Page 16 - June 2007 The Game

16 The Game, June 2007 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Welcome to the Wild, Wild West
by evenSteven
One of the favourite past-times of exercise riders at Hastings Park involves complaining about other exercise riders here at Hastings Park. Perhaps being nestled right on the edge of Vancouver, a city infamous for its bad drivers, has begun to pervade the atmosphere of the racetrack. On any given day one is liable to witness any number of indignant gesticulations or overhear the kind of public slander that would land you in court anywhere other than the back- stretch. Also known as “the bullring,” Hastings Park’s five-eighths mile track is renowned for its tight turns and occasionally wild-eyed stock, some of which venture, seemingly unbroken, from smaller tracks in the BC interior. Welcome to the wild, wild west. At one time I worried that working at a smaller track would limit my development, on the off chance I ever wanted to ride at a
bigger track in Florida or California. But since I started exercising full time, more than one trainer has repeated these words: "If you can ride at Hastings you can ride anywhere."
There are a number of different reasons why riders’ tempers can sometimes run high. Certainly, riding a thousand plus pound animal at high speeds around an enclosed space is stressful enough. But here at Hastings the situation is exacerbated by the narrowness of the track and the high concentration of the stock. It’s not uncommon to see as many as forty horses galloping around at the same time, some of them working, some of them running away, and some of them clearly, at times, not under control. Some veteran exercise riders blame inexperience, claiming too many incapable riders are being granted gallop licenses. While there may be some truth
in this, some of the riders I hear complained about the most have also been galloping horses the longest. For your entertain- ment I offer up a selection of the more popular complaints regularly overheard at Hastings Park.
"That guy’s always galloping on the rail!" Especially popular with veteran riders on green horses and green riders on runaways, galloping horses along the rail has lately come under the scrutiny of the Hastings Park racing stewards. Historically, the twelve feet of dirt along the rail has always been reserved to keep the track pristine for the morning workers. Back in the day, track custodians would place the ‘dogs’ -- aka orange traffic cones--twelve feet off the rail and exercise riders not working their horses would know to keep their mounts outside of this perimeter. At some point in the last few years the cones fell by the wayside and now riders are expected to maintain the twelve foot margin on their own recognizance. Unfortunately, there seem to be more than a few exercise riders who apparently don’t know what distance twelve feet represents. Younger riders might blame their ignorance on the metric system; riders who speak English as a second language can perhaps claim lost in translation, but there are also a number of veteran exercise riders who regularly violate this once hallowed ground. At least one such veteran may have a few more grey hairs as a result of yours truly.
Late one morning I was working a horse we consider somewhat of a "special project." As Wilbur and I rounded the turn and thundered into the homestretch my breath caught in my chest. Halfway down the stretch a horse was cantering along
five or six feet off the rail, rider blissfully unaware. At this point steering Wilbur off the rail was simply not an option; there was a reason we waited until eleven in the morning to work him. "Inside! Inside!! INSIDE!!!" I screamed all the way down the stretch. Other exercise riders further away turned their heads to see what the commotion was all about, but the rider galloping along the rail showed no signs of hearing. I was still screaming and he was still cantering happily along when Wilbur and I blew by on his inside. We were moving so fast I didn’t even have a chance to see his horse explode sideways as our stirrups kissed . I suspect the vacuum created in our wake might have been the only thing that kept the rider on his horse, but if that was the case he didn’t seem to feel the need to thank me. He did point a bony finger in admonishment while I wondered if I looked as pale as he did.
"Look, Ma!
No stirrups!"
Another bad habit
lately fostering
numerous
complaints is the
tendency of some
riders to ride
without stirrups. Jockeys tend to be more frequent violators of this unwritten rule, especially walking back along the wall after working a horse. To be fair, many riders, myself included, will often kick free of their stirrups to better stick on a bucking horse. However, most try to avoid this dilemma by riding with longer stirrups, especially if you know ahead of time you’re going to be riding a green or otherwise shifty horse. The longer the stirrups the lower your centre of gravity, and hopefully, the greater your ability to remain in the saddle. Hence the old racetrack saying: Ride longer, ride longer.
Tougher horses necessitate “jacking your peddles," which gives a rider better leverage and makes it easier to prevent a tough horse from running off. Working a horse can sometimes present the worst of both worlds; you need to have your stirrups shortened even though your mount might be on the muscle and jumping sideways out of his skin. This may have been the cause of a dangerous situation one morning last month. I was standing by the fence watching a jockey work one of my regular mounts as a bugboy backtracked his horse around past the wire. For reasons known only to himself, the bugboy was riding without stirrups and thus had nothing to brace his feet against when the horse, who was seriously on the muscle, took a couple of jumps. A moment later the bugboy either bailed or fell heavily onto the outside rail. The horse continued the work on this own, albeit the wrong way around. Seven times backwards around the outside wall of the bullring while horses and riders scrambled to get out of the path of this runaway equine train. The track was closed for nearly twenty minutes before the outrider caught up with the now winded offender and it took another few minutes for the ambulance to roll around and pick up the sheepish bugboy. Ride longer, ride longer?
And don’t even get me started on mounted cellphone chatters.
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Did You Know....
That Northern California Racetrack, Bay Meadows, announced in March that they will close down the track after its fall meet ends November 4 after the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) refused to waive its requirement that all major Thoroughbred tracks in the state install synthetic racing surfaces by 2008. Bay Meadows is facing demolition in the near future for redevelopment and asked for a two-year-waiver.
However in a meeting on May 22 with the racetrack management and the CHRB , president Jack Liebau indicated to the board that the
73-year-old track could reconsider its decision pending the confirmation of calendar dates. The next meeting is scheduled for June 19
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