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Old 05-06-2019, 03:11 AM
Kitan Kitan is offline
Gulfstream Park
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Other side of the globe
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin View Post
Let's forget about the Kentucky Derby for a minute and just talk about the rules. I think you were saying that if the winner of a race fouls a horse that finished 8th, the winner should not get DQ'd because the horses that will get moved up don't deserve to get moved up because they weren't involved in the incident. But the winner still needs to be taken down. Here is why: If a jockey knows that he can badly foul a horse, he may do it on purpose if he knows that he won't get DQ'd.

For example, let's say a jockey knows that a certain horse in the race is his main competition. If he knows that he can foul that horse really badly and totally eliminate him, he may do it if he knows he won't get DQ'd. You may say that he wouldn't do it because he knows that the stewards would still give him days. But that's not necessarily true. It may be worth it to him to get days under certain situations. If the purse of the race was really big, it may be worth it to him to eliminate his main competition, if he knows that he won't get DQ'd and he will get to keep the purse. Or what if a jockey and trainer are going to make a big bet on their horse. In that case, it may be worth it to eliminate their main competition, if they know they won't get DQ'd.

Anyway, you get my point. If a horse badly fouls another horse and it might have cost that horse a better placing (in the money), the horse who committed the foul needs to get DQ'd. There is no way around it. It is a very important deterrent to prevent guys from riding intentionally recklessly.
A jockey in Hong Kong just got a 10 race meeting ban (they race twice a week, so essentially a month ban) for not controlling his horse and causing fractions to be excessively fast. Winx’s rider got a 21 meeting ban for weighing in 1kg (2.2lbs) overweight in last year’s Melbourne Cup (on a different horse). If those petty things result in huge bans, you can only imagine how long the suspensions would be for doing something intentionally...there was a 25 meeting ban, causing the jockey to miss multiple G1 rides, earlier in the year for accidentally causing a fall...if that was intentional, better bet he’d need to find a new career.

Jockeys elsewhere are regularly suspended for minor fouls. I see less intentional major fouls in other jurisdictions than in North America and a fraction of the DQs. It’s not a coincidence.
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