British Stewards - Your views ?

[stewartd14]

A bit of a discussion toipic and it might be worth putting one of these up every few weeks to give those that are interested in the sport a chance to air there views on crucial topics on racing. This topic is on the back of Nicky Mackays ride on Bethany's Boy at Southwell today where he looked right 3 times coming up the home straight. A horse senaked up on his left and he didnt see it until it was a couple of lengths clear. Yet, he got let off for it with no ban. See the Southwell thread for more details. This brings me onto the question: What do you think of British stewards ? Do you think we should be more like the Irish, French and US stewards and overturn the result more often if there is interferance. Sometimes there are weird decisions but just as bad as across here. Everyone please feel free to air your views on the topic, obviously everyone will have different views as there are positives and negatives either way.

[BillyHills]

Re: British Stewards - Your views ? My opinion for what its worth is that here in Britain we have it about right, everyone knows its not perfect but how can you make so many rules fit in a sport that every single race is different. I fully agree that the way we have changed it to benefit the horse, i think we were throwing out too many winners, now whether we have gone to far is another question, but you cant have it always, i prefer to see the jocks take the ban, fine or whatever and the horse keep the race. Todays incident is just one of a few over the last month or so, i felt sorry for Dennis O'Regan the other week when rode a finish a circuit too early but then again i didnt have my mortgage on it like some did, with so many races and so many rides they will make mistakes, its inevitable. Unfortunately many talk through their pocket and voice opinions because its cost them and i dont blame them for that, you have to understand that their 'job', and thats what it is at the end of the day, is scrutinised more than ever with the wall to wall coverage we get compared with say 10 years ago. I think if you choose to participate in this great sport and risk your hard earned cash then you also have to understand that just now and again a mistake will happen and it may cost you, on the other hand it may benefit you. On the whole the Stewards job is not easy and they have the technology to see it from all angles and talk to those concerned, i'm happy that they make the right decisions most of the time and i'll settle for that, if not then we will go down the path of the no common sense approach of the Americans where they throw horses out for minor infringements all the time, the horse suffers and so do the punters.