Del Mar / Best Pal / Stewards

[fkach]

You clearly have a better attitude on life than I do.  ;-)

I was thinking about what you said and think you have a good point. For example, favorites win a higher percentage of the time than they finish second. So my guess would be that they get DQ\'d more often than they get put up. It could be that my unbalanced DQ results are a sign of good handicapping, but it sure feels like the universe is out to get me . ;-)

[fkach]

>Problem that you guys/gals may be missing is that a similar incident will happen soon and they will leave the horse up.Steward inconsistency is a concern for me. <

Exactly.

I watched both the Pan and Head On about 15 times and I\'m still not sure if one, two, or no horses should have been DQ\'d and which one(s). I\'m not even sure who made contact first. It\'s clear the most inside horse was coming out through much of the stretch and forcing the other out towards the 9 also.

My best guess is that the major contact occurred because the rider of the 9 reacted out of fear of getting squeezed and not because of actual contact.

The very fact that a bunch of people here and on TV disagree with the decision says something.

There are actually three problems.

1. When you use the standard \"impacted the outcome\" you can get into some very subjective areas upon which unbiased and experienced observers will often disagree.

2. Even if the standards are very clear, sometimes the evidence of whose fault it was is not clear.  

3. The standards are not consistent from day to day and race to race even at the same track, let alone different tracks.

What ever happened to the standard that they allow the riders/horses to get away with more in Stakes like yesterday\'s race? LOL

IMO, the default value should be to do nothing unless the evidence of a foul,  whose fault it was, and that it impacted the outcome are all very clear. They have to get all these marginal decisions out of the hands of the stewards. My suggestion is far from perfect, but the stewards are too imperfect and inconsistent for anything else to work better.

Just to be clear, I personally thought it was pretty obvious the 9 was better than the 10. However, there are loads of races where I think drifting and brushing horses (sometimes even intentionally) inhibit the rally of a closer and allow the inferior horse to win without a DQ. It wasn\'t a lot of money to me, but it gets a bit frustrating to have to deal with the inconsistencies.

[shanahan]

Not enough to take him down, now Espinoza gets suspended?  I love politics..

Riders beef after Best Pal disqualification
By JAY PRIVMAN
DEL MAR, Calif. - When the Best Pal Stakes was made official on Sunday at Del Mar following a lengthy inquiry, it was all over but for the shouting. And the fighting.

Boos emanated from the stands from those who disagreed that Kelly Leak should have been disqualified from victory in favor of Azul Leon, and jockey Victor Espinoza, the rider of Kelly Leak, got into a scrap with Rafael Bejarano, the rider of Azul Leon, in the jockeys\' room after the race.

On Monday afternoon, Del Mar\'s three stewards suspended Espinoza three days for careless riding. But a hearing regarding the fight, and possible penalties resulting from that, will not be held until Wednesday morning, according to Tom Ward, one of the stewards. Del Mar is closed on Tuesday.