Quote:
Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
Of course you didnt notice it because wasnt isnt an issue. When you are trying to win whipping should hardly be an issue. Where I have an issue with whipping is when horses who are hopelessly beaten are flogged because the rider is pissed at them. But in a sport where billions of dollars are bet on the outcome, the entire theory of whipping too much is foreign to me. As I said the use of the new whips should make any whipping controversy moot.
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I hear countless track and field athletes talk about holding their 'form' during key points of their events. Hurdlers, for example, tend to break down towards the end of their races, as do sprinters, as their mechanics fall apart. Now, if you ever watch Dominguez ride, he rarely goes to the whip -- in relation to other jocks. Because he usually give good rides, his horses have enough in the stretch to be able to give their all without being abused. Clearly, you've watched enough races to have seen many cases where jocks are hitting a horse and it's drifting in, then drifting out, etc., doing everything BUT running straight, which, after all, is the objective. There's no doubt in my mind that whipping is absolutely excessive presently. More races are lost, IMO, than are won as a result of whipping. Jocks need to help horses retain their 'form' when they're tiring rather than beat them up so that they stagger like drunks, unable to keep straight paths. Any hack can hammer away with the whip; only a few jocks are good enough to help a horse to the wire.
There was a race a few weeks ago where one of the Allens was on the favorite, a speed horse. The horse broke from the outside gate and stumbled a bit while also dunking out at the start. As the poor thing is trying to get it's footing, Allen is beating on it with the whip, as he's expecting early kick. The horse won but that wasn't really the point. Or was it?