Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Das Boots, Chapter 52

Doug had a look at driver David Miller's reaction to being fined $750 for booting McWicked in a stakes race on Sunday.

“I realize that people are really down on this idea of “kicking” but it was worth every bit of the $750 fine"

That's a fancy way of saying, screw the rules for a gambling sport, they're not for me. 

We've gone through this before, and it's frankly pretty silly to be even talking about it any longer. The sport is paralyzed to do even the simplest of things like placing a horse when a driver cheats on it by kicking. It's had a leadership chasm forever.

But this little thing - a driver outside cheating, beats a driver inside who doesn't cheat sometimes taking betting money and another owner's money down with it - cuts right to the heart of the game. It makes people think this:
I know the sport's power structure is harvesting purse money until the slots run out; that's the sports' long term strategy and that's obvious. But it has to bother anyone who still cares about the game that people like David Miller can thumb his nose at it in such a cavalier fashion.

Enjoy your Tuesday everyone.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Miller should be sanctioned further as should Tetrick for his previous comments about this issue. If this were a professional sports league (NFL, MLB, NBA) what do you think would happen to the player or coach? Fine his arrogant butt 10x the original amount for conduct detrimental to the sport and it will stop in a heartbeat.

Anonymous said...

Miller's comments make harness racing look more hick than it already looks

Anonymous said...

Maybe on Friday's interview before the races at The Meadowlands, Sam McKee can defend David Miller and explain how it's not kicking, it's harmless nudging while David can just nod his head and agree with Sam.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully the "response" will be to alter the ridiculous "kicking" rules, since there is no actual "kicking" involved. And hopefully a bunch of blog writers will stop using that inappropriate term, which implies that the driver is "doing" something that he really is not. I doubt 1% of horsemen/drivers are opposed to a driver allowing a horse to bump into his foot in order to encourage him to try his best, and that clearly implies that the problem lies with the RULE, and not with the participants.

Anonymous said...

How did Walter Case get kicked out of racing for kicking if it's not kicking?

Newsflash: The Public thinks it's kicking. So it's kicking.

Anonymous said...

Newsflash: the "public" doesn't think it's "kicking", but a few blog authors don't seem to recognize that it isn't. The "public" that I know wants the horse they bet on to have every possible chance to win, and many couldn't care less if the driver used an icepick, as long as it made the horse go faster.

Another Newsflash: when 95+% of the industry has no problem whatsoever with allowing a horse to brush a hock against the driver's foot, maybe it's time to change the rule. And maybe it's time for people that want to write about the industry to be better educated about some of the things they write about.

Anonymous said...

"when 95+% of the industry has no problem whatsoever with allowing a horse to brush a hock against the driver's foot, maybe it's time to change the rule."

That is wrong. When 95% of the industry has no problem with it, it is time to change the industry.

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