Lousy Monsoon Weather

Due to high intense heat and blowing winds, dust, and high humidity I stayed home today.  I would not budge from an air conditioned apartment.  Just too darn hot and miserable!

So I watched horseracing from Arlington Park, Illinois.  Arlington Park is a suburb of Chicago, and has had a week of festivities climaxed with its Million Dollar race day.  I had wanted to bet these races, but I could not come up with a plan suitable so I ended up dodging it.  Probably best that I did, even though I did pick pretty well on a pick 6 plan.  Can never be sure that I would have bet the horses that did win since when push comes to shove, I often change my mind and do dumb things...so who is to know?  But for the most part, the horses that I believed would win pretty much did.

A controversy on a horse from South Africa called The Apache ruined the entire day for me though. I had believed this horse would win due to its trainer, Michael de Kock.  I had heard him explain his horses to an interviewer for the Dubai World Cup and I liked him so much I trusted his word so I believed that The Apache would be the winner.

He did win but there was an incident at the end of the race which disqualified him. I am a bit annoyed at the call.  It is hard to tell if the horses did touch or not.  The Apache does veer in towards the horse that is coming from behind.  The stewards decided to reward the horse that placed but clearly the real winner is The Apache.  Winning by disqualification is not a real win in my opinion, and it annoys me that this horse gets into the Breeders Cup instead of the real winner.

The jockey of The Apache will probably be blamed but in truth he has protested the decision also, saying that his horse was afraid of the screen. I do not know what means.  Had The Apache stayed running straight ahead he would have won by a greater margin than he had.  He clearly is the better of the two horses, but each race has to be judged on its own merits.  The horse that was declared the winner will have other chances to prove how good he is or is not, but whether it will be with the challenge of The Apache is more than I can know.  I do not know if a horse shipped from South Africa will want to do it twice if such bad luck as this happens to it.

Personally, I believe that the bumping incident should be proved.  I did see the front view that the cameras show but I did not see that they touched.  Just being close is not a bump.  But then I am not the owner or the trainer of The Apache, but I am a gambler who wants the truth and the proof.