Victor Molina Is in Trouble

[Linny]

Originally Posted by declansharbor

He deserves to be punished if these allegations prove to be true.

You can see it, plain as day, on the simo feed. The horse was held by an outrider on a pony as VM removed his saddle. The horse stood fine and after the tack was off, the jock booted him in the lower abdomen. It was not a means of gaining control over a horse that was currently unruly. Animals need punishment on occassion but you must punish them during the offense.

Whip abuse occurs and is punished. Stewards may ban exercise riders who use rough tactics. Some would say that racing itself is abuse. I have used lip chains, punished horses with the whip and even bitten a horse on the ear (no wonder I can't get dates). There is a difference between gaining control of a 1000lb animal that has different opinions from yours and booting a horse who is being held, standing quietly. I have to assumethat Victor was angry with the loss of the income resulting from the actions of the horse leading to the gate scratch. He took his anger out on the animal which could not associate the kick from the jock with his poor actions at the gate.