a lip chain I never touch than a chain wrapped around the head that is getting shanked repeatedly.
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Chain shanks, sure. Absolutely.
But lip shanks? Not so much.
I checked the video before posting. The chain is clearly under his lip, not just run through his mouth.
In my little bit of experience, you want to be pretty sparing of using a lip chain because it’s so easy to make their gums bleed and even a small correction with one is very, very harsh.
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McGurk, I mean this kindly, but you have clearly never worked in the TB industry. Lip chains are standard handling for colts. They are too valuable to allow for anything less than the highest level of control, for their protection and the protection of others.
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