A brief note to wish Michael Forte well. Forte was hurt in an accident at Monticello Raceway yesterday where there was a five horse pile up. Michael was sent flying and after he landed he got run over by the trailing horses. Amazingly the five horse escaped unscathed (could you imagine if this happened with the runners?) and only Michael was seriously hurt. Hopefully, he will recover quickly. Our best wishes go out to him.
The press release indicated three horses finished the race and it was declared official. EXCUSE ME? Two horses were loose on the track and running the other way. Fortunately they were caught before the field headed back into the backstretch the second time, but what if they were not caught? There have been cases of horses running into each other causing serious injury and fatalities to the horses and the potential exists for serious injury to the drivers.
Accidents unfortunately are part of harness racing. That being said, are we and the gamblers that heartless that we continue the race even if it means possibly putting the drivers and horses in danger? I think not. The rules need to be change regarding races continuing when there is an accident. I am not saying races should stop in all cases, but certainly in the case of a horse running in the opposite direction. I propose the following rule change:
In the event a horse gets loose during the running of a race and runs in the opposite direction of the race and the potential exists for the field to come into contact with the loose horse during the race, the drivers will be instructed to immediately pull their horses up and the race will be declared 'no contest' and all wagers will be refunded. If less than a half mile of the race has been run, the race will be re-run after the last race on the card. If there was an accident during the running of the race, any horses involved in the accident will be examined by a vet and as appropriate will be scratched from the restart. The race may be run for purse money only or the the track may offer wagering on the race at their discretion.
Update: It is reported that Michael Forte's injuries are not as bad as originally feared. He suffered a broken collarbone and cracked ribs. We wish him a speedy recovery.
7 comments:
Could not agree more --- how can this race be called a fair contest? Refunding all wagers is the only fair thing to do who cares what it costs the track???? It makes for angry bettors.
Cool World,
It's not even a question of angry bettors, though you will have some either way. I am sure the bettors who had the winner or trifecta in this accident marred race would have been mighty annoyed if the race was declared 'no contest'.
There is a fine line as to when a race should be called 'no contest'. Does a two horse pile up at the back of the field require a no start? I would say no. That being said, how bad does an accident need to be to cause a no contest?
That being said, I think in a case where a horse gets loose and is heading in the opposite direction, it should be a no brainer. They may catch the horse in time or they might not; the safety of those horses remaining need to be protected. I do agree, the thought of refunding the wagers is not appealing to the racetracks. That is why I proposed adding the race to the end of the card in order to be fair to the horsemen that entered horses in the race and gives the track an opportunity to recoup as much of the money as possible.
They should almost implement "red and green lights" in each corner of the track in order to allow drivers to become aware if their is a potential problem? I would assume incidents like this are few and far between, but NASCAR has them for this exact reason. For example: A harness driver seeing a "red" light means the race is done, pull your horses to the extreme outside rail and maintain caution. A "green" light obviously means all things are a go?
Extended pari-mutuel tracks are required to have flashing red lights which go on anytime there is an accident or a loose horse on the track during a race as a warning. Perhaps a solid red light can be used indicate stop.
I think that racing again after the final race is a poor idea. The "survivors" may be traumatized, the field short, and the potential for betting, if any, reduced, since it is inconceivable that any offtrack outlet could offer betting. The track should "take it on the chin" and divide the purse equally among the original starters. In this way, owners have a chance to cover at least some of shipping and paddocking costs.
How could you stop the race? You could pull them up but that would be pointless. I think that the races should continue.
Takes for example a quarter horse race. If a horse crashes out of the gate, how are you going to stop the rest of them? They're going 50 miles per hour, so you might as well continue.
Anon,
In this particular case things worked out OK, the outrider was able to catch the horse going the wrong way. My question to you is what would have happened if the outrider could not get the horse (they don't always get them the first time) and you had a runaway horse heading out of control right into the oncoming field? What would be the result of a head on collision? It would not be pretty. Odds are there would be one or two dead horses (either immediate or due to catastrophic injury) and who knows what would happen to any driver involved.
If you note, I am not saying stop a race if a loose horse is going the same direction of the field or even if there is a pile up; the horse will run with the pack and they drivers can maneuver around the pile up. I am only saying we should stop the race in the event of a runaway horse going the opposite way.
With runners, there are many cases of horses dying due to a runaway horse collision (just google horse dies collision). With quarter horses, the races are short and on a straight away (98%) of the time so it would not apply to them. Trotters don't run as fast and there would have been plenty of time to pull them up.
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