Paul Lo Duca on the 'Belmont Live' telecast on the MSG network supplied the word I was searching for: savaging. This is when a horse leans over and tries to take a bite out of the horse running next to it. This happened as the two front-runners down the stretch, Firenze Fire and the runner-up Whereshetoldmetogo ('Where she told me to go' with no spaces), were dueling their way to the wire. Inside the sixteenth pole Whereshetoldmetogo reaches over to their left and tries to take a bite out of Firenze Fire and Irad Ortiz's Jr's right arm. Neither horse loses momentum, and Firenze Fire and Irad finish first by a neck—uninjured. An inquiry leaves the order of finish as it stood,
Barbara Livingston's photo of the race will now be deemed a classic. Barbara is the venerable Daily Racing Form photographer and has been taking incredible photos for decades. She usually patrols NYRA tracks with armloads of cameras, but because of the stakes loaded card at Parx on Saturday, she made an easy trip to the Bensalem track that is outside of Philadelphia.
I've been to Parx twice. Their winner's circle looks like a huge fire pit, enclosed by a very low brick wall that can easily be stepped over. On Saturday, the added attraction in the Stonehenge circle was the sparkling Maggie Wolfendale, the NYRA paddock reporter who also made the trip to Bensalem for the stakes-loaded card. She stood there making her pre-race comments on the entrants to the 'Belmont Live' audience.
Parx is an accessible track, the old Philadelphia Park, a mile oval, with a turf course. It would be hard to get lost at Parx.
It adjoins a casino, so it sits as a centerpiece for gambling. My two visits coincided with my wife's knee replacement surgeries a few years ago at Rothman Institute just across the road. A stay of a few days was required, and I was there to probably be annoying. Once the surgery was successful and recuperation was going well, I got out of the way by crossing the street and pursuing a favorite pastime. Winning made the visits even more memorable, and now her knees feel fine.
Savaging does happen, but rarely. I was surprised that no one on MSG's broadcast related Whereshetoldmetogo with Mike Tyson famously biting Evander Holyfield's ear—twice—in a 1997 fight. Tyson was disqualified, and there's a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear now missing. The trainer Teddy Atlas even predicted during training that Tyson might bite Holyfield if he started to look bad. And he did start to look bad and was losing when Iron Mike turned into Biting Mike.
So, something was bothering Whereshetoldmetogo as he tried to get past Firenze Fire. Stretch duels are close quarter, nose-to-nose tug-of-wars, with each jockey trying to prod their horse past the other one. In Saturday's instance, Whereshetoldmetogo got directly involved and became a quadruped Moby Dick, even trying to swallow his rival jockey's arm.
The famous photo of savaging that I was thinking of is Bob Coglianese's 1980 of the Tremont Stakes at Belmont when Great Prospector tried to take a chunk out of Golden Derby. Golden Derby won the race. Bob was the NYRA photographer. His son Adam fills in that role now and once mentioned to the racing journalist Ray Paulick that he's sold more photos of 'The Savage' than he has of Secretariat. And he almost threw the photo out because he felt the rail got in the way of the photo. The photo won his father an Eclipse award. Barbara Livingston's photo is likely to be anointed as well.
And as if that 9th race at Parx wasn't enough, the 10th race added to the uniqueness of the day, The main event in a stakes-loaded card was the $1,000,000 Cotillion Stakes for three year old fillies, a field loaded with multiple stakes winners Monomoy Girl, the clear division leader, Midnight Bisou and Wonder Gadot.
Monomoy Girl was the heavy favorite throughout the betting, going off at 1-2, 50¢ to the dollar. When a horse like Monomoy Girl shows up with the record she has going into the race she is accorded near certainty in the betting, and becomes the "key" or "single" in vertical and horizontal (multi-leg) betting. She is assumed to be the first place finisher, and bets are made figuring along those lines. But, this is horse racing, and that's why they run the race.
The race unfolds fairly unremarkable, with Momomoy Girl looking like she's going to cruise to an effortless win. But Midnight Bisou ridden by Mike Smith is in the game and goes from the inside
of Monomoy Girl to the outside of her in the stretch and starts to pick up ground. What looked like a romp in the making has now turned into a heart-stopping close quarter finish, with Midnight Bisou hugging Monomoy Girl right side, trying to get past her.
The race announcer Keith Jones's call starts to reflect the frantic finish, But try as she might, Midnight Bisou cannot get past Monomoy Girl and Flornet Geroux. Monomoy Girl Girl finishes first by a neck with Keith Jones calling for her coronation.
Well, not so fast. Horse racing is not a presidential election, but the finish of the Cotillion takes starts to take on airs of the 2000 Bush-Gore election. George Bush won. Or did he?
A claim of foul is lodged against Florent Geroux by Mike Smith for stretch interference. To me it is positively amazing what you do not see in what they call the "pan" shot, or the view of the race you get as it flows past you left to right. You clearly do not see the depth dimension that exists as the race is run. The head-on shot is the tell-all view of the race. And it is now used to assess the claim of foul. Did Monomoy Girl l and its rider interfere with Midnight Bisou and prevent them him from passing them. Was there "herding," a subtle change of course that impeded the effort to pass?
