Now you can add Bill Turner to the list of people who think Kent Desormeaux was wrong to pull Big Brown out of the Belmont Stakes this weekend.
Turner, the trainer of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, called the results "a disaster."
From The Blood-Horse:
"I’ll tell you one thing. You never, ever pull up a horse who’s structurally sound. No jock should ever pull up a horse in a classic race. If he had bobbled, that’s one thing. But he had a hard time pulling him up. When he did pull him up, he was sound! He took him out of the race. In the 1960s, ’70s, and even into the 1980s, the New York stewards would have run him (Desormeaux) out of New York and told him not to come back.”
The way he echos my argument from earlier in the week, I'd think Turner was a regular reader of my blog. If jocks start to regularly pull up their mounts when they're out of the money, horses are going to start being put in dangerous and possibly deadly situations.
Turner continued:
“He was getting beat and he couldn’t stand it,” Turner said. “When I saw him pull up, I thought, ‘Oh, no! He’s broken down and the rider’s saving him.’ But then I saw him when he walked off and there was nothing wrong with the horse. The horse was happy. He would have beaten most of the horses in the Belmont…No wonder (trainer) Rick Dutrow had nothing to say after the race. What can you say? The stewards have got to do something to prevent this from becoming a regular practice. They can’t allow this kind of thing to go on.”
It's easy to blame the jockey when things go wrong, and as I said on Sunday, I'm not usually a person who will pile on a jock. And while it's true that Desormeaux can't (and shouldn't) be blamed totally for Big Brown's loss, I think it is certainly fair to question his ride during the race -- particularly the decision to pull the horse up. However, Desormeaux's actions in the Belmont were just more of the same for those of us who've watched him give up on mounts that were being beat in the stretch. The only thing that was different this time is that he gave up on national television and in front of 95,000 fans.
I agree with Turner that something must be done. I was hesitant to fully make this argument before we were certain that the horse was free of injury, but since all the post-race examinations have come back clean and Desormeaux has failed to provide a adequate reason for pulling up the horse (other than the fact that he wasn't going to win), it is time to demand that he be suspended and fined.
5 comments:
As long as the horse wasn't injured, he should have been ridden out to his best possible finish - not only best position, but also best speed rating. This sport is based on betting and betting is based on numbers (speed figures). If horses don't regularly run to their best number it is hard to gauge their relative ability.
I agree 100%. It's a damn shame KD couldn't let the horse finish with dignity. Big Brown may have been beaten but he wasn't done running when KD pulled him up.
after much consideration and reading... as there was no indication of injury at the time...KD should have finished the race and not eased up or pulled up.
But it's only now, days later, that we know that there's no injury. None of us knew it at the time--how could Desormeaux have been expected to know? One of the first things he said was, "Something's wrong," and if he thought something was wrong--which he clearly did--he made the right move.
"if he thought something was wrong--which he clearly did--he made the right move..."
I respectfully disagree. Desormeaux's has never been able to give a justified reason as to why he pulled the horse up. While he has said that something was "wrong" it appears like that thing that was "wrong" was that the horse wasn't going to win and didn't fire when asked... something that clearly points to the fact that Desormeaux didn't think the horse was injured is that he actually continued to gallop the horse to the finish line. If he thought there was an injury he should have dismounted...
Desormeaux quit, plain and simple, b/c he wasn't going to win.
If jocks are going to start to quit in the stretch and pull up when they think they have no chance of winning horses are going to start getting hurt.
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