Douglas to have surgery following spill

[10 pnt move up]

Originally Posted by Riot

That's not what was said. What was said was:

"He knew Douglas had more horse. He saw a spot open for Douglas. Knew he would win if he took it. So he made damn sure he couldn't take it"

Dougless did not have any horse IMO, he was tiring and the rider got impatient on the horse who had saved all the ground.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by 10 pnt move up

Dougless did not have any horse IMO, he was tiring and the rider got impatient on the horse who had saved all the ground.

Pretty much what happened.

It's the kind of incident you almost never see on dirt because the fields aren't as bunched up as they are on turf of synthetic.

I think the entire field was seperated by just 2 or 3 lengths at the fairly late stage of the race where it happened.

[Cannon Shell]

For what its worth Douglas would do just about anything to win a race including putting someone else in a spot. It is what made him a leading rider. Despite what you read or hear, race riding is not nearly as cutthroat as it was in the past. While the overall quality of stewards has certainly slipped the fact is that there is one popular, HoF ex-jock that would intentionally put favorites in bad spots when he was on dead horses and then try to get the mount on the horse he screwed. Another, Craig Perett told me that when he was a bug the older riders told him that if he even thinks about coming up the rail on them they would drop him.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

For what its worth Douglas would do just about anything to win a race including putting someone else in a spot. It is what made him a leading rider.

If you watch the 2nd and 3rd races on the ARL card that day .. Douglas had a short priced horse breaking from post 1 in both instances .. in both instances appeared loaded with no place to go .. and in both instances managed to find a seem very late and win without resorting to making his own room.

I have no problem with how Theriot rode his horse in the stake .. he saved all the ground through the turn on a 13/1 shot and appeared just before the incident to have a little more horse than what was outside of him and in front of him .. the field was just extremely bunched though and a real major accident happened.

I'm sure Theriot was far from the only rider who would have tried to force his way out. Maybe Douglas would have as well .. but he rode those two earlier winners much cooler when in a similar situation.