BeatTheChalk
01-12-2007, 07:11 PM
HEARD the one about the electronic device used to make this month's Kentucky Derby winner run faster? It might sound farfetched, but that was the false accusation levelled at jockey Jose Santos this week following his victory on Funny Cide. No joke.
The allegation made top story on American channel NBC's Nightly News .
The kerfuffle started when Frank Carlson, a freelance writer for the Miami Herald, discerned a small object in Santos's right hand, along with his whip, in a picture taken as the winner crossed the finish line.
The plot thickened when Santos apparently incriminated himself in an interview with Carlson, admitting he had carried something other than his whip. Carlson wrote that the Chilean jockey identified it as "a cuering to call an outrider" - one of the mounted horsemen used to shepherd racehorses on US tracks. Leading jockeys and trainers told Carlson they had never heard of a 'cue-ring'.
Carlson emailed the image to Kentucky's chief steward Bernie Hettel, who immediately launched a fullscale investigation involving a forensic study by the local police department of more than 200 photographs of the race.
The allegation made top story on American channel NBC's Nightly News .
The kerfuffle started when Frank Carlson, a freelance writer for the Miami Herald, discerned a small object in Santos's right hand, along with his whip, in a picture taken as the winner crossed the finish line.
The plot thickened when Santos apparently incriminated himself in an interview with Carlson, admitting he had carried something other than his whip. Carlson wrote that the Chilean jockey identified it as "a cuering to call an outrider" - one of the mounted horsemen used to shepherd racehorses on US tracks. Leading jockeys and trainers told Carlson they had never heard of a 'cue-ring'.
Carlson emailed the image to Kentucky's chief steward Bernie Hettel, who immediately launched a fullscale investigation involving a forensic study by the local police department of more than 200 photographs of the race.