Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem, Oct. 17, 2024

A good Thursday morning to you all! Last column for me here in Washington and it’s been so nice to get to spend the last month here with my family and friends. I’m happy with the life I’m building on the East Coast, but a big piece of my heart will always be here in the Pacific Northwest. Feeling very grateful to have gotten to spend this time out here. 

OK, enough touchy-feely stuff. The big talk on social media on Wednesday was about Keeneland’s final race, where jockey Luan Machado had the race all but won on the #9 Ultimate Strike before mistakenly starting to pull the horse up at the sixteenth pole, instead of the finish line. He eventually was run down in the last jumps by #7 Gotta Have Dreams, who got up by a neck. I can’t imagine having a big ticket to Ultimate Strike, or owning the horse, as that had to have been maybe the most frustrating sixteenth of a mile you’ve ever watched. 

Immediately people started reacting to what had happened, and everyone was rightfully upset. It was a huge mistake on the rider's part. We’ve seen this happen before many times at many tracks and for some reason a number of tracks still employ these alternate finish lines. I just don’t understand it. The tracks themselves bring this into play when they use these alternate finish lines, and to me there’s no need for them. Just run races that correspond with the size and shape of your track. We have too many 1 1/16-mile or mile and 70-yard races as it is; we should be encouraging more 1 1/8-mile races among dirt routers. 

Most reactions I saw online immediately were calling for large fines or very long suspensions. I think the longest I saw someone suggest was a year, but most of the suggestions seemed to range from 30 days to six months. Racing punishments tend to land on the less severe side than I think most people expect, but every once in a while you’ll see one handed down that seems super severe. Someone on Twitter said that the great Bill Shoemaker got 15 days when he misjudged the wire in the Kentucky Derby. I saw another article where Joel Rosario just got a small fine for doing it at Oaklawn. Keeneland has had this happen before, so I’m sure there’s some precedent. By the end of the day, it did seem like online the emotions were calming down a bit. 

To me, the rider clearly made a mistake. I don’t think he was cheating and I don’t think he did it intentionally. Riding overly dangerously and/or riding to lose/cheat are the two biggest sins a rider can make and should feature the biggest penalties. Misjudging the finish line, while accidental, is probably the third biggest I can think of. I get how it happens, but it really shouldn’t happen and needs to be met with some kind of fine or suspension with at least a little bit of teeth to it. My guess would be they land around 15 to 30 days, but that’s not my decision to make. 

No doubt Machado probably feels awful, and he did cost himself a couple of thousand dollars in prize money due to the mistake. But not riding to the wire, whether due to laziness or not knowing which wire is the finish, is a pretty unforgivable sin to a lot of horseplayers and perhaps the trainer and owner. I’ve noticed a lot of people in the industry, including some riders, all rushing to his defense, saying it’s just a mistake and people shouldn’t be so tough. And I get where they’re coming from. But this to me is another example of the separation of players versus people who work in the industry. That discord continues to be so deep and I can see why players get so frustrated by it, because it makes them feel like their complaints and their issues don’t matter to those within racing. 

I do wish the best for all involved going forward. As long as we have tracks with two finish lines, this will happen on rare occasions. Just have to hope it happens as rarely as possible. 

Everyone have a great weekend!