In a previous post, Mall pointed to a very interesting link. That link in turn pointed to another link which I also think is very interesting.
http://www.als.edu/glc/wagering/reports.html
The reports on this site that I found most interesting included (it was a \"virtual Dead Heat\" - Inside joke and you will have to read the last report listed to understand it):
Speech at Arizona Racing Symposium, \"Are Stewards Bupkes?\" December 5, 2001
Let's Try An Alternate Approach to Drug Penalties June 2002
The Morning Line at the Derby June 2002
Don\'t Shoot the Scale of Weights September 2002
Claiming Races and the Racino Tracks 1 October 2002
The Pick Four and the Parlay October 2002
We Got the Horse Talk Right Here November 2002
*****
I think it might be interesting to start a string on each of these reports and get a discussion going.
If anyone is interested, why not start with the first one that discusses the need to create some standards and processes to help Stewards make decisions.
Any thoughts or comments on that particular report?
Chris
Regarding stewards, four incidents top my list:
The first is in regard to Sunday Silence\'s \"victory\" in the Derby.
While employed at NYRA at that time, I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Manuel Gilman, one of the stewards there. I pointed out to him that Sunday Silence practically put Northern Wolf over the rail in the stretch. \"Dr. Gilman\", I asked\"shouldn\'t Sunday Silence have been DQ\'d ?\" He said in any race on any day, absolutely. But this is the Derby, and no one gets taken down in the Derby\".
The second is the well documented buzzer incident with Thinder Gulch, which was front page news in the DRF the day after the race, including a photo with an arrow pointing to the \"transaction\" after the wire.
The third is the video tape I played for the Delaware Park stewards (and in house TV host) regaring the Thunder Gulch Derby. Three stewards. Three differnt opinions and here they are:
Former jockey says \"definately a buzzer\"
2nd steward \"I used to repair buzzers when I was a valet, and that thing is too big to be a buzzer\"
Third Steward \"No such thing as a buzzer\"
Television host \"If you circled the \"transaction\" and had all kinds of arrows pointing to it, I still wouldn\'t believe it\".
Fouth incident: (over a period of years)
1997 leading rider at Delaware suspended for riding infractions at least 6 times.
Following years he gets DQ\'d just as often, but never suspended.
So you ask \"why did you retire from betting, Mark\". Take a guess.