JV fined
 

According to TDN, John Velazquez has been fined $1500 for his ride on Vino Rosso in the Wood Memorial.

I think it's well deserved and could have been more.

Stewards fined him for careless riding and not maintaining a straight path.

I think it was intentional on his part, as it has become common practice in NY to "herd" and intimidate other horses and riders.

Kudos to Jerry Bailey for saying he thought JV deserved to be DQ'd. He said so on the national broadcast on NBCSN.

Somebody was paying attention and maybe the stewards finally decided to do something about this reckless behaviour.

It's a start. I hope.

worth it...to much money not to play a little rough

It's more than "a little rough" when you consider someone's life could be at risk. Some day it's going to happen. What would you say then?

I know $1500 isn't much to a millionaire jockey that got 10% of the winners share in a million dollar race.

So let them do what they want. Right?

I have always been in a foul is a foul camp, if that was the case then it would clean up a lot of the rough stuff.

JV is a clean rider, I dont think this was intentional. What I object to is the herding when I see horses go out 5 paths, I dont mind a little race riding but its a bit odd to see horses swerving all around.

The Ortiz brothers and Castallano, both in the stretch and out of the gate, have done a few things that definitely warrant DQs but it is what it is.

Look at the head-on GMB.

Velazquez comes in quite a bit.

It's also more dangerous to force someone towards the rail, than to herd them outside.

It looked intentional to me. The stewards even said in the ruling that he failed to keep his mount straight.

Ask Alvarado what he thought about the way JV rode him in?

Totally agree with you on the other jocks you mentioned.

I think it's mostly a NY thing - and look who the head of the jockeys is - Velazquez himself!!!

Jerry Bailey has a lot of nerve saying anything about anybody else when it comes to "drifting".

I know in the San Felipe when Mike Smith on McKenzie starting bumping Bolt in the stretch that if it would have been one of the old school riders like Cordero or Pincay on Bolt they would have planted Mike Smith right back into the rail instead of relying on the stewards to make things right.

Unbelievable. The jock is fined, yet they didn't disqualify the win.

Cordero would have STARTED the bumping. Not the reverse.

Remember when he tried to put Genuine Risk in the Pimlico parking lot in the Preakness with Codex.

They do that all the time in the UK, why punish the bettors for a jockey mistake.

Allan

Yeah, what they're saying is that he should have been dq'd, so they blew the call.

Personally, I'd like to see the rules followed, and the rules are NOT followed. Riders are supposed to try to keep their horses on a straight path, yet they purposely drift out all the time trying to intimidate another horse and it's called "race riding," when in fact, according to the rules, it's interference.

Or that there was a punishable offense, but it did not affect the order of the finish of the race in question - which is the standard for a DQ for better or worse usually.

Andy Serling was just on Steve Byk's show saying he thought at the time that VR would be disqualified for a clear-cut foul.

Said he was "surprised" that he wasn't DQ'd.

Also said what i firmly believe - that there's no way of knowing if Vino Rosso would have won anyway if not for the foul. Enticed was coming back at him when Velazquez did what he did.

So, to me we need some consistency.

Either always let the first finisher stay up, no matter what, and only fine and suspend riders for fouls.
OR
A foul is a foul, and you come down. No more playing God by stewards and ruling based on what they think would have happened.

What do you think?.

Not sure what your saying there Allan.

Aren't the losing bettors being punished when fouls are allowed and their horse is the one that got fouled?

The problem has always been consistency. That's why NY attracts all the complaints they get. Certain guys get lead way, anyone that denies it is a homer. I've been following this circuit for almost 40 years......its always been this way. If you are an out of town "guy/girl" , one bump and you'll pay. I've had many a long shot like that at Saratoga that get taken down for far less than what the "regulars" get away with. Herding gets a blind eye many times....and you know damn well they saw it because there's an inquiry that takes 10 minutes to resolve. One person can breathe on a competitor with their mount and get taken down........people like Johnny V and the rest that were mentioned (in this thread) use herding almost routinely and they don't get dick. $1500, are you kidding me? They'll take that every time if you don't take them down. Hell, even if they throw in a few days, its still worth winning a race like that. The only way you stop something like this is taking the horse down......1500 or winning the Wood Memorial........what a joke!