Quote:
Originally Posted by chadk66
Track vet makes 99% of all post parade/immediately prior to start decisions on scratching. They just make a radio call to stewards and say this ones out. Stewards don't argue with the track vet. And as stated above it's extremely rare, so much so that I would think you'd have a hard time establishing any real usable statistics from it. It's only happened to me twice. Once with a lightly raced horse that was probably 15 to 1 and she finished mid pack. One was with a solid horse that was 6-1 and he won after breaking through the gate. Out rider snatched him up immediately. It was more a fluke deal than him being a jackass or anything like that. Didn't really affect him at all.
|
Accurate. Truth be told most vet scratches are initiated by the jockeys themselves. They can detect something amiss that may not show up in the form of overt soreness in the warm up. They also know if one feels different from the times before. Talk about 99%. It's 100% when a jock wants one out. Not a vet in the world will take a chance of one going down and it later being found out the jock didn't want to ride the horse.
Another thing that's very common is when the vet see one that obviously, for all to see, is travelling really badly. He'll call the jock over to have the horse jog in front of him. But the rider will say don't worry doc. I know he looks really rough but that's just him. He'll be fine. I'll get him around there. Most times the vet will trust what the jock says and let the horse run.
Trainers will also tell the vet. Don't worry. He's really shaky early in the post parade but he'll warm up out of it. My jock knows what to do and he'll be fine during the race. They better be right. If it goes bad just one time credibility can be quickly lost.
