Clueless stewards at Saratoga

[makomaniac]

What replay were these clowns watching in yesterday\'s fifth race? Did the winner #9 herd out the #3 at least five paths? The #3 lost the race by a head. Even worse was the seventh race. Video replays clearly showed that the rider of #7 Castellano clearly struck #5 in the face with the whip. #5 finished 2nd and the race was official within a minute. Two bad calls on a Monday PK6 carryover. No rhyme or reason to anything they do. I had both horses in first leg even though the difference was 6/5 vs 7-1. The #5 was my single in the 7th. I should have hit the PK6 and collected 10-15K on my small ticket. How can anyone have confidence in this game?

[toppled]

Right now they seem to be leaving the result stand unless there\'s enough contact that they have no choice, some herding appears to be allowed if there\'s no hard bumping.
 
I\'d rather have them acting this way and giving benefit of the doubt to the winner than go DQ crazy and take down horses who give the horse next to them a dirty look.  

3 years ago the stewards were leaving just about anything up. People started complaining about it.  Then I had the P4 going on a Roy Lerman horse Purplegreenandgold with (then apprentice) Irad Ortiz Jr. up.  Kent Desormeaux got on his outside close enough so Ortiz couldn\'t use his right hand to whip his horse, so the only way Ortiz could whip him was left-handed. When he did he drifted out just like yesterday\'s 5th & they took Purplegreenandgold down.  Cost me over $10k, my worst DQ ever.  So I know what you\'re going through, but don\'t do what I did-I went into a year slump after that.  

As for yesterday, in the 5th I had both horses going in the DD and would have liked to have seen the DQ so I\'d cash the bigger DD, but over the long run, I\'d rather see them be conservative when it comes to DQs because I\'ve been taken down for a lot more $ than put up and I\'ve learned that I\'d rather lose on a non-DQ if it means I won\'t be taken down on some ticky-tack foul.

[Ollie]

I am repeating myself, that the stewards at NYRA are part of a corrupt system and set-up. The stewards are incompetent and negligent. They proved it to me 8 years ago, when I went to them to report a corrupt racing outfit that was preying on the public. They chose to see nothing, because the crooked entity was supplying horses to the starting gates of NYRA, whom they represent along with New York State, and the Jockey Club. That\'s who pays them, and who they represent, clearly a conflict of interest. The public and the bettors are not on the list of who they represent, as mere afterthoughts.


Check out the structure and the set-up of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and their stewards. They have 12 stewards, and they\'re all volunteers. No one receives a salary. The HKJC realizes they are a business, and understands that their business depends on both, the public, and the bettor. Therefore, it was imperative that they represent both entities fairly, and properly, because their business depends on it. The HKJC and it\'s stewards has established a record of thoroughness, transparency, and trustworthiness to the public, and the bettors for whom they represent, making it the envy of racing establishments the world-over. The steward system and the set-up at NYRA is an abomination, as well as in most of the rest of the U.S.

The irony of the HKJC? They are a business, but after deducting for expenses associated with promoting their sport(s) (they have more than just one), --- purses, dividends, operating expenses, and investments --- then, any profits their business retains afterwards are donated to charity and community projects.

http://corporate.hkjc.com/corporate/organisation/english/structure.aspx

Who would you rather represent you as part the public, or as a bettor? A thoroughly dysfunctional racing system that employs incompetent and negligent people, that are paid to represent them, and NOT you? Or, would you prefer a change --- to be properly, and fairly, represented by thorough, focused, competent personnel, that will continue to convince you of their trustworthiness, each and every day, and even after they have disqualified a horse that you had a bet on, you would recognize that they were acting to make things safe, for the riders and the horses involved because it was the right thing to do, and they were being totally consistent and transparent?

Isn\'t it time to move forward for a change --- from a defective system, made up of incompetent and negligent slugs, and is designed specifically not to represent you in a sport, that we all very much enjoy, and care about?

[miff]

Striking a horse with the whip is not an automatic DQ in NY.If the stewards feel that the struck horse was not deprived of a better placing, they consider the incident to be insufficient to make a change.


...obviously very subjective but that\'s the system in place now.

[hooper]

Whip rule seems pretty clear to me.
4035.2 d
(d) A jockey shall not ride carelessly or willfully such that the jockey’s mount, equipment, or any item or object under his or her control interferes with, impedes, intimidates, or injures another horse or jockey in the race, including that a jockey shall not carelessly or willfully strike another horse or jockey or such other jockey’s equipment with his or her whip. The stewards may disqualify the horse ridden by the jockey who committed the foul if the foul was willful or careless or may have altered the finish of the race. The stewards may also take into consideration mitigating factors such as whether the impeded horse was partly at fault or if the foul was caused by the fault of some other horse or jockey.

[heatherk]

Mako watch the entire replay of the horse you claimed was fouled. You are lucky he was not DQed. Irad rode the race like a mad man. he shut three horses off and bumped another two, way before the herding occurred.
 
As far as Javier hitting the horse with the whip, I don\'t think that was the case. I do believe the horse jerked his head because of Castellano\'s whipping, but their was too much space to be contact. If Shack would have been on the horse he could have not hit the horse.

[Topcat]

heatherk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mako watch the entire replay of the horse you
> claimed was fouled. You are lucky he was not DQed.
> Irad rode the race like a mad man. he shut three
> horses off and bumped another two, way before the
> herding occurred.
>  
> As far as Javier hitting the horse with the whip,
> I don\'t think that was the case. I do believe the
> horse jerked his head because of Castellano\'s
> whipping, but their was too much space to be
> contact. If Shack would have been on the horse he
> could have not hit the horse.



JJ was cute (as all the good ones are) . . . intimidating with his whipping technique without actually touching the other horse -- knowing that they\'re not going to take him down for a stunt such as that.