A View In Favor of Jimmy Takter

As you may recall, I mentioned some individuals think Jimmy Takter is being unfairly blamed for his drive in the Dancer Memorial this past Saturday.

Here is a view from a racing insider which I want to share.  mind you,  this is their opinion, not mine.

I have watched the race a few times now. If a track has a no holes policy, which the Meadowlands does at Gural’s request, what was wrong with the race?

First, you have a breaking horse inside that causes some confusion. Brian could have let Jimmy in but he quickly shut that hole off. But Brian could have easily stayed outside, which his pretty much what every driver in the Meadowlands Pace did.

Takter is driving a 102-1 shot, so what he is now supposed to do? Burn up his horse trying for the lead? I don’t think so. The only thing he could possibly do is to rate the horse on the outside in the best spot he could, and that’s what he did. Even if he moved up forward, Yannick is right behind and Brian doesn’t get out anyway.

This is much ado about nothing and I hope there are no sanctions.

If you remember, the New Jersey Commission tried to invoke that rule where a trainer can’t drive in a race where he has another horse, and Smedshammer and Schnittker, who were the ones involved, went nuts and the commission backed off. Pennsylvania had that rule at one time and it has since been rescinded, from what I’ve learned.