MastComm tops Saint in Nat'l JCH (HAW)

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by rgustafson

I am assuming that many of you watched this race yesterday. One thing I would like to metion is Pino's unecessary whipping of SNS down the stretch. Now, I'm not one of those who advocates taking whips away from jockeys. By the stretch call, SNS was beaten by 4 lengths and was a tired horse and was about 20 lengths ahead of the third place finisher. I believe that Pino even glanced over his shoulder to look behind him and then still used the whip on SNS. To my way of thinking, this showed a complete lack of consideration for his horse. If you haven't seen the race, check out a replay.

My opinion on this matter is completely void of anything based in owning/training/riding a horse, so take it at face value.

I didn't think it was very excessive. I would guess* that the cracks he gave him were so that the horse was being persevered with. Of course he could have sat down in the saddle a pole from home and still finished second, but wouldn't he get in trouble for that? It's not like he was vigorously going after him with the whip like we'd see in a stretch duel -- he spent most of the stretch showing him the whip while using it four time after looking back and then riding him out after that.

Not sure about how an owner or trainer would feel -- but compare the use of the whip he was handing to 'Saint to the type of whipping we see in a race that's actually contested in the late stages. He was hardly getting after him to the pojnt where I'd label it a 'lack of consideration' with those few in the stretch.

Interested to see what others think, as I didn't find it that notable.