You be the judge: incompetence, criminal negligence, or the right call.
In the seventh race at Stockton today (June 22nd) a horse appeared to break through the gate before the starter sent the field on its way. You can see replay at CalRacing.com with a free subscription.
On track, a number of spectators and bettors were livid at the failure to declare the 4 horse, Classic Delini, a non-starter. The pan view shows Classic Delini popped out of the gate at least a length ahead of all other starters. When this was played on the jumbo-tron in the infield the Stockton crowd groaned in disgust, as it would be improbable that a horse could be that far ahead of the rest of the field without breaking through the gate. Conspiracy theories began circulating immediately.
After watching the replay many times, while the pan view does look suspicious, the head on view is also telling. It appears that all the gates spring at the same time, and that Classic Delini was merely lunging at exactly the moment the gates opened. It does not appear that the horse forced the gate open at all, and the stewards made the right call. Nonetheless, do make your own judgement.
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5 comments:
Watching it in slow motion, it looks to me that the horse was acting up at the exact moment the gate opens. You can see him rearing just as the gate starts to open in the pic below. (Hopefully the link works)
Screen Cap
yeah, that screen capture shows the horse rearing quite well. thanks!
I agree - she just rears up at the right exact moment. What amazed me was Aeblus managing to outrun the field (am I seeing that right?) without a jockey or whip. Granted, she was probably pretty keyed up, but (at least in my mind) that goes to show that these horses really do have running in their blood. And she just goes out and does her job - no wild, out-of-control horse going this way and that ... that I could see, at least.
Well, gee, Nellie, don't you think the massive *weight advantage* might have had something to do with that?
I think what I meant to say (it was late, I was tired) was that I was impressed by how she instinctively went out in front and actually 'ran' the race to win it... lying in bed last night I made a mental note to tell someone about CalRacing.com and then went 'oh no... did I really say what I think I did???'
One way or another, our Oregon-breds give it their best (albeit occasionally odd) effort. :)
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