You're not thinking of the Powerscourt DQ at Arlington, are you? I know that one was thought by many to be a poor DQ decision.

--Dunbar

No, that's not the race I was talking about. I was talking about some allowance race in New York.

With regard to Powerscourt, here is my opinion:
I think it was definitely a bad decision. I had a chance to watch the replay in slow-motion several times. Although Powerscourt came in badly, he really didn't interfere with anyone. Epalo was being hit right-handed and was coming in on his own. Epalo was the one who really interfered with Kicken Kris. By the time Powerscourt had cut off Epalo, Powerscourt was already clear of Epalo. The Kickin Kris incident had already occured by this time. Powerscourt and Epalo were both coming in at the same time. There was no contact between them. Eventually, Powerscourt passed Epalo and cut in front of him. But as I said before, at this point the Kickin Kris incident was over.

If you have the race on tape, watch the slow-motion of the head-on. You need to watch it several times to really get clarity on it. The first few times I watched it, I was not sure what the correct decision was. But after watching it several more times, I was convinced that Powerscourt should not have been disqualified

getting D.Q. out of a score sucks anyway it happens......i will say golden gate sucks compared to the new york stewards.

Got around to checking out the replay. This was a good call. I applaud the GG stewards for having the nuts to take this horse down. They've made it clear in their actions recently that they're not going to allow jocks to take the path of others. If a jock can't stay straight then he comes down. I don't think any horse player should have issues with this. This horse CLEARLY comes in and forces the horse just behind/to its inside to squeeze the field. Who was riding, Javier Castellano?:rolleyes:

It sounds like you're talking about Silver Squire - but that race was about 8 years ago at Saratoga.

He blew by the 2nd place finisher and won by 6 lengths and was DQ'd for very lightly brushing him as he blew past.

He was a Kimmel horse that Migliore rode. I disagree with about 80% of takedowns - but that one was incredibly bad. I think Migliore threw a fit after the race.

That may have been the race I was thinking of. I didn't think it was that long ago but it probably was.

http://espn.go.com/horse/news/2002/0820/1420486.html

I like what the steward said ... yeah ... the horse was "bothered" as he was lightly brushed by a horse steam rolling past him.

I don't get it. Are the rules different in New York? In California, they will only take a horse down for an infraction if the infraction might have cost a horse a placing.

Racereplays.com shows that race. As the article says, it was Aug 19th, 2002 at Saratoga. What I can't figure out is that racereplays.com does not show Silver Squire as being DQd. They have him winning and paying $6.40 to win. They must have the wrong chart.

There is one more point I forgot to mention with regard to the DQ on Saturday at Golden Gate. If you watch carefully, you will notice that Jockey Frank Alvarado (who was on Preemptory) looks over his shoulder (actually under his arm) to check to make sure he has clearance before the incident happens. He heard the jocks yelling (they were yelling at Jockey Couton) even before the main incident happened. They were yelling at Couton (who was riding #1a Moreland) becasue his horse was lugging in and crowding both Justyourimagination (#1) and Turbulence (#5). As you can clearly see, Moreland bumped Justyourimagination a few times before the main incident ocurred.

Anyway, when Alvarado heard all the yelling, he looked under his arm to look behind and see what was going on. He wanted to make sure he was clear and he was. This was a couple of seconds before the main incident.

I talked to Alvarado's agent. He said that he and Frankie were both absolutely "dumbfounded" by the DQ. He said that Frankie looked behind to make sure he was clear and you can clearly see this on the video.

To say trainer Steve Specht was livid would be an understatement. He went to the stewards office the next morning and spent over a half hour in there lambasting them over the decision.