REFS DECIDE BIG TIMBER RACE

OK, for those of you wanting to know something about the actual Gold Cup, listen up. (It’s a good way to impress your date, friends, kids, etc.)

Last weekend, they held the My Lady’s Manor steeplechase in Maryland. It’s a 3 mile timber stakes race that is similar to the Virginia Gold Cup. It has historically been a good tune-up for the Gold Cup, but not a shoe-in precursor since it’s one mile shorter. Last time we were running and jumping over four foot fences, we determined that an extra mile is, in fact, a long way.

So the brown horse on the left, Erin Go Bragh (NZ) (The NZ means he is from New Zealand) won the race by about three feet over the grey horse, Hot Springs. But the refs (we call them stewards) went to the videotape to take a little closer look at some bumping that occurred near the last of the 16 timber fences.

After said film review, the zebras decided that Erin Go Bragh (NZ) went a little bit Erin Go Crooked (MD), thus interfering with Hot Springs and impeding a likely victory by the handsome grey. So unlike other sports you watch, they simply changed the outcome.

Young jockey Darren Nagle said Erin Go Bragh (NZ), "bumped and bulldogged me between the second to last and last fences. My horse lost concentration and didn't jump the last and nearly came down and fell."

Erin’s rider, veteran Paddy Young didn’t see it that way, “It was pretty deceptive," he said of the film. "I think the best horse won. He (Hot Springs) had enough time to get there" through the stretch run.

The officials agreed with Nagle, and Hot Springs was declared the winner.

Look for both horses to run back in the Gold Cup and hopefully there is enough space out at Great Meadow that they can stay out of one another’s way.