Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom
Ruffian, I totally support any jockey decisions to not race over a suspect track.
You can have a meeting of track-people, trainers, owners, etc, but the whe gate opens, the only ones who might die of never walk again are the jockeys.
You seem to be a decent guy, so thanks for your input.  |
Thanks Tom.
What I failed to write though was that IMO the riders SHOULD have the final say. Nobody can tell you the amount of shock and vibration that the horses legs will be asked to absorb more than the person on the horses back. And it is their lives that are on the line as well as the horses. Thankfully, the riders now control that aspect.
Another point I failed to write was the reason they did not have any say back then was because if the leading 4 riders refused to ride, which they did often enough, there were struggling jocks in the room that would say, "I'll ride em". As a result, they had a fractured union. That no longer exists. They stand as one. And THAT is what makes them, or any union, strong.
The downside of that for the customer is that it will be darn near impossible to get all the players on the same page and similarly stand as one. The opportunity will always be there. I just cannot see the public being able to come together as one voice and be willing to walk, or simply place no bets on a race, or a card, if their voice is not heard. It would be great to see though.
If kids in high school can do it, you would think the grown up fans at a particular track could as well. I guess we can hope.
That is what I wanted to say in my last post.
