Maryland Stewards “Clueless”
Paul Moran is ferocious in his indictment of the Maryland stewards for ruling that jockey Ramon Dominguez was not at fault in the incident at the top of in the stretch in the Preakness, when Scrappy T reacted to being struck on the left by veering sharply to the right and running into Afleet Alex:
The beauty of being a steward in Maryland is that people are paying attention only one day a year. So, rather than concern themselves with suspensions, hearings and appeals, the Pimlico stewards decided Dominguez would be held blameless for the incident and that there would be no suspension for careless riding. Obviously, they determined that delineation exists between careless and incompetent and that incompetence is within the rules.
Had Afleet Alex fallen, had jockey Jeremy Rose been left face down in the dirt and carried off the racetrack, had Dominguez left a pile of fallen horses in his wake, would he have been held blameless? Is he exonerated by perhaps the most amazing recovery by horse and rider in Triple Crown history? Is Dominguez’s responsibility erased by the heroic efforts of the horse and rider he came one gush of adrenaline and one instinctive athletic reaction in the face of sheer terror away from putting on the ground in the path of a dozen large, hooved animals?
Dominguez should have been handed a suspension long enough to flirt with his eligibility for Social Security, and the failure of the Maryland stewards is a ludicrous abdication of responsibility. (Newsday)
Jay Hovdey takes a more measured tone: “There was nothing in the rules or guidelines used by Pimlico’s stewards that holds anyone accountable for what happened in the Preakness. But there should be.” (Daily Racing Form — sub. req.)
