Originally Posted by the_fat_man

Disagree. Look at it again. She starts to go in under righty whipping as the leader takes a bad step and comes out. At that point, she ducks out significantly, Mena holding on for dear life. Immediately after, he bangs her righty again, causing her to go in significantly.

He already checked her on the backside for no apparent reason (on the pan shot) and had her in tight and pushing her way through entering the stretch. She enters with a clear run, and is giving her all. Why beat on her?

I agree that the horse coming out spooked her but if she's not under pressure from the whip maybe she doesn't duck out as bad. And, there's certainly no excuse to go to the whip AGAIN at that point.

What pisses me off is that, though not as drastic, these things happen ever day and cost horses victories. Of course, you might also be of the camp that believes that not keep a straight path does not result in ground loss of any significance.