When Hope Road balked at going into the gate at the start of the Ballerina on Travers Day, I flashed back to her daddy Quality Road, sure was hoping they did not have to blindfold her like they did to him that day!
Great scott!!! How dangerous. That should have stopped way before the blindfold and the gate. Kudos to the dude that saved that situation. Put me in the āno blindfold campā. It doesnāt matter that these types of incidences rarely happen, it only takes one horrific crash to change the way itās done. Kind of like road crashes. Letās wait until someone is killed before we address the problem. 
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Editing a response to say I am not against blindfolding a horse to make a situation easier. Blindfolding a horse or animal is one way to get them out of a burning stable or other scary situation
I am against a blindfold being secured around the head while loading, and while standing in the starting gateā¦ relying on the jockey to rip it off and throw it as the gate swings open. A horse should not be standing in a starting gate waiting to run with a blindfold strapped securely around the head relying on a human to rip it off as a starting gate flies open.
While the horse crashed through the rails it seems this one had more of a brain and knew not to take off at full steam, he was kind of subdued in his attempt to run away. Can you imagine if it was a horse who took off at full steam and ran head first into something?
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Has anyone seen the video of the racehorse that was being manhandled towards the gate with about five or six people trying to practically pick him up and carry him, and the one who was at his head accidentally pulled the bridle off?
And the horse spun around and started to gallop in the opposite direction with the jockey still on his back. He went out of sight around the corner, so I donāt know what finally happened that day.
But it seems like if the horse is making his feelings so clear about not going in the gate on race day, they might want to pay a little more attention to it.
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