John Veitch, chief steward of Kentucky Racing discussed this particular ruling in depth. In several jurisdictions(NY and KY included) the stewards are empowered to make judgement calls, in other places a foul is an automatic DQ period!.

The ruling in this case was that in the judgement of the NY stewards, the horse that was fouled, #3, would not have finished better than he did and therefore the infraction by the winner was deemed "insufficient"to DQ him.

If you watch the reply carefully it is fairly evident that the winner would have won without the bump and the three would have been 4th.Given the discertionary power, it was not a terrible call.Unlike the days of old( I too remember Yonkers being torched) players today just yell and scream, don't see fires anymore, ahhh the good old days.


Mike