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July 31, 2008
Thoroughbred Daily News - Letter to the Editor
Joel B. Turner

Click here to view the original Bill Oppenheim article published in Thoroughbred Daily News.

Mr. Oppenheim's columns have always been of great interest to me, particularly his pedigree work, which are always well reasoned and insightful. In [Wednesday]'s column he ventures into treacherous waters. He ventures out of his bailiwick and, perhaps forgivably (after all he is human) gets it wrong. Perhaps his emotions, due to his personal involvement with one of the subject horses and his personal relationship with the manager of both horses, have clouded his ability to view these very different situations clearly and dispassionately. One is ruled upon with a subjective standard, the other with an objective standard.

If he wants, as he says in his column, uniformity in rules, how does he reconcile that with allowing one horse (as he suggested Green Girl should have been) to not carry her weight in the post parade while the others must? Clearly the rule mandates uniformity for good reason; to avoid an unfair advantage to any horse. Green Girl did not comply with the rule and was rightly disqualified. I agree with Mr. Oppenheim on the other subjective decision after having watched the race many times and being familiar with the diverse approaches taken by various racing jurisdictions, including the standard applied in that case. Again, the Stewards exhibited their fallibility. A uniform approach to the adjudication of fouls occurring during the running of the race needs to be addressed internationally.

There is no need to change the paddock to post rule, however, as it is virtually universally in place and easy to apply by competent stewards. Either the objective evidence proves that the horse (in this case the filly) carried the weight paddock to post and over the route of the post parade(unless excused in advance) or it (she) didn't. Mr. Greely saw it clearly and made the right decision. The Stewards were not about to reverse themselves for myriad reasons, including their mistaken decision to let Green Girl run in the Suwannee River Handicap in first place.

I have represented many, many owners and trainers before the Stewards in over two dozen jurisdictions and in foreign countries in a wide variety of disqualification cases. In fact, I represented Gary Zwerling, owner of La Dolce Vita, the filly declared the official winner, in the Suwannee River Handicap case. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Oppenheim's comment that the rule applied by Mr. Greeley was "absurd" and that his friend Patrick Cooper was "victimized." Mr. Oppenheim ought to be able to put himself in Gary Zwerling's position for a moment and understand how important a Graded Stakes win is to the value of a horse as it appears forever in the pedigree reports and catalog pages he routinely pores over, that it was the final race of La Dolce Vita's career and she would have been denied her rightful (and only) Graded Stakes win had the order of finish not been reversed. The evidence was overwhelming that Mr. Douglas was off his mount's back for at least ten minutes and did not present her to the starter having carried the assigned weight paddock to post, including the post parade (from which she was not excused) as is required by Florida's (and most, if not all other jurisdiction's) rules.

Joel B. Turner
Attorney at Law 

Bill Oppenheim's response:

The same was true of Green Girl--it would have been her only graded stakes win. It may be true that most jurisdictions in the U.S. have that rule, but I don't believe it is the case in Europe; at least, I have seen countless horses who have tossed their riders in European races and been neither scratched nor disqualified; as I wrote at the time, I thinks it's just as likely that Green Girl was disadvantaged by losing her rider and running around fretting--something that can't be quantified in pounds. Absolutely, my comments were subjective, not objective, and absolutely true, I'm no lawyer. I concede Bill Greely read the rule and said, yep, that's what the rule says. But I don't believe the rule is just.

I'm not arguing for one minute that natural justice does prevail, but that it should. I am not persuaded by Joel's comments; the rules may have been followed, but I still maintain it is a bad--no, an absurd--rule.

By the way, the fact that Patrick is a friend of mine really has nothing to do with my position. I would have been just as adamant in my position had Gary Zwerling owned Green Girl and Ronchalon owned La Dolce Vita. The really ironic thing, as Gary wrote me in an email after my original comments, is that I had actually suggested the mating of La Dolce Vita. I'm pleased that it worked out for Gary, but I wish it had been under different circumstances. But I do think it's time to smoke the peace pipe on this. The decisions have been made, and I've said my piece. If we all agree international uniformity would be better for everybody, let's use this opportunity to all push in that direction--and whether the new international rules are pillar-to-post, automatic disqualifications for collisions, or whatever, the really important thing is that the industry recognizes that inconsistencies are bad for our business.