(raymond)

I’ve noticed several comments, tweets and at least one post about Calvin’s use of the whip on Rachel. My only question is, what took you so long? Did people just now notice that American jocks whip horses too much?

Check out Calvin’s ride of Lady Joanne in the 2007 Alabama (not on YouTube, sorry!) or Mike Smith on Tiago in the Santa Anita Derby:

(partymanners)

And these are just two that came to mind immediately. AND how about all those horses who aren’t Rachel Alexandra, Lady Joanne or Tiago?

If Rachel can get some meaningful discussion going about use of the whip it will be one more stellar accomplishment for her to add to her impressive resume. It’s easy to blame the jocks, lord knows I’ve done it, but the issue is bigger than that. We have vague rules that are hard to enforce which makes it that much harder for stewards to actually do something about it.

I’m a huge fan of whip reform. Sadly as regular fans and players we’re all used to it but commenter ljk summed it up nicely on a post last year when he said:

I’ll say it again: to newcomers our sport looks like people with sticks beating horses to make them run

Word.

Posted by dana on Sep 08 2009    
Filed Under: Stewards, The Whip, 2009, Mike Smith, Rachel Alexandra, Twitter, Raymond Haddad, Internet, Grrrr, Fans, Tiago, Race Replay, YouTube, Calvin Borel, Racing

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Last week (it’s been busy around GbG manor!), I finally got my first response EVER from NYRA! Neema Ghazi, Marketing Director, messaged me directly at Facebook to answer the question posed last week or so.

Here was the question:

Question. I read the following in DRF today:

“The stewards fined jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr. $500 for striking his mount, Hanna Can Fly, twice in the face with his whip in Wednesday’s ninth race. Hanna Can Fly was on the lead early in the race, then backed up through the field to finish 10th.

The incident wasn’t that much different than the one for which Jeremy Rose received a six-month suspension last summer at Delaware Park. That suspension was reduced to three months.”

http://drf.com/news/article/99742.html

Can you please explain this ruling? I watched the race replay at Twinspires and could not see the incident. If it is similar to Jeremy Rose’s incident, in which he was suspended for 3 months (reduced from 6), can you also explain why Arroyo was only fined and not given any suspension?

Unfortunately the sense of satisfaction of having received an actual reply from NYRA was somewhat dashed by the fact that NYRA cannot publicly comment on Steward’s rulings. I then asked if players can view the NY Steward’s rulings but he didn’t believe that the rulings are published publicly. After a twirl around the New York State Racing and Wagering Board site, I’d have to agree.

He mentioned Hong Kong as an interesting model of transparency but noted that the level of transparency was demanded by the horseplayers. Could it be that simple? If we demanded that level of transparency we could get it here in New York? I’ve never demanded Steward’s rulings, although I’ve asked for them to be available online by way of SAFC. California has their Steward’s rulings available online… wanna see the minutes for the week of the Breeders’ Cup? No problem.

Between the rad difference in punishment across jurisdictions of Rose and Arroyo for seemingly similar incidences to the difference of no public record of Steward’s rulings in one jurisdiction vs. weekly minutes available for download in another, it should be interesting to see how the new Safety & Integrity Alliance deals with consensus building. I’m gonna try to do a longer post on the issue (and hope I didn’t just jinx it!).

Back to NYRA for a minute, Ghazi also assured me that he and his staff have been answering questions over the Facebook page, but answering them privately. Fair enough, but speaking of transparency… For now I’m just happy to have had an actual (ok, virtual) conversation with someone from NYRA. And please, please let these rumors be true (but I have to concur that Jan/Feb would be better)!

Posted by dana on Nov 18 2008    
Filed Under: Industry, The Whip, Stewards, 2008, Internet, Jocks, NTRA, NYRA, Racing

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( raymond )

As Moran put it, NYRA is trolling the web with the addition of new Facebook and MySpace pages. I don’t disagree with the commenter who is pleased to see NYRA take this direction, but as someone who has never received an email reply from NYRA, color me cautiously optimistic.

“Developing these pages are part of a viral marketing strategy we’ve recently implemented that targets a demographic of racing fan that NYRA has not effectively and actively communicated with in the past,” said Neema Ghazi, NYRA’s Director of Marketing.

I “became a fan” (which is what they call the action one takes to follow a page on Facebook) and so far so good. They’ve created a fair amount of upcoming events (but haven’t invited the 551 current NYRA fans: note to NYRA, pushing content to fans is good!) and added a good amount of photos.

“These platforms are excellent mediums through which NYRA can engage its fans,” said Ghazi. “A website like Facebook can serve as a useful feedback mechanism that inevitably encourages continuous dialogue between racetrack executives and the racing public.”

Feedback mechanism and continuous dialogue between racetrack executives and the racing public… funny you should mention that. While at work today, I received this tweet on my phone.

From DRF (last section, bottom of the page):

The stewards fined jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr. $500 for striking his mount, Hanna Can Fly, twice in the face with his whip in Wednesday’s ninth race. Hanna Can Fly was on the lead early in the race, then backed up through the field to finish 10th.

