More HISA Stupidity

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

Who is doing the counting of the number of strikes with the crop? Are they doing this for every horse in every race, or only when something looks amiss? With all the rough riding that has been tolerated in New York the past few years, the idea that this is what the Saratoga stewards are focused on is truly concerning.

The On Track Stewards are looking at the counts on a race by race basis. When I was in Colorado I would also look at every race later that night.

If I wasn't 100% sure it wasn't counted as a strike.

When we had riders in for film review the following morning.

We'd show that rider the film and have him and his rep who was also there count the strikes themselves. All we sanctioned agreed with the total.

We had a few in the 7 to 9 range which resulted in a $500 fine and a 1 day suspension.

We had ONE purse redistribution when the rider gave his horse 11 strikes. He counted them and agreed with the number.

This resulted in the owner losing 3rd place money.

I have to say it felt pretty weird writing that ruling.

But we had NO CHOICE in the matter. The rules are clear in the HISA handbook. HISA was enacted by congress and it's NOT going away.

As the meet went on you could SEE the riders being much more conscious of the rule and IMO adapting beautifully.

We did have one jock who seemed to be losing his stick quite often. We asked him about it. He said that after 5 strikes he threw it away so there was no way he could get banged.

Credit was given for an interesting idea. He was asked to cease this practice!