2019 Galloping Triple Crown thread

pipe down, your highness

 

I kind of have the same question. You have 20 animals that weigh a ton each, all running 30 mph or so in close quarters, and they aren't allowed to ever bump into each other? It seems like this would happen in most races, if not every race. Why was it suddenly a big deal in this one? And in this case, was there even contact at all? And if impeding is a DQ-able offense, shouldn't it have to be deemed intentional, which it's hard to believe this was, since the horse has no rear-view mirror and there's no way the jockey knew he was moving into another horse's path? Asking all this out of pure ignorance of racing. Like most, this is the only horse race I ever watch.

 

I guess I'm unsure about when the "stay in your lane" edict kicks in. Only when another horse is close by?

These horses do not run 20-wide for the entire race. They always bunch. Typically toward the rail. Therefore, they are not staying in their lanes.

 

I deleted my comment before I realized there were replies.

It’s dangerous to cut in front of a runner in an elementary school track meet, let alone horse racing. These athletes are a lot faster and a lot heavier. And harder to control than, say, a race car or your own body.

I thought it was common sense. Maybe not.

 

No doubt it's dangerous, but in a track meet the lanes are defined, except in distance races. People cut each other off all the time there, and as long as there is no contact, there's usually no beef. Horse races, as you said, have no lanes. And if you're on a horse, leading a race, are you looking behind you ever or just pounding the whip and focusing on the finish line? The horse certainly isn't looking back to see who's there.

 

They are horses, not athletes.

 

They are a highly specialized form of horse bred for centuries to be athletes and trained to be so from almost infancy.

 

I argued against the DQ earlier in the thread. I've seen other replays since then and I was wrong -- it was a clear DQ. The horse veered badly into the path of other horses.

To those asking why that's an issue -- it's incredibly dangerous. He went right across the front legs of the other horses. If he clips those legs that trailing horse is going down, and you've got a pile of dead horses and badly injured riders.

Inquiries like this do happen all of the time -- just not in the biggest races.

 

Oh bullshit. My cat has a higher vertical than Michael Jordan did, not an athlete, an animal.

 

Then think of the men and women riding half a ton of horseflesh traveling at 40 miles an hour in a pack like that on a sloppy track. And the risks are the same in the Kentucky Derby as they are in a maiden claiming race on a Tuesday afternoon. Pound for pound jockeys have to be among the toughest and strongest athletes in the world.

 

Ok, they are humans at least.