Parx 8th

[Rich Curtis]

Plastic,

  Let\'s say that herding an opponent five paths gets you a 50-50 split in public opinion. By your standard, this means the horse should be an automatic stay-up. But the problem is that by making a herding of five paths an automatic stay-up, you are guaranteeing that something like 50% of horseplayers will then argue that herding six paths should not be a DQ, which, by your standard, therefore makes herding six paths an automatic stay-up. And so on. You get caught in a devil\'s progression. The solution is to write clear rules and enforce them consistently. But this is horse racing. So there isn\'t a chance in hell that will ever happen.

[TreadHead]

And I believe something similar happened when Captain Bodgit was about to run down Silver Charm.

[hooper]

Here is the PA. rule.


§ 163.234. Crossing and weaving.

 During the running of a race, when clear, a horse may be taken to another part of the course but a horse may not cross or weave in front of other horses in such a way that would impede them or constitute or cause interference or intimidation.

[TGJB]

Rules? We don\'t need no stinkin\' rules.

Ask California.

[plasticman]

RC,
I just believe that unless a horse is cost a placing in obvious fashion, you leave the result alone. I think the clear rules that you speak of need to be to leave alone borderline stuff and just disqualify the most obvious situations.

Most of us have seen thousands and tens of thousands of horse races, we all know the difference between an incidental brush, something minor or a major \'crash\' that results in a horse getting knocked sideways with a hard jar.

If you are a steward who believes that horseplayers ought to be paid if they pick the winner and only the most obvious cases of interference will come down, i believe that judge is far more qualified than someone who\'s looking for any little minor nitpicking situation and trying to play god with OPM.

Stewards should let god play god and stay out of the way and just make calls that anyone can make.

Once judges get into the \'judging\' part of borderline stuff is when and where we get into trouble.