Think of being a commuter who edges someone out of your way to establish position in getting to the escalator or staircase. The clubhouse turn. When I was commuting daily on the No. 7 subway train I usually had the door position in the car as the train pulled into Grand Central. I used to hold my fingers on the rubber of the doors and at the first instance of their separating I would start my move to get through the doors and try and be first on the platform to get a good brisk walk to the staircase before everyone else got there and clogged it up.
I pretended the doors were a starting gate and I was a horse and jockey and I was bursting from the gate. I always looked left toward the stairs to see how I did against the other riders. I was a good "gate" commuter. I was Johnny Ruane,
The interesting thing about the end of the Cotillion Stakes was that there was no steward's inquiry. A steward's inquiry always sends a signal to the crowd that a review of the race will be made. Please hold all tickets. The race is not official. Jockey and trainer claims of foul that follow are on top of the steward's inquiry.
In this instance Mike Smith claimed foul against Florent Geroux for stretch interference. This was rich since Mike Smith benefited from a ruling of no foul when he rode Abel Tasman to victory in the Personal Ensign at Saratoga and was thought to have interfered with Elate and Jose Ortiz, who claimed foul.
When there is a claim of foul or an inquiry there is a good deal of milling around. There are two horses and riders who are waiting to be moved in the winner's circle for the photo. There are two sets of connections, owners and trainers who are waiting to see if they're in the photo or not.
The 'Belmont Live' broadcast offered multiple repeats of the head-on where it is clear that Florent Geroux moved significant paths to his right, with the result being it made Midnight Biou's task of getting past even harder. Interference. A judgment call.
The trio of 'Belmont Live' announcers offered their opinions on the sequence. "Race riding there's nothing wrong with that." "Clearly moved over, but would Midnight Bisou have gotten past...would the order of finish have been any different if paths weren't moved into?"
And on it went. Until, the lights stopped blinking on the tote board (at Parx, the old bulb tote that I love). The numbers 2 and 7 go out, and are reposted as 7 and 2. Midnight Bisou, at $4.20 to $1.00 is declared the winner.
This changes things A LOT. An odds-on winning favorite has been moved to second place. Lots of "single" and "key" bets are washed away. This is not popular. Apparently, Mike Smith is roundly booed as he moves into the winner's circle. Someone tweeted that you have to remember Philly fans threw snowballs at Santa Claus at a football game. They are merciless.
A co-owner of both Midnight Bisou and Monomoy Girl, Sol Kumin, gets to stay in the winner's circle. He remarks that the Monomoy Girl partners will now probably see him as the enemy and spike his drink.
Anytime there is change of order there are disgruntled fans. I always remember the vocal NYRA crowds (when there were crowds) who would start yelling to no one in particular that the stewards had a bet on the horse...the track makes more money now (a complete fallacy). In Philly, a different crowd started vocalizing the same thing.
Anthony Stabile, one of the 'Belmont Live' broadcasters said while the stewards was reviewing the Cotillion that "herding" is some racing jurisdictions is okay. I remember seeing the replay of the 1968 Jersey Derby when Manny Ycaza, who just recently passed away, was DQd for herding three horses (the field was four horses) on the clubhouse turn as he rode the great Dr. Fager. The good Doctor was 3-10 that day, and was DQd and placed 4th, last, behind all the horses he fouled. Herding wasn't allowed then. If there were bridge jumpers with massive show wagers on Dr. Fager they made a big splash that day.
Manny Ycaza was an extremely aggressive Panamanian rider who was DQd often and suspended often. After the Jersey Derby he never rode Dr. Fager again. You never knew with Manny what kind of ride he was going to give. The result might stand. It might not.
In 1968 there wasn't even exacta wagering, so the movement of Dr, Fager to last only affected the win, place and show wagering. The only exotic wager of that era was the Daily Double, picking the winners of the first two races. Boy, what the computer allows now.
I have to say, without a newspaper other than the Daily Racing Form reporting racing these days, I don't get to know all I would like to know. It seems to me that jockeys are not suspended like they used to be for riding infractions. I remember they once were going to suspend Eddie Arcaro for life.
The phrase being called out onto the carpet comes from the old custom at England's Newmarket race course where an offending jockey had to stand on a square of carpet as he stood in front of the stewards to hear their ruling.
There were plenty of NYRA jockeys in the 60s and 70s who were "sent down" for anywhere from 5-15 days for rough riding, or interference. Angel Cordero spent many days "on the ground."
The advantage there is today is that there are plenty of camera angles that can show the infraction. I distinctly remember being at Aqueduct on a Saturday in the 70s when Cordero's Windjammer was taken down. The ruling was not popular, and wasn't supported by the technology available today. There was almost a riot with trash cans being thrown on the track. I kicked one quite vigorously myself several times, but didn't lift it up,
It's never just been Philly fans who get mad.
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