I did have a dog in the fight, and the DQ actually worked out better for me. However, I am shocked that they took the #3 down, as I have a seen a lot worse than that in NY stand. The level of inconsistency by the NYRA stewards these days is truly beyond words.
He was the only dog I had. I\'m blaming the jockey rather than the stewards for a change. But really. Guess I\'ll double up on the #13 in the next.
I didn\'t have a bet on the race. After the race, on Saratoga Live, Tom Amoss, who agreed with the DQ, said (paraphrasing):
\"What has to happen is for the stewards to explain why they made the decisions they did. What did they see? What factors were critical? Fans need to understand. Racing needs more of that, and NY certainly needs more than what it gets out of this stewards\' box.\"
Could not agree more. Whatever you think of the California stewards, at least (when I used to watch TVG) they would be interviewed about controversial decisions.
I am not sure whether the fault lies with NYRA or with the Gaming Commission, but, as rezlegal has said in another thread, the transparency in NY is pathetic.
One possible solution would be for Chris Kay to talk to the stewards and come on TV to reveal what he had learned. That would kill two birds with one stone: We would get more information and Chris Kay would get his camera time.
And the beat goes on - twitter post from Mike Welsch re Saratoga 8th race double DQ: \"Of all the dubious decisions here this meet that last one may have been the worst yet. Final Frontier should have come down, Strike Me Down would not have been involved if FF hadn\'t forced Hizeem out into his path to create the additional bumping.\"