Pulling replays due to accidents

[Al Gobbi]

Noticed in the past 10 days two races (at least) have been pulled from various sites due to incidents, a race at Finger Lakes that had a four horse spill in the stretch and yesterday's sixth at Delaware that was voided due to an accident shortly after the start on the turf.

I do not get why this is becoming a trend, it is a part of game (unfortunately) to have these accidents, so why are we trying to pretend to erase them from the books?

[Milkshaker]

1) Industry has a loooooong-standing problem with transparency.

2) When you cover up something "bad" it leaves to the imagination that the actual incident/accident was MANY times worse than it probably was.

3) When you fail to show (or gloss over) accidents, it does not instill in people the proper respect for how dangerous a sport this is.

[therussmeister]

For the record, the Deleware race video was (and maybe still is) embedded in the DRF article about the race.

[takeout]

it is a part of game (unfortunately) to have these accidents, so why are we trying to pretend to erase them from the books?I’ve noticed this too, for many years now, and it’s irritating. You go to watch the replay and it’s not there. Just one more big “screw you” to the bettors. Racing creates a lot of its own problems.

Remember when “euthanized” and “humanely destroyed” were in result charts? Now all we get is “dnf”. To hell with what really happened.

[JustRalph]

Noticed in the past 10 days two races (at least) have been pulled from various sites due to incidents, a race at Finger Lakes that had a four horse spill in the stretch and yesterday's sixth at Delaware that was voided due to an accident shortly after the start on the turf.

I do not get why this is becoming a trend, it is a part of game (unfortunately) to have these accidents, so why are we trying to pretend to erase them from the books?

Short memory? Remember what happen with PETA a while back. I say pull them.

[ManU918]

For the record, the Deleware race video was (and maybe still is) embedded in the DRF article about the race.

They pulled it.

http://www.drf.com/news/delaware-park-spill-results-no-contest

[Stillriledup]

I agree with the premise of showing the head ons or showing the race. I need to see the other horses for my notebook. Some tracks love showing horses and some tracks do whatever they can to not show you stuff that might help you in 3 weeks. Amazingly, most tracks seem to go out of their way to not show horses. They cut the gallop outs as fast as they can, instead of showing the live gallop out, they'll cut to a slow mo replay of the race you already saw, the head on replays are put into a little box so they can show the odds for the next race (not sure how knowing the odds for the next race at 25 MTP will help me somewhere down the line when i need to reference that head on replay) and so on and so forth.

Whoever is in charge of filming races for each track acts like its not that big of a deal if you see a gallop out or a full screen head on. The only reason i got to see the full screen head on of the first race at Saratoga on Aug 17th is because of a frivolous claim of foul.

If a track can spend 5 minutes showing a full screen head on to show the inquiry in progress, they ought to be able to show the full screen head on replay....but most tracks do not.

[jballscalls]

maybe just email the tracks in question and see what they say the rationale is?

[thespaah]

I’ve noticed this too, for many years now, and it’s irritating. You go to watch the replay and it’s not there. Just one more big “screw you” to the bettors. Racing creates a lot of its own problems.

Remember when “euthanized” and “humanely destroyed” were in result charts? Now all we get is “dnf”. To hell with what really happened.
That's not true.
Check the comment on :7: "Heading to Toga"...
http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/SAR081713USA1.pdf

[andtheyreoff]

My guess is that with Delaware, none of the horses really finished the race ('cause they were all pulled up to avoid the downed jockey), so I guess they figured they didn't need to post the replay. Not sure what the deal is with FL.

[takeout]

That's not true.
Check the comment on :7: "Heading to Toga"...
http://www.equibase.com/static/chart/pdf/SAR081713USA1.pdfProps to the chart guy there. :ThmbUp:

[Hosshead]

Something that happens more often:

The camera man showing the horses loading behind the gate, refuses to show us what is really happening when a horse is not loading.

They don't want to show a horse getting a whip to get into the gate, or a horse that rears and falls over, or anything that might look bad. Sometimes the race is held up for a while while that camera man focuses on all the other horses except that one. It's so obvious.
In many cases If you could see what was really going on, and you had a bet on that horse, you'd have time to get to the windows for a refund.
Golden Gate is especially guilty of this, and it's obvious the guy behind the camera has "instructions" from management

[Stillriledup]

Something that happens more often:

The camera man showing the horses loading behind the gate, refuses to show us what is really happening when a horse is not loading.

They don't want to show a horse getting a whip to get into the gate, or a horse that rears and falls over, or anything that might look bad. Sometimes the race is held up for a while while that camera man focuses on all the other horses except that one. It's so obvious.
In many cases If you could see what was really going on, and you had a bet on that horse, you'd have time to get to the windows for a refund.
Golden Gate is especially guilty of this, and it's obvious the guy behind the camera has "instructions" from management

TVG is very guilty of this...if a horse is thrashing around in the gate, they immediately take the camera off the incident. Its ok for CNN to show people's brains getting blown out in civil unrest and its ok to keep showing replays of that huge train crash recently in Spain, but when a horse is throwing his head around, with huge money on the line and bettors trying to make last second decisions, they pan away from that? They need to get their priorities straight, either they're a betting company or not. If you want to be in the betting business....start acting like it.

[thespaah]

Short memory? Remember what happen with PETA a while back. I say pull them.
Yeah. They leaned all over HBO after a couple horses used in the shows suffered fatal injuries. So HBO caved and canceled the show.
If that was to to what your were referring.

[Just a Fan]

I think part of it is that if bettors could see what was going on, the primary reaction by bettors would be to cancel wagers, not to place new ones. Tracks don't want that!

But the other part is that they don't want to subject viewers to possibly witnessing something really ugly. A horse got loose behind the gate at Remington last year, ran off, and trampled a track employee, killing him. Remington cut away from the loose horse well before the fatal accident... and I am grateful that I didn't have to see that.

[Stillriledup]

I think part of it is that if bettors could see what was going on, the primary reaction by bettors would be to cancel wagers, not to place new ones. Tracks don't want that!

But the other part is that they don't want to subject viewers to possibly witnessing something really ugly. A horse got loose behind the gate at Remington last year, ran off, and trampled a track employee, killing him. Remington cut away from the loose horse well before the fatal accident... and I am grateful that I didn't have to see that.

Good points.

Our nation is completely desensitized to violence, this is not 1970 anymore. Its a bad job, you want to be a betting company, be a betting company.

[duncan04]

TVG is very guilty of this...if a horse is thrashing around in the gate, they immediately take the camera off the incident. Its ok for CNN to show people's brains getting blown out in civil unrest and its ok to keep showing replays of that huge train crash recently in Spain, but when a horse is throwing his head around, with huge money on the line and bettors trying to make last second decisions, they pan away from that? They need to get their priorities straight, either they're a betting company or not. If you want to be in the betting business....start acting like it.


TVG is at the mercy of the track feed. Not sure how they can be blamed for that.

[Stillriledup]

TVG is at the mercy of the track feed. Not sure how they can be blamed for that.

There have been situations where i have been watching the load on tvg and on the internet feed and while TVG cuts away, the track feed remains on the gate. TVG will cut away to whatever the track is showing and cut to their hosts....i'm not sure if they cut away all the time, but i have noticed they've cute away in the past when the track feed stayed on the gate.