I'm pretty certain that Chris Paul was in the chair out there today. That being the case, Old Mate is stuffed. May as well throw himself on the mercy of the court and hope for 6 months.
Are the fines handed out for drivers that drive like he did to soft, and not enough of a deterrent?
Congratulations go to the trainer and drivers for their display at a time when the spot light is not in their direction.
I'm pretty certain that Chris Paul was in the chair out there today. That being the case, Old Mate is stuffed. May as well throw himself on the mercy of the court and hope for 6 months.
Just watched this race with my brother who has never had a bet on a race.
Me " Watch this race and see if you notice anything"
Brother " Okay !"
We watched the race in silence,after race.
Brother " Second horse could have won but the driver stopped driving"
Pretty obvious !
Got to admit I look forward to the explanation, the harness equivalent of my dog ate my homework !
Let me see as far as excuses ? Driver has RSI in wrist ? Lost track of number of times he hit the horse and did not want a fine ? Horse was giving his all without the whip ? Was concerned the horse would resent the whip !
Last edited by Shawshank Redemption; 09-21-2011 at 10:00 PM.
VVV
I you have mentioned it before at Bankstown but that horse is always driven pretty tuff ,to my understanding at the direction of the connections.
So while you may be right it might not have been a drive of his choice and in fact if he stayed back out of the race might have also cooped a blast for driving away from the preferred tactics. I have not checked this out by the way it is an opinion based on former facts I am aware of.
Thevoiceofreason : Sounds like a John Farnham compilation.
What did you make of todays race ?
Now that is what i call a nice deaden his only concern in the straight was if something come down the outside he would have to drive it to win if the winner looked in danger from anything else.
One of my favorites is " If you have nothing intelligent to add than add nothing" I agree with all that has been said.
One thing of interest there was a similar case in the gallops in Queensland recently the jock got 2 years later downgraded 18 months on appeal rode it perfect then forgot to ride it out to the finish it ran second.
The main reason the penalty was so high was the stewards were confident they had linked him by phone records to a big punter who had lay the horse big and backed the dangers.
The punter got 3 years but was exonerated on appeal only last week.... go figure.
I had a look at last weeks drive there was not a snowballs hope in hell the stewards could have placed a charge there.
Under our current rules as I have explained before to breach 149 the decision of the driver has to be unreasonable at the time it was madet and last week while it looked bad it would not have been considered unreasonable by any judge.
If you guys have time read some of the decisions of the judges you will understand how tuff it can be making charges stick some one once likened it to pushing rope up hill ... pretty accurate.
Any reason why they cannot hire a full time form analyst that can provide a highly educated assessment of each race.This must cost a fortune in turnover as punters shy away from betting knowing that this crap happens.
They allow expert testimony in court cases so whats wrong with an expert form analyst working with the stewards ?