Okay, Who Benefits ?

[toetoe]

DQ in race 8 at Hollywood Park ... I should believe backers of Joy's Comet deserve their $7.00 ? Puh-LEEZ. Except for the dualistic good/bad playing-God mentality, how are (1)'s backers more deserving than those of (4) ? If you must, fine Garcia, ban him even --- I don't care. Those that "predicted" (4) would win deserve to cash. One should not have to do with the other. :ThmbDown:

[JustRalph]

I had 10 bucks to win/place on the 4......... but if he stayed up it killed my pick 3-4 ticks...........I am alive in the pik tickets now..........but maybe a bird in the hand would have been better?

time will tell

[INFRONT07]

DQ in race 8 at Hollywood Park ... I should believe backers of Joy's Comet deserve their $7.00 ? Puh-LEEZ. Except for the dualistic good/bad playing-God mentality, how are (1)'s backers more deserving than those of (4) ? If you must, fine Garcia, ban him even --- I don't care. Those that "predicted" (4) would win deserve to cash. One should not have to do with the other. :ThmbDown:
sorry you lost out on a nice pic;but the 4 should have been DQ;ed.rules state behind the horse who was bothered.what about the people who bet him?fair is fair.

[DJofSD]

I had no money in that race but I thought it was a ticky-tack call. And Solis should be nominated for one of those little trophies they give out in March.

[INFRONT07]

not to add salt to your wound.don;t blame the jock.you would have him banned?did;nt you see the head on of the replay;s?the 4 was all over the track:mad:

[Premier Turf Club]

I had him in the NHC tournament. :(

[falconridge]

I had no money in that race but I thought it was a ticky-tack call. And Solis should be nominated for one of those little trophies they give out in March.
Agreed. If anyone deserves disciplinary action, it's Solis, not Garcia. The instant Wise One drifted in on Native Success, Solis stopped riding and started acting. If, as Frank Lyons pointed out, Solis had persevered with his mount, Native Success would have saved third--the best finish one could reasonably expect considering the decided superiority of Wise One and the bad racing luck encountered in Native Success's rail run. The incident should not have cost Solis's mount a placing, as Solis's histrionics compromised Native Success's chances at least as much as Wise One's failure to maintain a straight course.

I'm not saying the stewards made the wrong decision. I'd wager they'd have preferred not to have to make the change, but they must have felt they had to because of the impossibility of certifying that Wise One's antics didn't affect the order of finish. Despite Garcia's best-faith effort to straighten his mount (which effort should keep him from getting days for careless or dangerous riding), Wise One did lug in.

On the other hand, the rules also clearly state that "failure to put forth a reasonable effort" with one's mount constitutes grounds for fine and suspension. Nice guy though Alex may be, the stewards should remind him that a jockey's duty--mandated by the public's trust--is to ride every one of his mounts to the finish. Had he done so in Saturday's eighth race, he might have spared bettors, owners, the stewards, and a fellow reinsman a great deal of unpleasantness.

[toetoe]

Sorry to sound so flamboyant. I guess it's just my pet peeve. I also forgot to narrow down my stream of spleen-spew to just a theoretical weighing of the merits of the "policy" of the stewards. Please don't remind me of the California Racing Board rules. I'm pretty sure I know them. They combine with the unpredictable adjudications of the stewards to make a very watery soup indeed.

My thing (and I'll at least TRY to be brief here) is that the stewards are playing God. Okay, that's fine. I swear I'm okay with that. However, if Solis was deprived of a better placing, did he deserve second place, or just third ? If it doesn't matter, then our Godplayers have let us down and we have truly arrived in hell. If he should finish first, then put him to first and put Garcia to fourth. What, that would somehow cheat the well beaten 5/2 horse, leaving him in second, where he actually finished ? Oh, rubbish. Play God all the way or stay at home, m'lord.

If it's a Real Quiet/Victory Gallop situation, first-to-second, second-to-first, I have no problem. It's when the bystanders get moved up, usually after failing to come close to winning, that my binoculars fog up.

[falconridge]

if Solis was deprived of a better placing, did he deserve second place, or just third ?
Solis deserved no better than what he would have had if the stewards had taken no action: fourth. He could have come by third honestly, but he stopped riding. His backers (NOT the show-players--who deserve NOTHING but to be taken by the hand and given some cookies and warm milk--but the exotics players who had Native Success in the third slot on their tickets), however, arguably deserved third place. And, just as clearly, as toetoe mentioned in his initial post, Wise One's connections and backers deserved to be paid.

Other sports do allow for judicial discretion, which toetoe would appear to be calling for in our sport. In gridiron, for example, officials do not call pass interference on plays on which they've ruled a wildly errant toss was uncatchable. Unfortunately for the general citizenry--upon whom "tough-on-crime" office-seekers promise to impose sentencing laws that make no such allowances--as well as horseplayers, current trends follow the opposite direction, good sense be damned.

Toetoe, keep your pecker up*, as the John Bulls say. If you continue to flag, getcher eyes over to poultrypate's (aka chickenhead) thread, "Nearing the end of another year ... "

*Lest you think I'm being crotch-ety, see http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/217400.html

[toetoe]

Just whose Al is being gored in this corral of bulls anyway, John ? At the risk of being called a tipper, I would partake in self-consolation of the delicious meade ( ;) ); aye, that tall drink of meade, and thick enough to masticate thereon. Drooling.

[Kelso]

I would partake in self-consolation


Uh, I hear that'll make ya blind ... or at least make yer palms hairy. :eek: