As I’ve said before, horse racing is not my strong suit. I am not familiar with the rules and do not bet on races.
I watch three horse races every year: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, races that make up the Triple Crown.
It took them long enough, but officials finally listed Churchill Downs as “sloppy” right before the Derby began. It had been raining all day and it was as muddy as I have ever seen it when the word came down that the track was officially “sloppy.” I guess somebody finally woke up from a long nap.
Maximum Security was clearly the best horse in the field of 19 and he won the race straight up.
However, it was determined that he came off the rail and “impeded other horses in his path” coming out of the final turn entering the stretch and was disqualified by the stewards after jockeys on the affected horses raised “questions” after the race.
Looking at tape shot from various vantage points, stewards finally — after about fifteen minutes of study — ruled that the questions were legitimate and disqualified Maximum Security and elevated Country House to the winner’s circle.
Given that his action did, indeed, impede the other horses, this was the correct ruling.
However, it doesn’t appear to me that Country House was one of the horses impeded by Maximum Security’s misstep. I agree that Maximum Security came off the rail and forced several horses to change course, but it doesn’t appear to me that Country House was one of them.
So how did Country House wind up winning the race?
Stewards determined that the horses affected by the misstep moved so as to affect Country House’s gait and thus his path to the finish.
The talking heads on TV raved about the job that jockey Flavian Prat did to keep Country House on his feet and running. I guess he did but I didn’t see it. Of course, I wasn’t paying any attention to Prat coming out of the final curve. My eyes were on Maximum Security.
The stewards said Maximum Security “bothered” 16 of the 19 horses in the race and placed him seventeenth in the race.
The order of the finish is immaterial. In horse racing, if the horse finishes outside of the top three, it is said to finish “out of the money” as only the top three finishers win money.
There were just over 150,000 spectators at Churchill Downs for the race, most of them holding bets on the horses. I don’t know how many had bets on Maximum Security but I’m willing to bet that more of them had bets on Maximum Security than did those holding bets on Country House, who went into the race at 35-1 while Maximum Security went off at 9-2.
I respect the stewards for the job that they did. Horses cannot speak for themselves and can’t defend themselves when wronged. Therefore, they need a ruling body to speak up for them. The stewards are that ruling body and the process worked in this instance, at least for Country House.
Maximum Security is the first Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified due to an infraction on the track in the 145-year history of the event.
The Preakness is next on Saturday, May 18. Hopefully, it will be run on a fast track in good weather with no problems, as are most races.