The incident wasn’t that much different than the one for which Jeremy Rose received a six-month suspension last summer at Delaware Park. That suspension was reduced to three months.

After having a bit to eat this evening while watching a familiar Law & Order re-run, I clicked right on over the NYRA’s page to hopefully start a continuous dialog with some race track executives by way of their feedback mechanism.

Posted to the NYRA wall (which is the one of the main “feedback mechanisms” of a Facebook group):

Question. I read the following in DRF today:

“The stewards fined jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr. $500 for striking his mount, Hanna Can Fly, twice in the face with his whip in Wednesday’s ninth race. Hanna Can Fly was on the lead early in the race, then backed up through the field to finish 10th.

The incident wasn’t that much different than the one for which Jeremy Rose received a six-month suspension last summer at Delaware Park. That suspension was reduced to three months.”

http://drf.com/news/article/99742.html

Can you please explain this ruling? I watched the race replay at Twinspires and could not see the incident. If it is similar to Jeremy Rose’s incident, in which he was suspended for 3 months (reduced from 6), can you also explain why Arroyo was only fined and not given any suspension?

Here’s hoping NYRA’s foray in social media elicits better results than that old fashioned contraption known as email. Will keep you posted!

Posted by dana on Nov 07 2008    
Filed Under: Raymond Haddad, The Whip, Stewards, Industry, 2008, NYRA, Aqueduct, Internet, Racing

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I’ve been elsewhere the past few days! Belmont (Aint No Joke)

My lack of posting is due, in part, to a hectic week which includes working on this so it can be ready by July 1. So far, so good!

In lieu of posting I’ve been doing a lot of commenting… mostly on the extremely active post regarding Jeremy Rose’s suspension. It’s a great, lively, civil conversation mostly (at this point) centered around how to determine if a suspension is excessive. One person’s excessive is another person’s just right is yet another person’s not enough. In my mind this begs for national standards around ALL suspensions.

Speaking of which, Val has a great post (that of course I commented on, because that’s all I do now) about the double standards in the suspensions of Asmussen and Dutrow. She also discusses that national standards are needed in drug suspensions.

Jessica posts the news of Suffolk’s new zero tolerance on slaughter (yep, I commented there too) and points to a related post that alludes to a more holistic view being needed to actually solve the problem as opposed to just applying a band-aid. (Note - I agree that Rose’s suspension is a band-aid for addressing issues around the whip, there needs to be better rules to actually address the overall problem).

And, in another great post that I commented on, Teresa uncovers a bit of of a historical precedence for the protest of sexism in the pursuit of racing marketing! Go sign the petition!

Posted by dana on Jun 28 2008    
Filed Under: I'm Procrastinating, Industry, The Whip, Take Back the Race, 2008, Fans, Drugs, TBA, Racing

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Jeremy Rose at Belmont (Sarah K. Andrew)

First off, what a day! I was away from a computer until just an hour ago… I missed quite the news filled afternoon!

In our last poll, Personal Ensign was the overwhelming favorite filly 1988 getting 20 votes, while 14 of you said that you love both Personal Ensign and Winning Colors equally and 7 of you, myself included, said Winning Colors was your favorite. I love them both but Winning Colors’ Santa Anita Derby is what made my decision.

Our current poll asks if what you make of Jeremy Rose’s suspension… is it too much, not enough or just right?

To aid you in your decision, I present this head on race replay (hat tip to partymanners for posting and Jen at Thoroughblog). The incident happens at the 1:00 mark, they’re on the rail. Be warned, you might not want to watch if you’re easily upset or squeamish:

I also present this from Dan Ilman over at his Formblog. When a poster asked if anyone felt that Rose has become “the whippingboy” for racing needing to clean up it’s act (a fair question), Ilman replied with this:

I’ve been following Delaware this meet, and this isn’t the first time that Rose’s actions have come into question. On May 12, I was co-hosting the New York City OTB program with Peter Rotundo, and we noticed Rose tearing the hide off runner-up Chief Export with 100 yards to go, and no hope of winning the race.

If you go to calracing.com (free registration), and load up the May 12 race at Delaware, you’ll see what I mean. Chief Export is breaking from post two, and is program number three. He breaks slowly, and rushes into a tight spot on the inside turning for home. After checking and angling to the outside, he fails to run down win-machine Spooky Mulder. Rose has no chance to win in late stretch, but still gives Chief Export a good beating on his shoulder.

After the race, we called for his head on live TV, and in the wake of the Eight Belles incident, wondered how in the heck Rose could be allowed to ride in the Preakness later that week. I can understand his frustration over the bad trip, but the horse didn’t deserve the hiding.

At first, when I read the news item, I thought the punishment was enough, but after seeing the head on I’m starting to think perhaps it’s not enough… but what do you think?

Posted by dana on Jun 25 2008    
Filed Under: 2008, Industry, The Whip, Sarah K. Andrew, YouTube, Race Replay, Injury, Racing

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