Question re 1st @ Aqu Sat 1/29

[Thomas Roulston]

Why was King David J. running for purse money only?

[johnhannibalsmith]

You piqued my interest here too...

Reading between the lines on everything a guy can figure out reading a chart - my best guess is that maybe the horse was erroneously announced as a scratch early in the day due to no fault of the connections and they decided to let the horse run, but not at the expense (too too too much) of early wagerers... :confused: :confused:

Someone knows!

[turfnsport]

I heard the horse showed up in the paddock with no front shoes and Rice had not notified anyone the horse was going to run that way.

[goforgin]

Heard the same, no front shoes. Seemed 30 minutes would have been enough time to advise the public, but maybe not. If I recall, there's paddock time-rules for things like "no shoes" and blinkers, etc.

[johnhannibalsmith]

I heard the horse showed up in the paddock with no front shoes and Rice had not notified anyone the horse was going to run that way.

Well that makes a fair amount of sense... I'm surprised that they would allow her to run for the purse if they took the horse off the board for basically failure to conduct business blah blah blah - since when they hang that fine for something along those lines the kicker usually reads "necessitating a late scratch." It's listed as being Clyde Rice owner, so pleading on behalf of an owner that's mad and might jump ship probably wasn't in the deck.

I'm curious what bettors think of those policies? Damned if you do, damned if you don't - you won't appease a consensus, but is it better in a case like that to leave a horse in the body and eliminate wagering so pace and race dynamics remain intact? Or would people just prefer him out altogether?

I'm a long way from NY now, maybe this is a regular occurance but it seems like a little expansion of the traditional use of "for purse money only" and I'm curious whether or not folks think it should be expanded even farther to keep horse like this from becoming scratches while not punishing the people that had to go back to work with a pocket full of tickets on races yet to run.

(word count on that sentence, please)

[turfnsport]

I think in this instance the horse should have been scratched. I hate seeing horses run for purse money only. The horse was my second choice and it ended up costing me the exacta.

However, when I heard the horse had no front shoes, I "might" have canceled my wagers if the horse was on the tote.

So I probably would have been pissed either way :D

[johnhannibalsmith]

...
So I probably would have been pissed either way :D

You move straight to the head of the class. :)

[Stillriledup]

I've heard late gelding announcements and they let the horse run with betting on him and then just fine the trainer afterwards.

[johnhannibalsmith]

I've heard late gelding announcements and they let the horse run with betting on him and then just fine the trainer afterwards.

This happens in my neck of the woods all of the time. It doesn't seem to matter one tiny bit to all but about three people. It's a big pet peeve of mine not because of the change as much as 98% of the time it is nothing more than ignorant people not taking care of their own business. Fining them regularly would actually be a step in the right direction here.

[CincyHorseplayer]

I think this is another instance of pi$sing on the bettor and giving the trainer the money.Turfnsport would have had an easy winner and the exacta.He collected nothing but the owner got the purse.I watched the race and wondered what was up with this too.Make the announcement and let the bettor decide.

[Phantombridgejumpe]

I can live with it.

You are certainly free to skip the race altogether.

[Horseplayersbet.com]

I heard a good point. The horse was the only early speed in the race. Lets say someone either gets to the track after the announcement, doesn't hear purse money only, or is betting through an ADW and just sees the scratch, and then makes a decision to find the new early speed and bet accordingly.
This is just another problem that doesn't seem to have a reasonable solution.

[Tom]

The responsible thing to do is scratch the horse. Why reward the connections for failing to bring a proper horse to the paddock? Maybe next time they will do what they are supposed to do.