6 Months for a Whip

Getting caught up a little bit. Sometimes our game is flat-out bizarre.

In the land of runners Jeremy Rose was suspended six months for whipping a horse in the face during a race at Delaware Park.

In the official ruling, Delaware Park stewards contended that Rose “engaged in extreme misuse of the whip during the stretch run while on the horse Appeal to the City.” John Wayne, executive director of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission, said the horse experienced some hemorrhaging around its eye due to contact with Rose’s whip.

Appeal to the City, a 5-year-old daughter of Appealing Skier, was initially examined by commission veterinarian John Peters, after which she was taken to the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center for treatment. Wayne said though the injuries were serious, he believed the mare would be OK and would not lose her eyesight.

The stewards' ruling also stated that Rose would be responsible for all veterinarian bills for the care and treatment required for Appeal to the City. Rose is required to attend and complete an anger management course to be approved in advance by the stewards at their sole discretion within the next six months.

Here is the Youtube video of the incident. Watch for the zig-zagging horse in the lane.

Usually I have some disagreement with penalties in our game - in the words of someone I respect, we give out harsh punishment for innocent mistakes, but don't nearly do enough for intentional misdeeds. This time I think it is right on, however, simply because the intention does not matter. You can bully another rider and get a couple of days, you can misjudge a finish line and get a couple of days, you can swear at a racing judge and get a couple of days......... but for God's sake do not whip a horse in the face and expect less than an extended holiday. Jeremy Rose says this was not intentional. I believe him. The trainer of the horse in question believes him. Regardless it is one of those incidents where we have to make sure jockey's and driver's realize that they have to take care of the whip. The game is not big enough to withstand incidents like this. The public - simply put - hates it.

Notes:

Valerie at one of our fave blogs Foolish Pleasure lets us in on a story about standardbreds. A movie about a harness horse is in production called Shannon's Rainbow. We need all the good stories we can get. Horses provide us with that. I am a sucker for horse movies. Valerie has a great post up about the Dutrow and Asmussen positives, as well that is worth reading. She is a good writer. I have an opine on that as well and will get a post up soon.

Art Official won the Hoosier Cup Saturday, easily defeating a decent field of 3yo's. As you know, we like this horse and think that in any other year he would be a star. I am not sold on this being a great crop of 3yo's by the way. We'll see later in the year if that prognostication is right or wrong.

Our local cable channel up here in the frozen north covers a great many races. And they do a pretty good job. We posted the video from Somebeachsomewhere's North America Cup win from the track feed, but now here is the feed from The Score. Nice piece of work, good sound and some good camera angles.