Junior Alvarado - Belmont's 7th on 7/15

[SG4]

Considering the bashing of NYRA jockeys & other race fixing conspiracies that go on with this board, I'm surprised nobody has brought up Belmont's 7th race today and the less than enthusiastic ride delivered by Junior Alvarado in the final 1/8th of a mile aboard Blacktype. Considering he missed 2nd by a head & barely won a bob for 3rd, it was very curious to see a perceived lack of effort.

Then about 10 minutes after this race finishes they announce for the first time that there's a late jockey change & he's off his mount in the 8th race (the favorite). Watching the replay it looks like he pulls up weird like something's bothering his left arm. Does anybody have any info if there was an injury or something else to account for this string of events?

[Stillriledup]

Wow that looked ugly. Yikes.

[Striker]

David Grening said on twitter that Junior's shoulder popped out of the joint when he went to use the whip on Blacktype. He was taken to first aid and it is now popped back in, and he will ride thursday.

[Stillriledup]

I think if you're too injured to urge a horse I think you need some recovery time to protect the bettors, who's to say this wont happen again tomorrow?

[Valuist]

A couple things about the race. That was a damned tough allowance race. Basically a Grade 3 masquerading as an allowance.

But it looked real, real bad. I saw the part about the shoulder injury. Is that supposed to make everything OK? Imagine if you needed the 9 for 2nd in the exacta. Excuse or not, its not good for the game because the perception was it looked like he didn't want to win (or even run second).

I think SRU is right. If I was a steward I'd call him in and tell him I'd give him a warning this time, but injury or not, he'd be getting days the next time it happened.

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Valuist

A couple things about the race. That was a damned tough allowance race. Basically a Grade 3 masquerading as an allowance.

But it looked real, real bad. I saw the part about the shoulder injury. Is that supposed to make everything OK? Imagine if you needed the 9 for 2nd in the exacta. Excuse or not, its not good for the game because the perception was it looked like he didn't want to win (or even run second).

This guy has a habit of not riding thru the wire, i would find it much easier to accept a medical excuse if A) the guy has a history of riding every mount thru the wire and B) he missed days after the injury, if you ride the next day it looks like youre lying.

But we know this is a horsemans game, Nothing will ever happen to them, this guy could fail to urge his next 100 mounts and there wont ever be a 1 penny fine or a 1 minute suspension.

[Valuist]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

This guy has a habit of not riding thru the wire, i would find it much easier to accept a medical excuse if A) the guy has a history of riding every mount thru the wire and B) he missed days after the injury, if you ride the next day it looks like youre lying.

But we know this is a horsemans game, Nothing will ever happen to them, this guy could fail to urge his next 100 mounts and there wont ever be a 1 penny fine or a 1 minute suspension.

When sports betting is legalized and that day IS coming it will be a huge blow to racing, and maybe at that point, the horsemen will realize the errors of their ways. But then again, they probably won't.

[jk3521]

Originally Posted by Valuist

A couple things about the race. That was a damned tough allowance race. Basically a Grade 3 masquerading as an allowance.

But it looked real, real bad. I saw the part about the shoulder injury. Is that supposed to make everything OK? Imagine if you needed the 9 for 2nd in the exacta. Excuse or not, its not good for the game because the perception was it looked like he didn't want to win (or even run second).

I think SRU is right. If I was a steward I'd call him in and tell him I'd give him a warning this time, but injury or not, he'd be getting days the next time it happened.

Off with Junior's head !

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Valuist

A couple things about the race. That was a damned tough allowance race. Basically a Grade 3 masquerading as an allowance.

But it looked real, real bad. I saw the part about the shoulder injury. Is that supposed to make everything OK? Imagine if you needed the 9 for 2nd in the exacta. Excuse or not, its not good for the game because the perception was it looked like he didn't want to win (or even run second).

I think SRU is right. If I was a steward I'd call him in and tell him I'd give him a warning this time, but injury or not, he'd be getting days the next time it happened.

I would have a simple policy, if you want to use the i couldnt ride out my mount due to injury excuse, i would require a much tougher standard to be cleared to ride again after 7 mandatory days off to recover.

If you suffer a serious enough injury that you cant ride out a mount, how is that fair to the players if youre back riding the next day?

[Valuist]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

I would have a simple policy, if you want to use the i couldnt ride out my mount due to injury excuse, i would require a much tougher standard to be cleared to ride again after 7 mandatory days off to recover.

If you suffer a serious enough injury that you cant ride out a mount, how is that fair to the players if youre back riding the next day?

And "going to the first aid tent" isn't sufficient. We have no idea who's back there or what happened. Medical trainers? A doctor? Maybe he just got a drink of water.

I'm not trying to imply he was faking the injury, but going to the first aid tent and then claiming you are ok does not create confidence from the public that he had a reason to stiff the horse late in the race. Like it or not, perception is everything.

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Valuist

And "going to the first aid tent" isn't sufficient. We have no idea who's back there or what happened. Medical trainers? A doctor? Maybe he just got a drink of water.

I'm not trying to imply he was faking the injury, but going to the first aid tent and then claiming you are ok does not create confidence from the public that he had a reason to stiff the horse late in the race. Like it or not, perception is everything.

Exactly. I would have a much easier time "buying" this if he missed time going fwd.

[EMD4ME]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

Exactly. I would have a much easier time "buying" this if he missed time going fwd.

Exactly

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by EMD4ME

Exactly

Even if he misses ONE DAY i would buy it. (and its not like me to buy what jocks are selling).

[cj]

How do we know it didn't happen during the race?

[Ruffian1]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

This guy has a habit of not riding thru the wire, i would find it much easier to accept a medical excuse if A) the guy has a history of riding every mount thru the wire and B) he missed days after the injury, if you ride the next day it looks like youre lying.

But we know this is a horsemans game, Nothing will ever happen to them, this guy could fail to urge his next 100 mounts and there wont ever be a 1 penny fine or a 1 minute suspension.

Horsemen and track management are two different groups.

Please recognize which group is involved. This is clearly stewards and management NOT horsemen. and that is probably what you meant but with all the grief I hear about horsemen, plenty of which is justified, this is a management issue all the way.