Belmont 7th

[jerry]

If Irad doesn\'t come down I\'m done with this game.

[jerry]

Fat moron Toscano acting like he\'d to nothin.

[jerry]

F--k it. I\'m done. Beautiful sport run by a bunch of f-----g pigs. It\'s just plain ugly. Can\'t hold a candle to Euro or Australia.

[Boscar Obarra]

I said that years ago when Steve Cauthen fell off a horse I bet.

I\'m still here

[plasticman]

I won\'t disagree that the sport isn\'t run the right way, but as far as this specific inquiry goes, i didn\'t see anything, i\'m not even sure why there was an inquiry to begin with, what did i miss?

[jerry]

Irad leaned in on Franco the entire stretch, brushed him once, intimidated him repeatedly and, to get the nose win, leaned in on him just before the wire. That\'s not a measure of the better horse. That\'s dirty riding. That\'s what\'s become of this sport. It\'s dirty. People cheat. The best cheaters win. No thanks.

[RICH]

Jerry

take a breath and a rest, DQ was not appropriate in this race, not even close. Sorry for your loss

[jimbo66]

Rich,

One thing that is clear in this thread is that u are WRONG.

Silly statement to say not even close to a DQ.

Watched the head on a couple times, out of curiousity after reading this thread (had no bet)

The winner and second place horse were 4w and 3w entering the stretch.  The winner leaned in for most of the stretch causing them to move to 2w and 1w.   Then mildly bumped the winner twice in the last 100 yards.

I am not saying it was an auto DQ.   I would have called it 60/40, leaning to the DQ only because margin of victory was so narrow, hard to believe the infraction didn\'t affect the outcome.

But it surely was a close call.  Saying that in a thread where the author is clearly on \"tilt\" is not just wrong, it is poor form.

Jim

[jerry]

Thank you Jim. I saw the stretch run exactly the same way. I think Ortiz deliberately initiated the last bump just before the wire to get the nose win. Who wins without the bump is anyone\'s guess but that\'s why they ask them not to bump. Stronger enforcement might lead to fewer incidents.

[Boscar Obarra]

If you watch the head on a few times, it becomes less dramatic. There was some subtle mutual contact early stretch , then a slow , steady, move inward by both horses. Subtle enough that no DQ was warranted, but no question they needed to look at it.

[jerry]

Not even close? Watch the head on. There\'s a lot of bearing in under right hand whipping going on all the while forcing Franco\'s horse inward and off stride at points. It was deliberate and the stewards rewarded Ortiz for it. It makes for dirty racing and racing\'s image is already dirty enough.

[jerry]

Ho! Mutual contact? Why? Because it takes two to touch? Nonsense. Ortiz started in the 4 path, bore in on Franco\'s horse the entire stretch run using his horse to impede the other horse. There was nothing mutual about the cause.

[jerry]

You can even see Ortiz pull on the left rein every time he wants his horse to lean in on Franco\'s horse. That\'s NASCAR stuff. Leave it out of here.

[plasticman]

Hard to make a dq there without a rear view as well as a direct head on. There was a point where it appeared that the inside horse came out and bumped the winner. Would a dq there have been the worst dq ever? No, but i don\'t think leaving it up was the worst leave up i\'ve seen there either.

Watch the head on of the first race at Saratoga on Sept 5th. Probably not coincidentally, the same rider involved in what i though was an easy dq, they left this one up also, the 1-5 shot drifted out 10 paths and carried the 2nd place finisher into the parking lot. No change here either. to me, this was more obvious than the one Weds.

[Boscar Obarra]

The chart caller, who\'s pretty sharp in NY, saw it as  mutual  contact. Read his call.