BC CLASSIC

[Dana666]

Perhaps the worst call ever in American racing history?

If the US weren\'t enough of a joke to the world already, we sure are now.

Gotta love Martin Garcia afterwards; in his words he said he knew he didn\'t really affect any other horses.

Shah\'s acting like why would there even be an inquiry?  

What\'s with Baffert and the CA stewards? Remember the big Cap a few years ago?

Geez, can you imagine going through life with such immunity?

Now seriously, you bet hard earned  money on this crap? Seriously?

[jerry]

I\'m with you. This business is a joke. And I didn\'t even bet the race.

[Bet Twice]

It was certainly a rough start but not sure you take down a horse in that situation.

[TMW]

I had the trifecta and was disgusted cashing it. I have owned hundreds of horses and I am so sad that our sport is now relegated in stature to boxing and gymnastics and synchronized swimming.

I suspect Baffert did this on purpose. I felt bad for Garcia when he was interviewed because he didn\'t know what to say. Acted like he was being deposed -- and was guilty. Poor guy. Typical Baffert. The owner\'s comments were insulting to anyone who isn\'t an idiot. Pompous ass.

They took out the only pace danger to Bayern (Moreno) and also wiped out the morning line favorite (Shared Belief) in the same pre-planned move (in my opinion). Bayern had it all his own way (not my opinion). Trevor\'s voice was trembling when he tried to explain the inane logic of no harm no foul.

One word. Disgusting.

I am ashamed for the sport we all love.

[Bet Twice]

If you watch the replay and zoom in you can see the Garcia standing up and vigorously pulling on the right rein to straighten him out - there\'s no way that was intentional.  I\'m no fan of BB but I can\'t fault him there.

[TMW]

Bet Twice Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you watch the replay and zoom in you can see
> the Garcia standing up and vigorously pulling on
> the right rein to straighten him out - there\'s no
> way that was intentional.  I\'m no fan of BB but I
> can\'t fault him there.

I am, of course, not privy to any Baffert/Garcia conversation pre-race -- but, they did conveniently wipe out the ONLY pace danger to Bayern and also conveniently wiped out the morning line favorite.

Do you really think that if the trainer was from Illinois or England or Peru the horse would not have been disqualified? The entire complexion of the biggest race in America (purse-wise) was affected. If Moreno pressured Bayern like everyone expected, would there have been a different result (yes).

Pretty much all of my horse buddies are in agreement on this one. Including other owners and trainers. You can disagree if you wish. With this new ruling that fouls are never created right out of the gate (only in Southern California) it will be interesting to see what latitude jockeys and trainers will now test going forward.

No sense arguing this one with me -- racing\'s integrity took another big hit.

[jerry]

Deliberate or not, it altered the running of the race and compromised the chances of Shared Belief and Moreno.

[Boscar Obarra]

Apparently, stewards are loath to take horses down for gate incidents , out of fear that they would be dq\'ing horses 5x a day.

 That would be worse for the game then never taking them down.

 Not defending, but after many years of observation, that\'s my take on it.

[jerry]

No other race on either yesterday\'s or today\'s card had a start that was anything close to how rough this one was. If this isn\'t a $5M race, Bayern comes down.

[fjmb]

The #5 horse hesitated at the start, making it look worse than it really was.   The right call IMO.

[joemama]

Really don\'t feel like playing the races after this incident.  I haven\'t seen the replay on a good enough monitor to see what happened but my guess is besides wiping out SB they got 2 birds with 1 stone by knocking out Marino, Bayerns early competition. Appalling to say the least.

[joemama]

Alright  then get rid of the gate.

[Topcat]

Top TWO should\'ve come down.   Some newbies might have screamed, but they were most-unlikely to understand the sheer enormity of the atrocities committed.

[miff]

Gate fouls rarely cause a DQ because stewards understand that horses frequently break inward or outward first stride or so.Usually in a severe inward or outward break,which causes a cascading chain reaction, a DQ is made.If every minor gate foul resulted in a DQ, the game would awash in controversy and many players would bail.

It stood out to me that an incident/foul of that severity was rather \"quickly\" dismissed.Judgement calls always going to cause problems to one group or another but yesterday was a clear takedown imo which would have been made if not for the \"Baffert\" factor.As far as Garcia intentionally breaking inward, I doubt it as he came out with both lines extended in an effort to dead send, very clear on any replay.

Cali stewards will explain away today at 10am press conference at SA, should be enlightening.

[richiebee]

Mike:

With regards to the short amount of time it took the stewards to reach their decision, you must realize that NBC\'s BC fluff-fest had already cut 5 minutes into \"Law and Order --SVU\".