Was the drive on Chilli Palmer acceptable?

[Messenger]

First of all, it clearly is in the eyes of the stewards for I am not talking about causing interference but rather the decision to stay 3fence and that does not rate a mention in the Stewards Report

I am wrestling with this one a bit. The broader/industry issue is whether a horse's odds should have anything to do with how it is driven. I guess the answer should be - if a horse is driven in the manner that it is usually driven then punters are at fault if they have not built this into the horse's odds.
Some would argue that if a horse is favourite then consensus is that it is in better form/has more ability than most of the other runners. It can be ridiculous however if we say that Zac Phillips drive is OK if Chilli is the outsider of the field but not OK if he is favourite.

I know that Chilli likes a sit but I think it is possible that Zac could have got one by coming off the fence and hanging back in the death to see if he could have coaxed someone to come around him. It was not a given but the alternative we are talking about is being 3fence in a 7 horse field on a track with no sprint lane - it does not get much worse than that but that is what he elected to accept.

I guess I am wrestling with it because we do get labelled the Red Hots and we cannot simply accept that if we are to maintain/improve market share

(Rest assured - I am not talking through my pocket as I rarely bet even when I go to the track)

http://www.harness.org.au/meeting-re...sw#PCM03091602

[KTQ]

cant help you with your dilemma sorry Kev - I just came here to say that the east coast's Stewards Comments are long and intense and maybe they should have some consistency across the country.