Thank you for that link, @Laurierace . I especially like this (from the Steve Haskin wrote and Laurie linked in post #550):
But what they should do is acknowledge that this was the Kentucky Derby, with its huge field and often becoming a bumper car race where far more egregious events have occurred with no action taken. With this decision they have turned the Derby, at least this year’s, into a race like any other that will have a profound effect on future Derbys, with a likely influx of foul claims for any kind of infraction, whether minor or major.
His statement about “far more egregious events have occurred with no action taken” is the point I was making citing Genuine Risk and Codex in the Preakness far upthread. Not that two (or more) wrongs make a right, as Laurie questioned (but after all who says any of those other decisions were right or wrong - that’s not the point, the point is that they were the precedents) – i.e., the precedent of how the rules of racing have been applied in the TC races in the past has been that, again as Steve Haskin put it, far more egregious things have occurred with no setdowns.
I also feel like the observation that WoW ran up MS’s butt – and that contributed to the situation, or perhaps was a separate foul of its own (???) has a lot of merit, but I understand that different people will look at the same things and interpret them very differently.
In questioning MS’s setdown I am not, as some have outright said in this thread, uncaring of safety for jockeys, horses, and all involved. My concern is that I DO worry this decision somehow seemed fundamentally to be in a different direction or spirit than such decisions have been in the past (again, reference the other incidents that have been given as examples in this thread). It feels to me like a bit of a sea change in interpretation of the rules, and the lack of inquiry and the source of the objection and so on all plays into this feeling.
And I could not agree more strongly with Haskin’s statement about influx of foul claims – that was also a point I was trying to make upthread, though I’m sure I was nowhere near as clear or eloquent. Carried to an extreme, racing could become more about adjudication than who crosses the finish line first.
Again, that doesn’t mean I’m blase about human and horse safety! I just hate how this race has left me feeling, at least for now, about the Derby, the other TC races, racing in general, just ugh. I hate that the almost-pileup occurred, I hate that MS’s efforts did not result in an official win, I admire WoW for staying on his feet – but overall, the whole situation just casts a pall imo. And that worries me for racing. But that’s just me.
