What are the rules? Since the stewards have been given more discretion and not adjudicated these matters under "a foul is a foul" rule, I've always thought the rule was whether a horse was deprived a chance to achieve a maximum placing. (That certainly seemed to be the case with Shared Belief and, to a greater degree, Moreno given his style of running.) To state that they are viewing these matters under a "where they were reasonably expected to finish" standard is scary. Now the stewards are handicappers as well? On a day where one longshot after another outperformed where they were generally expected to finish, I don't want the stewards determining who are hopeless horses and which ones are not.
A couple of other thoughts: What Garcia did yesterday was essentially the same thing that Calvin Borel did in the 2013 Kentucky Oaks and that was generally panned as a bush-league move.
The California stewards suspended Victor Espinoza for his ride in the Awesome Again and leave this incident alone. Where's the consistency?
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