A Saratoga Crime
 

I will preface my statements by saying this. The DQ in the 5th race today gave me the triple.

With that said, The DQ of Victory for Sierra from 1st to 2nd in the 5th race at the Spa today is the worst DQ I've ever seen. I've been playing the horses since 1987 and this was an absolute crime. The real winner VFS was 3/4 past the runner up and odds on Savasanna, when Savasanna took what appeared to be a bad step just before the wire. But according to a VERY CONFUSED AND BEWILDERED Tom Durkin this is not where the infraction took place. Even in the Shadow replay nobody could tell what happened. I will say this, I was with two guys that happ very large win bets on VFS, and I clearly told them...."Go Cash you tickets, there is nothing. They would have given me the measly triple money I had for their win. This was a joke. The stewards saw something that 95% of the people at the track today did not see.

I meant to watch the replay of this but couldn't figure out why they took the horse down either. I was also feeling horrible because it just never feels right cashing a ticket when something goes wrong with a horse. :( Do you know what happened with Savasanna?

You are right..Coa has his issues, but you know what really irked me? No Jockeys objection. They were at the wire. Game Over. You and I have both seen much much worse. I nearly tossed my tickets. I thought the inquiry was more or less a formality. We were around 100 people who were just stunned. My buddy had $200 to win and a 20 Exacta Box. I felt bad for him.

Thanks, I hope so.

I thought so too and while I didn't have the exacta for that much, it certainly did make a difference.

:mad: ... no way that 3 should have been takin' down. best horse in the race. I cant believe they took that down and left Lady Joanne up. Doesnt make sense.

I'm very glad to hear that. She nearly went down.

I still had to chuckle listening to Durkin try to explain what happened. You could just tell in his voice that the whole thing was a crock of shiat.

i'm not saying she should have... but keep the calls consistant, it was about the same interference in todays race as in the Alabama.

I just wish I had not been caught in the middle of the stewards message to coa!

The thing that made the whole thing even more strange is that Coa had the race under wraps and it looked like Kent was all set to be content with second. Watch Kent win the Jockeys race by one win.

I just watched the replay, and Coa's horse was clearly the best. I think if Kent just checks his horse Coa stays up. But since the horse almost went down and the jockey involved has been sent to the principals office a few times they felt compelled to DQ him. Maybe they are trying to send a message, but I disagree with them here. Coa was clear and the whip was put away when the horse drifted in the shadow of the wire.

Question about the 6th. Did they take a look at that race? It looked like Desormeaux slammed the door on Gomez on the rail. I didn't see the head on but GG had to check hard. Was there room for him, because it seemed that he had some horse. There was no mention of an inquiry on the replay show and they left Kent up for third.

I was wondering when someone was going to mention this. That was one rough race. We all thought there was going to be some serious blinking, but there was nothing.

If that 3 horse didn't deserve to come down, then I must be blind.

While I will agree that the 8 was drifting out, the 3 (Who I know a couple of the partners EXTREMELY WELL) bumped the 8 while on even terms twice, and then straight up cut him off making him what looked like clipping heels.

I feel the DQ was warranted

the 3 bumped into the 8 multiple times, one of them knocking him sideways, before all of that. You couple that on top of that cut off, where Desormeux almost got dumped, and you have a warranted DQ. I don't disagree that the 3 was the best horse but it is hard to argue with that DQ IMO

You saw something that I didn't see. Read the NY Post tomorrow and see what they say. It was a horrible call by the stewards. Out of the 100 people standing around us probably 75 needed the 8 horse on top(because it was chalk) and not one person could understand what happened.

Huh??????

I am going to watch it one more time, 1 second

yea if you watch closely there are a lot of jockeys that don't ride it out.

which is very wrong. the stewards should do something call them in and have a talk with them.

Bad example I know, but they always have a "look through the binocs" and I'm sure tomorrow they will be going nuts.

OK...no matter what you and I see can I ask you this? Why was there no jockey's Objection. Can any of you guys shed some light on this???

Objections cost cash, if you lodge an objection I think it costs $100 or something (from the jock). And they probably already knew they were looking at it. I could be 100% wrong about this

As for the replay
 

the 3 was drifting in and Eibar was trying to correct it. He slightly bumps into into him once, and then a off stride bump, gets him straight and then completely cuts him off BEFORE the line.

My guess it that Eibar had to think he was clear, when he really wasn't, but again, I think that DQ was fairly straight forward

Does there need to be duplicity? If the jockey knows the stewards are looking into it, why then would he put in a jockey's inquiry? I guess that I don't know that much about inquiries, and I see that I am not alone.

Did not know that. Interesting. 20 years in this game and still learning.

This might be a stupid question but, Will jocks lodge objections to move up to third place?

As far as Desormeaux goes, after he (apparently) shut the door on GG he gave the horse one more tap with the whip and then coasted home like a jock that thought he was probably coming down. His hands looked like they were still. I could be way off base but you probably do not take as much heat from the trainer when you get Dq'd from 3rd to 4th as it would to be taken down from first. This is the only reason I could think for him to apparently stop driving his horse.

I am not 100% sure. I am sure someone on here will know for sure. If not, I have a friend that used to be a jock agent, I'll ask him when I see him next

So....and I'm not being a dink. Do you think it was for rough/careless riding or do you honestly think the 8 had a chance to win?