American Pharoah...

[bare it all]

Originally Posted by 3kings

I'll explain it for you. Some horses need more urging than others to keep to the task at hand. Let's start a new thread about the "whacking" so those who realize it's part of the game and it doesn't hurt the horses don't have to filter through this crap again.

No need to get snarky. I'm fine with the whip and understand why it's there. What you said - that's more or less what I told him - just that the horse was probably wasn't used to a horse coming up on him and needed extra urging. You can call it what you want, but to someone who is just watching a sport that is very new for them, it's whacking, regardless of if it hurts the animal or not. Visually, it's not something a neophyte likes to see or understands. It IS hard to explain this part (crop/whip) part of the sport when there is a stark contrast in the urging of the two final competitors coming to the wire.