Race 3 at Menangle tonight

[smithy]

The inference, mate...that's not too flash at all there Smithy.
In her defence, Flashing's without doubt one of the most objective observers there is around, be those involved mates or not so.

Watch the race in question and in particular closely watch the start.

At least 3 of the horses to the inside of Roman Stride shape up to get out of there quick, they all get right up on the gate and when the gate folds back they ALL leave for the front. Luke looks left, sees what is shaping up to happen to when they're released he takes off the gate & settles at the rear. There's your winning move right there. The first 100-150m of the race.

If instead Luke simply drives on with the horse so as to not fall foul of the Change Of Tactics rule, if instead he leaves hard along with those inside to make a line of 4 into the 1st turn... there's no question whatsoever that Roman Stride works double overtime to make the front and ultimately pays the price for doing so by running out of steam inside the final 16th, ending up in all likelyhood a beaten favourite.

The outcome? The Punters would have done their $$$ cold & the Owner would have missed out on a good prizemoney cheque but Luke would have complied with a continually more skewed interpretation of the Change of Tactics rule...and it should be noted this is THE VERY RULE that is in place and perports to protect the Punters in the first place.

Honestly...if that's not a huge WTF?????? then I don't know what is.

To further underline the ridiculous nature of this fine...is the fact that the decision Luke made was a WINNING DECISION!
He clearly took note of what was shaping up as the gate rolled, he snagged out of the early battle, sat back, made 1 late charge at them and HE WON THE RACE. The fav. saluted. The Punters cashed their tickets. The Owner would have been more than pleased. All is well.
It is not as though he snagged off the gate & buried the horse at the rear of the field & the proceeded to run it up every dry gully he could find & finish out of the placings, dudding the Punters & the Owner.

If this interpretation of the Change of Tactics rule is that which we can expect as par for the course in the future then IMO we are in some serious trouble. In fact, we may as well not have any races at all, we may as well flip over to those dreadful video horse racing terminal things as none of the drivers will ever feel free to make any last moment decisions to alter their approach in order to give their horse the best possible chance of winning the race.
On that score...please let be noted for the record, so there is absolutely no question about my view of it whatsoever... that is EXACTLY what Luke did with Roman Stride. He gave it the best possible chance to win the race and it did.

In light of all this it's also worth noting that there but for the grace of God go any one of us who takes a seat in the bike or owns or trains a horse & that's the reason why this whole thing has ticked me off like it has done.
Ask yourself what happens when your man unexpectedly has to change it up at the last moment due to circumstances beyond his control in order to give your horse the best possible chance of winning a race? Ask yourself what you'd think if he made that change, won the race & duly got fined for his troubles?

had no problems going forward to park outside big fella mach, did he drive him to get beaten that race then? because there was no horse in that field 5 lengths within the quality of big fella mach... so why wouldnt he have pushed forward before at large did? surely lukes knows his form and that explosive turk hands up and desteros also handed up his previous start