An Accident waiting to Happen

This trend to American style driving has me wondering if the officials have agreed to it.
It does not seem so long ago D Binskin was in trouble for leaning out of the cart.
Today at Menangle race 4 http://www.harnessmediacentre.com.au.../replays/18841, young Todd McCarthy was near horizontal approaching the home turn, removed his leg from the foot rest to release the ear plugs. In the straight, was semi upright to apply the whip, then down again as the horse drifted out.
IMO we race to tight to allow this style, the back straight vision shows his head a metre beyond the seat.
Must be an accident waiting to happen.

Rule 170 (2) A driver shall not drive in a race with part of the drivers body protruding beyond the sulky.

There is the rule Bailey, it seems to me it either needs updating or policing, personaly I'd prefer to see the latter.

Could this style under our conditions lead to a stewards decision needed on the following:
1) Horse behind starts to over race and makes contact with the driver of the horse in front.....Who gets charged?
2) Horse behind, having to race a metre further back, as against hard on leaders back, gets beaten a head....can he protest?

Whole range of issues with this driving style Bailey but the big issue is, What happens to the driver leaning back in the cart if he happens to break some gear?? There's only one direction the driver can go, Straight out the back of the cart and it's a position I wouldn't like to be in with a horse right on your hammer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by p plater

Could this style under our conditions lead to a stewards decision needed on the following:
1) Horse behind starts to over race and makes contact with the driver of the horse in front.....Who gets charged?
2) Horse behind, having to race a metre further back, as against hard on leaders back, gets beaten a head....can he protest?

Besides OH&S, the scenario of multiple drivers laying back illegally means a horse making a run from the tail of the field might need to make up an extra two, three, four metres...a length or more. A big distance considering the number of times a winning margin is only a head or neck. Protest, but won't do any good if the winner didn't lean back.

It also makes it harder to push out if your stuck in behind someone driving like that.

and Tetrick style looks bloody ridiculous

CJ Gleeson was doing this 20 years ago. Victoria regularly pulled this up until recently, noting drivers must stay within the confines of the cart.