Unreal!

[Observer]

Medallist was trying to get out through the lane while well clear with no competition in the Deputy Minister at Gulfstream, and jockey Jose Santos cracks the horse across the side of his face .. not just once .. several times!

This can not be acceptable, can it???
:mad: :mad: :mad:

[cj]

Horse seemed to have straightened out his problems last time, but back to his old tricks today. No reason to beat the hell out of him though!

[Tom]

That was unacceptable behavior - Santos should get 30 days. Little SOB!

[Observer]

Year ago, Eddie Maple was interviewed, and I remember him "bragging" about how he had to find new places to hit Creme Fraiche, because the standard places just didn't work .. I recall Maple saying how the neck worked on Creme Fraiche .. not sure if it was regarding an individual race or whatever .. but that's what's stuck with me all these years later.

[46zilzal]

will have to check the replay tonight.

Once we had a rider here who had been barred at several tracks but was llowed to ride on probation. FIRST day out, he was LAST on a horse that figured to be last and OUT OF TOUCH with the field. He began just abusing that animal like I have rarely seen....for what, 9th place?


About four or five of us came out of the stands and taunted him all the way back to the jocks room....He had only three more mounts before is provisional license was suspended. Sometimes the stewards need participation from the crowd.

[CryingForTheHorses]

NO reason for him to abuse a horse like this!! I dont care if he hits him on the ass several times but PLEASE not his head.WE as horseman hate to see a horse hit on the head!.Makes then very shy and also make them not trust you in the stall as you groom them. I think riders that do this need anger management courses!! Years ago I worked for a trainer named Andy Smithers, He saw me hit a horse in the face as I was walking by his stall..I slapped him because he tried to bite me..Guess what Andy did to me...I was soooo small that he put me in his hay net and let that horse keep trying to bite me as I hung in front of his stall..That taught me :(

[eddie10]

mans inhumanity to animals look what they did to sea biscuit, they sold him to a japanese canning factory, alot of people don,t know that.How is that for appreciation.

[Buddha]

First I have to say that I didnt see the race, but was he hitting him to possibly try to straighten him up? Not that it was necessary if he was well clear, but a possibility.

[Turntime]

The resolution on my computer isn't great, but from what I could tell Santos gave Meddalist two relatively light underhanded hits to the upper neck. If he hit him hard in the face there would have been a stronger reaction from the horse. I agree that jockey's should not be allowed to hit horses in the face with the possible exception of extreme circumstances where the jockey's life is in danger. Anyone else get a chance to view the replay?

[Observer]

First of all, I never said Santos hit him hard in the face. Maybe my initial post was harsh, but that was because of the shock I was in from seeing what I had seen. I simply could not believe me eyes as they were coming through the stretch. Then it was confirmed in the slow-motion close-up replay. And in my view, I did notice Medallist toss his head and it seemed to me Medallist was hit on the side of his face, because one of the smacks appeared to be very close to his eye.

And yes, I do believe Santos did this because Medallist was bearing out.

[Observer]

I went back and watched a replay .. online .. he smacked Medallist three times .. it was a flick of the whip .. and the first two times Medallist clearly tossed his nose up and to his left.

McShell .. I do not believe Santos was doing this out of anger .. like some other riders out there .. as in Nakatani, who I believe has been sent to anger management by order of the stewards .. and of course fined. It was a wrong decision on the part of Santos in trying to straighten and maybe "school" Medallist .. but it was clearly a wrong decision.

[Tom]

JMHO, but they should outlaw whips in all races for everyone.
Or, allow the bettors to use whips to express thier opiinoin of a rider after the race! :rolleyes:

[Valuist]

I saw Fires whack a horse across the face a number of years ago and it clearly was out of frustration. The horse was 1-2 and was dueled into defeat. And it was no love tap, either.

[turfspec]

ah... Observer - Just to be clear and fair I believe C. Nakatani was ordered to anger management classes for smacking other RIDERS not horses. To my recollection he knocked a rider off his mount past the finish line at Del Mar some years ago now. Few fights too. Not making excuses for such behaviour but he was suffering from some pressing personal tragedies at the time.

Rob

[Observer]

Yes, I remember Nakatani pushing a rider off .. and I remember he cracked a horse over the top of the head .. I believe after the wire .. and that same horse ended up breaking down and dying in the gallop-out. He's been fined and suspended for improper use of the whip .. as has a handful of riders out there.

I apologize if the anger management was not solely for his inappropriate actions with the whip ... but I do believe all of these things were happening around the same time.

[Valuist]

As for the horse he has some talent but he won't break thru to the real upper echelon of sprinters until he gets over that bad habit of bearing out in the lane.

[socantra]

....... look what they did to sea biscuit, they sold him to a japanese canning factory,......

A sad story, but you've got your horses mixed up.

Seabiscuit was buried at an undisclosed location on owner Charles Howard's ranch in California after his death of natural causes in 1947.

Ferdinand, winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby, was later sold to Japanese interests and after several unproductive years at stud was 'disposed of' to a slaughter house in 2002.

Doesn't change your point though.

[PaceAdvantage]

As Warner Wolf used to say, "let's go to the videotape"

Here are a couple of seconds of video from the Deputy Minister. Watch it a few times, and you will see Medallist get whacked 3-4 times by Santos across the side of the face (first one, right after the video starts, seems to catch him a bit higher on the head, right below the eye)

And yes, you can see Medallist's head react to the contact....

This video is probably best viewed with a broadband connection. On my cable modem, it takes 10-15 seconds to start up....(it's about a 2meg file)

Admin Note: Video File Removed For Bandwidth Purposes

[PaceAdvantage]

I'm just curious....has anyone been able to view the video clip I put up? Someone I know had trouble, and I was wondering if everyone else had trouble too, seeing as there was no response....

[Steve 'StatMan']

I could see it, thanks PA. This was bizarre. The last few seemed to be with middle of stick, which would have less flex when whipping, trying to turn his head to the left, but the first few were rather brutal, and the first was terribly high up the head, I thought he was endangering an eye! That just isn't right. :eek: :(