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[the little guy]

Originally Posted by Spalding No!

From the standpoint of the trend towards eliminating coupled entries, the rule ought to be reviewed to evaluate it's ongoing necessity.

But to play Devil's Advocate, the heart of the rule is to eliminate a distinct conflict-of-interest.

I scanned Twitter to see what justification there was to overlook the obvious conflict-of-interest involving 2 people from the same household (and thus in a position to financially benefit from each other) riding in the same race.

I don't know, I'm worried I am not "woken up" enough, but so far:

1) The Ortiz Brothers are not likewise coupled, with the inference that the 2 are up to no good - So shouldn't the NYGC look at that as another conflict-of-interest issue rather than looking the other way on this one?

2) The rule is sexist - From the quoted rule I read (DRF article) it does not penalize one spouse over the other and there is no exception made for same-sex marriages, so I fail to see how the rule is directly sexist

3) The rule diminishes the standing of female jockeys - Again I fail to see how the rule is sexist or misogynistic

Speaking of sexism, referring to today's dilemma of Trevor McCarthy and his pick-up mount starting for "purse money only", one of the commenters on Twitter didn't understand why it wasn't the Katie Davis horse that was excluded from the betting pools rather than McCarthy's horse.

Not sure if the people bringing up sexism are presuming that the rule targets wives only or if they assume Katie Davies is on the hook for surrendering her license since McCarthy is the more successful of the 2...

Honestly, I wonder if this rule didn't exist whether or not there would an uproar on this message board arguing the exact opposite in the event of a questionable incident during the running of a race involving these two. There certainly seems to be such complaints when Baffert has a hopeless long shot arguably running interference for his odds-on stablemate in the same race or when the Ortiz brothers do whatever it is that they do...

Last thing to keep this tongue-in-cheek, Dave Grening on Twitter says that by the time they get the NY rule changed the 2 will be back riding in Maryland, but this being America and with the sport reliant on gambling, I'd wager that by the time they get the rule changed these 2 will be divorced...

Wait, I'm confused here.....are you saying people say dumb stuff on Twitter?