Announcers affecting results

[JimG]

Over on the HTR board they were discussing the recent goof made by the Mountaineer announcer calling a race as if it was 6 furlongs when in fact it was a route race. The jockeys on the leaders pulled their horse up at the wire.

Got me to thinking...how much can jockeys hear of the announcers call when they are riding? I have seen the good announcers with an understanding of pace saying so and so is "getting an easy lead" and then it seems like a horse is pushed to move up and challenge.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? If you believe as I that pace can have a significant outcome on the race, then an announcers description of the pace can provide some inside info for the riders.

Jim

[superfecta]

The little people didn't realize they were in a route race instead of a sprint?I find that hard to believe,but I guess it's possible.....Lets see ....Jockey checklist:
Ride horse fast
Dont fall off
Turn left
Dont fall off
Maybe turn left again
Try to be in front.
I think one or two may make a bonehead mistake like that,but I don't think they could all be confused by the announcer.

[anotherdave]

At least twenty years ago I bet on a horse at 1 5/8 mile on a half mile oval. The second last time down the stretch, he's whipping the hell out of the horse and then pulls up at the finish line, but he'd only gone a mile and an eighth. Scary thing is he was only 3rd at the time! Guess he wouldn't have won at a mile and 5/8 then.

AD

[Bubbles]

Hey...

Don't jockeys have minds of their own? They should not only know their horse and how he/ she should be ridden, but they should know how the race is setting up and not have to listen to the announcer for advice or if the wire's nearing. Just my opinion...

[BillW]

I missed this event, but in reading else where it sounded like if a few more jockeys would have went along, everybody would have been happy to call it a day at 6F. I read that even the Photo lights came on!? The camera man froze at the finish line to catch the also-rans etc. Only a few were in on the joke :confused:


Bill

[ranchwest]

I once watched a jockey on a top local horse look back to see where the competition was. That was exactly what one of the other jockeys was waiting on. As soon as his head went back forward, the other jock started beating her horse and went right past him and won the race. The PA announcer could have affected the outcome of that race had he immediately announced her move.

[Observer]

Okay, even the best riders make mistakes .. like Bill Shoemaker misjudging the finish in the Kentucky Derby. I can't imagine being in a pack of horses charging around a track that jockeys could hear the track announcer .. unless of course some tracks out there have powerhouse audio systems.

[gillenr]

I once heard PVAL forgot(didn't know) the race was 6.5f on the turf at SA. Good thing he wasn't the lead in the post parade.

[JustRalph]

When Jason Lumpkins first went to Mountaineer to ride and serve his sentence, he was running a long route and went to the lead by about 8 lengths. He does a shoulder check at the 1st turn and the field is about a gazzillion miles back. He coasts down the stretch and stands up just before the finish line. The horse breaks into an easy gallop and he pulls him outside to the right. He is cruising along for the camera shot of the winner on the far outside when the field starts going by him in on the rail. He immediatly put the whip back on the horse and enters the fray about 3/4's of the way back in the pack. Needless to say the horse is about ten back and dead last after running down the end of the backstretch. The TVG talkin heads come back on and they are staring at each other in amazement. They start talking about the winner and what a great price he was (of course Lumpy was on the 2nd favorite) and they finally look into the camera and mention the way Lumpkins rode. They ask out loud whether Lumpkins got the length of the race wrong. After showing the replay about 20 times they decide that "the horse took a bad step and he was trying to decide whether to ease him" Yeah right!

The announcer at MTR is a nightmare. He misses calls constantly. Last week I watched him call a race where he called the winner as the 8 horse wire to wire. Of course it was the 7 horse that crossed the line wire to wire.

He once called a race where the wire to wire winner was out of Saint Ballado. This horse is pretty well known to race track types with a stud fee that would pay my mortgage a couple of times. Through the entire race he pronounces Ballado's "Ball-ah-Dos" rhymes with MS-Dos. I think the horses name was "Ballado's Dream" or something like that. I noticed on West Virginia Derb night they let him call the early races then replaced him in the stakes races.

[Tom]

I think back in the 80's some jock somehow got his horse running on the lead on the inner turf course - but the race was on the main turf! He looked over his shoulder and saw the field
on the other side of the hedge!
Anyone remember who it was?


At Finger Lakes, we once had a jock deliver an all-out stretch drive
in mile three of a four mile race. He easaed the horse, started back to the finish line, when the rest of the filed flew by, still racing, and he turned around, started running again and actually beat two horses (one was mine).