Quote Originally Posted by Chariots View Post
You cannot compare the Butt and Hall drives as when Butt had the opportunity to push out it was prior to the designated ease out pole and he would definitely have been suspended for doing so. The Hall/Lewis incident was after the pole and Lewis endeavoured to hold his position but Hall had the momentum and the superior speed. The only suspension possibility was if jostling was involved and they appeared to be equally complicit in this regard.

As mentioned previously the clever thing for Lewis to have done was to have his horses legs outside the three wide horse thus closing any gap for Hall. dasher VC is not the best gated horse going around either and it was not surprising to see him pace roughly when pressure was applied. This is Grand Circuit racing at the highest level and you can expect similar moves in the rest of the heats and the final. Pretty much any outward movement after the 600m is permissible provided you have an advantage on the outside horse.
Would love to have this rule clarified, and, can fair play say the reason the rule came into existence is so horses who need a run can push out when....A HORSE ON ITS OUTSIDE IS GONZO! UNDER THE WHIP! STRUGGLING! ETC...
From what i saw as i first said in the opening post, Dasher was all dressed up and ready to go, ready to pull 3 wide, HOWEVER, cleverly his driver was also keeping ITMQ pocketed for as long as possible, thats called race tactics!!! Hence Hall had no right to nearly cause Dasher to gallop/fall/get injured/lose money/lose points etc.
So Chariots you say "Pretty much any outward movement after the 600m is permissible provided you have an advantage on the outside horse."
I feel he did not have an advantage, he should get a holiday, hes got time for doing it before and not to mention when someone did wrong by him in a race last year he got time for hitting that driver with his whip after they crossed the line!!! Theres the character of the man...
Cant wait for stewards report.