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Sunday, May 22, 2005

And Furthermore...

Bill Handleman of the Asbury Park Press compares the Preakness to Alysheba's 1987 Derby:

This was not Alysheba in the 1987 Derby, when Bet Twice came over on him and dropped him to his knees. While he showed the same kind of athleticism as Afleet Alex, Alysheba's situation was far less perilous. He and Bet Twice had run off from the rest of the field by the time the incident occurred in mid-stretch.

Had Alysheba gone down, Chris McCarron would not really have been in danger of getting trampled, because it was three lengths back to the next horse. Jeremy Rose was definitely in harm's way. There were horses behind him, spinning out of the turn, building momentum.
Paul Moran of Newsday speculates about possible stewards' action against Scrappy T's jockey, echoing comments here by reader ‘thecalicocat’:
The last lingering issue to be settled remains in the hands of the Maryland stewards, who are expected to impose a stiff suspension upon [Ramon] Dominguez, whose decision to apply a particularly stern lefthanded blow to the side of Scrappy T as he was emerging from the turn caused the incident and imperiled two horses and Rose.
Scrappy T bore out during his prior race, the Withers as well.

1 Comment:

Anonymous said...

I feel like I am in the minority, for sure, but I don't hold anything against Dominguez.

Scrappy T appeared overwhelmingly distracted...he'd never faced a crowd this size, and he just seemed green. Dominguez obviously was trying to get Scrappy T to focus. Sadly, it had the opposite effect. I am sure Dominguez feels terrible about the result, but relieved that no one was hurt.

As they say, "that's racing".