Page 30 - June 2005 The Game

30 The Game, June 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Stewards Run a Tight Ship
By Peter Gross
As a horseplayer, it's your worst nightmare. You've just seen your 12-1 shot romp home by five lengths and suddenly the tote board lights up.
Inquiry!
Your number starts to flash like a bad migraine and now your pari-mutuel fate is solely in the hands of the stewards.
Up in their sixth floor office overlooking the finish line, the three stewards, Richard Grubb, Ivan McHutchion and Gunnar Lindberg apply professional and thorough scrutiny to every live thoroughbred race at Woodbine. On this particular Saturday Grubb, the Senior steward and McHutchion watch each race through binoculars while Lindbergh eyeballs a wall of monitors offering five different versions of the race.
"As stewards, our mandate is to uphold the integrity of racing," says Lindbergh, at 48, the youngest of the trio, "We have to follow the rules, make sure everything is on the up and up."
It is no coincidence that all three men were once jockeys. Grubb, 56, had a terrific 21-year career that started in 1967 and brought him to the winner's circle over 1600 times. McHutchion and Lindberg had exactly 1000 wins between them, though it was not quite an even split. McHutchion, now a young looking 64, won just three times, realizing, in 1958, that he was just too big to have a lengthy career. Lindbergh's 997 wins include over 60 stakes conquests.
The stewards must deal often with the activities and behaviour of the jockeys and having known the experience of bursting from a starting gate creates a healthy environment for all concerned.
"They all know us," says McHutchion, "They know we've been around here for years."
Actually, McHutchion has taken the more meandering route to the sixth floor. He trained horses for 15 years, and also put in time as a patrol judge, clerk of the scales, custodian of the jockeys room, some time at the mutuels and even cashed a few paycheques as part of the valet parking crew.
The majority of a steward's work involves paperwork and hearings. On a typical day they could be determining the punishment for smoking in the backstretch or weighing the evidence of a positive test. It's on race days, though, when they're required to keep
Woodbine Stewards (l. to r.) Richard Grubb, Ivan McHutchion, Gunnar Lindberg - Michael Burns Photo courtesy of WEG
levied for such loss of professionalism. The quality of tape today gives the stewards several clear angles on which to base their decisions. Before the advent of videotape, there was the slower process of film and before that, it was strictly up to the eyesight and memory of the stewards. In the film Seabiscuit, early scenes illustrate some of the brutal activity of unscrupulous jockeys before modern technology could record their every move. Lindberg is just a degree of separation
away from those days.
"My father rode during that time, "
he reminisces, "and he used to tell me some pretty good stories."
Paranoid racing fans - a sizeable constituency - will often assume that the stewards will be reluctant to take down horses owned by high ranking officers of the track or that if a horse is a heavy favourite, it will stay up so as
not to ruffle the feathers of the chalk players. This, however is nothing more than so much urban myth. The stewards aren't even employed by the track.
"We're a government regulated body. We're strictly by the book," says Grubb, doing his best high school principal impression, "Our whole purpose is to make it a level playing field. The public is our number one concern."
To uphold the honesty and safety of the races, the stewards must constantly be on the lookout for the wayward jockey who may not be race worthy on a particular day. Though every jockey must blow into a breathalizer before each card, the stewards find few rule breakers.
"We don't have a serious drug or alcohol problem at Woodbine," says Lindbergh, "When you're out there at high speed, you've got to have your faculties or you're going to be on the ground."
And, since the stewards have to operate at the highest level of their intellect and perception, each of them has to blow before each working day as well.
For a jockey, the job of steward is a great way to extend a career at the racetrack. Richard Grubb had some wonderful paydays as a rider - over 100 stakes win - so although his pay is steady, does it match that of his golden years?
"No, it's not quite the same, "admits Grubb, "But I'm eating better."
both eyes on the action, that each steward really enjoys his job the most.
There's an inherent irony happening here. Horse racing is very much about the betting, but anyone with a history of wagering on the horses would immediately be disqualified from consideration for this job. For obvious reasons, a steward cannot have any connection with the outcome of a race.
"We have no financial interest," says Grubb, "It's against the rules to have any ownership."
In fact, though it's not a violation, McHutchion says, even when he's outside the jurisdiction of the Ontario Racing Commission, he's reluctant to place a bet.
"I go down to Tampa," says McHutchion, " But I never go to the windows. There's all kinds of people who might see you and it's all about perception."
Stewards tend to draw attention to themselves when the jockeys are out of line. What constitutes a reason for taking a horse down?
"There's a myriad of reasons," Lindberg says, "Impeding another horse, blocking his progress, intimidation."
Grubb continues the theme.
"Up here the majority rules. Sometimes it's two against one," he says, smiling at his two associates, "At times it's gotten very heated. There's three votes and they all weigh the same."
Perhaps the most famous objection in recent times occurred after the running of the 1999 Atto Mile for a
purse of $1Million. The Irish horse Hawksley Hill hit the wire first for Pat Day, but even the veteran Day probably knew he was coming down.
"Pat struck another horse with his whip," says Grubb, " He admitted the infraction and had no qualms about it."
The horse that Day had struck was Jim and Tonic who was surging forward at the time of the incident and could be seen on the replay, ducking backwards after the inadvertent whipping. Hawksley Hill was placed fourth, moving Jim and Tonic up to third and making a winner out of Sam Son Farm's Quiet Resolve who lit up the tote board with a $91.10 payoff to win.
That was a memorable race for me because I had Jim and Tonic boxed with Hawksley Hill. The former was interfered with and the latter was taken down.
"You got beat up more than Jim and Tonic," laughs McHutchion, very much at my expense.
If a jockey feels he's been wronged in a race, the wheels of justice can move very quickly.
"There's a man posted (on the track) waiting there with a walkie talkie," informs Grubb, " If a jockey claims foul, he'll speak to that guy who will radio to us."
As well, trainers and owners can exercise their concerns through a phone in the clubhouse, but all horse people are cautioned not to waste the stewards' time. If an objection is considered to be without merit, it's deemed frivolous, and a fine can be
DidYou Know....
That according to an article in the Bloodhorse, owner Michael Gill, North America’s leading owner by races and money won in 2003 and 2004, has said that because of the “dirty politics” of the industry, he is getting out of the business.
Michael was quoted as saying that ‘he just doesn’t want to deal with it anymore’ referring to the roadblocks, lies and false tests he says he has faced at various racetracks.
Gill, who has reportedly threatened to leave in the past, says
that he will offer his entire operation -- over 200 horses in training, 30 broodmares, 50 foals and yearlings, and a training center with stalls for 130 horses -- as a single package. If no one is interested then he will sell his breeding stock and racing prospects at auction and put the rest of his horses in claiming races.
The New Hampshire native has been denied stalls at several tracks and subsequently has filed at least three lawsuits since 2003.
Did You Know....
That beginning in June, Woodbine plans to offer two-furlong
races for 2-year-olds stating that they want to try to help trainers get their horses to the races. 4 1/2 and 5 furlong races for 2-year-olds will continued to be offered as well.