Check the Tote Board before ruling on the Protest
What an absolute bloody joke this one is.
Race 4 at Melton this evening.
The decision to dismiss would have had nothing to do with a $1.10 shot hanging up the track and clipping the fast finishing $16+ horse...nah, never...perish the thought.
You stuffed that one up very nicely HRV Stewards. S-H-O-C-K-E-R!
Perhaps a check of 'Best Tote' before signalling All-Clear?
You can bet your left & right Cojones that if the positions were reversed and it was the $16+ shot that drifted late & hampered the $1.10 shot rolling home then the protest would have been UPHELD. No risk at all. As good a wager as the Sun rising in the East.
Generally speaking, it has never ceased to amaze me how many horses will hang or drift INTO the path of a challenger coming at them from the rear, be it either to their inside or to their outside. How many ever go the other way?
How many have you seen drift away and open up the lane like Moses parting the Red Sea?
If the Stewards are not prepared to uphold a protest under those circumstances then they may as well do away with the right to protest altogther...because that dismissal made an absolute mockery of the process.
Derryn Hinch said it best. Shame. Shame. Shame.