Market Mover
03-27-2010, 11:01 PM
It's hard not to notice the quick loading process of full 14-16+ horse fields in Dubai and some parts of Europe, where the starting gates are so narrow and small that no assistant starter is needed to stand inside the gate with the horse, hold onto the bridle, and do that necessary jerk of the hand up to show he's not holding onto the horse as the gates open (yet there are still races in which horses are declared non-starters).
Why not adopt this in the U.S.? Besides the obvious result that this change would leave thousands of assistant starters out of work, the advantage is that horses would not get spooked by someone other than the jockey that they've familiarized themselves with during the journey from the paddock to the gate. I feel most of the time it's the assistant starter that doesn't get along with the horse, and then we have a fiasco like Quality Road's pre-BC Classic scare...
Then again, we'd have to reconstruct all those wide gates that are the norm in this country. The starting gate in Dubai, England, France, and New Zealand are very narrow, and some don't even have tops so this could prevent that claustrophobic feeling for the easily spooked.....any thoughts?
Why not adopt this in the U.S.? Besides the obvious result that this change would leave thousands of assistant starters out of work, the advantage is that horses would not get spooked by someone other than the jockey that they've familiarized themselves with during the journey from the paddock to the gate. I feel most of the time it's the assistant starter that doesn't get along with the horse, and then we have a fiasco like Quality Road's pre-BC Classic scare...
Then again, we'd have to reconstruct all those wide gates that are the norm in this country. The starting gate in Dubai, England, France, and New Zealand are very narrow, and some don't even have tops so this could prevent that claustrophobic feeling for the easily spooked.....any thoughts?