Mostly to annoy Indian Charlie ... here's my take on it.

First contact: (a strong brush or slight bump between TC and Setsuko)



Fault: mutual (Setsuko is getting in slightly under a strong right handed whip - Twirling Candy is a tiring horse and having trouble staying straight despite Rosario's best efforts)


Prior to second contact:



Chantal is going left handed and is going to look to come out and do some herding - Twirling Candy is coming in a bit.

Second contact:



Fault: mutual between TC and Game On Dude. The latter is coming out to herd - the former is coming in a slight bit. Because Game On Dude's hind gets bumped - it will appear like he mugged TC.


Basically - No one can be placed behind Twirling Candy. He was involved in mutual contact with two seperate horses. He was not fouled.

The only question is - did the chain reaction bump Setsuko took through no fault of his own cost him a placing?

If you believe it did - Game On Dude and Twirling Candy should both be DQ'd. Since Setsuko finished ahead of TC - you'd only be able to DQ Game on Dude and place him 2nd.

Would I have DQ'd the winner? No. Would I have expected a DQ of the winner? At most tracks - yes.

If you're willing to DQ the winner - you would also have to have been willing to move Setsuko up from 3rd to 1st had Twirling Candy not quit.

Video I watched this morning.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRw8Lj2MGp4

Doesn't look like Brad Free and Baffert will be going to dinner any time soon.

At 1st, I thought it was a hard call. I mean, if you're lazy, and just look at the collision between Candy-GOD, Then, I can see how someone would say she could stay up. If you look at what happened earlier, then, you should come to the conclusion that she fouled. That 1st collision between Setsuko-Candy is caused by Chantal floating out way too far (as they tried to straighten.) She came out a lot, and all at once. It's at a time when horses are shifting weight. So, people are expecting them to float right there, but she takes the opportunity to float a ton. Some say that Setsuko was responsible for coming in right there. He isn't. Victor just refuses to be floated out as much as the other 2. He is under control. The other two are not, and that's because she is floating her horse, (and Candy) out. T Candy is fouled right there. Even if you say he was gunna be dead, he wasn't dead there. The fact is that he has to make contact with Setsuko, or he would of clipped hills with GD. Just look at the distance GD is from the rail when he 1st straightens into the stretch. There is no way that he was that far out on the turn. Setsuko has not come in. He is just refusing to be floated. I wish Joel had refused it, too. He should have driven this bitch back to the rail, and refused to forced out into Setsuko.

“They bumped him real hard inside and out,” jockey Joel Rosario said.

Joel is gunna have to learn to ride much more defensively (on severe chalk.)
I mean, the only reason to let her stay up is because they let every other jock (in the race) ride Candy, too. Normally, Victor would have given more ground for Chantal to float these two horses out (although, he doesn't have to.) She's riding Candy. Victor was riding Candy. They sandwich him, and, somehow, like 99% of the people ignore it:

“They bumped him real hard inside and out,” jockey Joel Rosario said.

I guess someone will have to put a still up of the sandwich. That's about the only way people are gunna take note of it. Really, the thing that's surprising me is that he is badly fouled by at least 1 horse, and the stewards have Trevor come on and say he fouled. Yea, he 50% fouled a horse who had floated him out into another horse. God forbide he take back any of the ground he earlier had taken away from him by this bitch. I know people want to beat favorites. I think he was gunna tire, but polease don't tell me they didn't sandwich that Candy Horse coming into the stretch. He's not "dead" when it happened. Was he gunna tire without being sandwiched? Probably, but it's still a foul on 1 or both of those other horses.

Drugs, your 1st photo shows how far she's floated out into the stretch. She's not that far off the rail on the turn. Victor is where he would be (or even wider) if she hadn't pushed out. He just refuses to be pushed out by the others. Therefore, Candy sandwich. He doesn't have to give them this ground. It's assumed he will, but he is race riding the chalk. So, he participates in the sandwich of TC. That is not a foul. He is just not giving the ground they want. Her being out that wide is a foul right there. If Joel had held his ground (like he should of) there would have been a big collision between Candy n' GD. Instead, he hopes Victor gives him ground. He didn't. It appears Victor came in, because he knows he is gunna have to counter the weight of Candy coming into him. He does everything he can to avoid giving ground to the horses who are floating out. It's race riding. Her floating Candy into Setsuko is a foul (not race riding.) It's too much, and they missed it.

Have they doled out punishment yet?

Got pics?

Good work the pictures post Doug...

At 1:53 of your video pan shot feed......How far is she from the rail? When Trevor says "Setsuko is running a huge race," These 3 horses have plenty of space between themselves.

From 1:53-1:55 She taps one time lefthanded, and comes out toward you on the pan. In those 2 seconds, she has come out a lot. See the distance on drugs 1st still? That is not the distance (from the rail) that she was at on 1:53 of the pan video. At the same time, Victor decides to not float out at all. If you want to say he came in slightly, then fine. Those 2 things sandwich TC. The nice separation they had at 1:53 is totally gone. She ate that separation up by coming out from 1:53-1:55 of the pan video. That is what caused the great majority of all this contact that follows. Anyone that thinks she was straight needs to look at 1:53-1:55 of that race video. It's very reckless. It's the root of the problem yesterday. What takes place from 1:55-1:59 is the result of her coming out from 1:53-1:55.

If anyone was watching HRTV, they got to see Gary Stevens try to backpedal away from what he said he would do (if he was a steward.) This turned into quite a monumental fail. If someone recorded it, please post a video. He started getting very lost. Like Stevie Wonder at a Klan meeting.

Misremembered should have been in the Big Cap!

Chantal is 35? I would have guess 25, but then again she shares my Bday.

One of the comments on the story is pretty interesting.

Woman can still be hot past their 20s. :p

The Krone comment?

I don't know who onthescene is, but the account of the story, if of course true, is interesting. If it's not true, that's some creative fiction.

VERY

5:20 in ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRw8Lj2MGp4

Interesting... I heard Baffert's comment but couldn't make out what Mandella said back. But I also don't think there was as much back/forth like that DRF commenter wrote - unless someone else can make out what's said.

Drugs did a good job with his screenshots but I pulled the replay into Camtasia, which is a nifty screen editing software and slowed down the replay to as slow as I could get it. Twirling Candy comes out and bumps Setsuko off the turn. Twirling Candy's whole body is then leaning toward the rail as the momentum carries him into Game On Dude, who was not coming out, or if he was, not nearly as hard as Candy was coming in.

It was the right call, but it's a really tough break for Setsuko.