Let me ask you this Travis ...

If Twirling Candy goes on to win that race after that incident...

A.) Would you - as a steward - vote to take him down?

B.) Do you think these three stewards in So. Cal would have taken him down?


I really have a hard time buying that those same three stewards would take his number down.

I don't follow California race enough to know how they react to various fouls, objections, inquiries etc. to know what they would have done if Twirling Candy won. Their no-call though says they felt he started it all, so if they maintained their same opinion, he would have come down.

DQ's in stakes races, much less grade one races are a tough trigger to pull. If I were the stewards, I would have DQ'd him behind both Setsuko and Game On Dude had he won.

It's probably a good thing I'm not a steward though. When I used to referee basketball in college, I let a lot of things go. I would probably do the same as a steward. I don't mind race riding, herding etc. I would draw the line when the safety of the riders and horses becomes an issue. I also tend to lean towards stewards making a judgment call as to whether or not the bumps affected the outcome of the race.

In this case I don't think any of those three riders were race riding, save Sutherland, who might have been bringing Game On Dude out to get him going again, but was met with an incoming Twirling Candy, the initial catalyst to the rodeo. Watching the race at full speed, or even in the slow motion of the live feed during the inquiry, is a bit misleading. Slowing it down shows who kicked it all off.

She had a ton to do with kicking it all off. You watch the pan shot of them coming off the turn, and they are each separated from each other by nice margins. When they straighten away,she has floated out a lot. Your missing it, and most people are missing it. It's where they have to straighten. Victor decides he doesn't want to float much there. So, he suses a sharper angle. He gives Candy less room than normal. That was not excessive. It's acceptable race riding. Problem is that (at the same time) Chantal takes a very wide angle into the stretch. She goes from being 2 1/2-3 lanes off the rail to being at least 4-4 1/2 lanes off the rail. People seem oblivious to this. That's because it's very well done by her. It's very well masked. Victor, and her have combined to take away every bit of distance that separated these 3 horses at 1:53 of the pan video. They were nicely separated at 1:53, and at 1:55 there suddenly is a Candy sandwich. It's stunning to me that you and like 99% of people are blaming a horse who had 2 other horses put a sandwich on him. What she did was excessive. Joel had no room to adjust to both jock's moves, and Candy bumps into Setsuko. If she'd of race ridden (instead of fouling,) then, Joel would of not run into Setsuko. He has zero room to adjust to Victor coming into the stretch at a bit of a sharp angle. Some of this floating out (from an inside horse) is considered race riding. My point is that she took it way too far. The bumping would not have occurred if she had not used that wide an angle coming into the stretch. It was intentional (she hit him once lefty as she starts to do it.) This horse (TC) is intentionally sandwiched, and yet like 99% of people have him at blame for most of what took place.

I agree with most of your synopsis. I cant agree that she intentionally fouled. I dont like the fact that she whipped left handed before she straightned out. I for one kind of feel that Twirling Candy overeacted to the pressure set by both horses, thus setting off the chain reaction of bumps. He's not the easiest horse to ride anyway. Where can i find Rosarios take on the incident?

I put Rosario's quote up. He said both horses hit him very hard, and that she came out twice.

She intentionally took a wide angle into the stretch. She hid it well. Problem is that it was too much. If it was just her coming in a lil bit (during the collision with Candy,) then, I can see where the stewards could leave her up. As you can see by Victor's comments, he hurts himself by talking shyt about the stewards. He has a history of this, and it's gunna take quite a bit for them to put him up. Nakatani the same. This is part of the risk one takes when betting these two jocks.