Jockeys try to fix a race. . .

[Dave in TJ Mex]

. . . to let a 70 year old jock become the oldest jockey to win a race.

Very long, but interesting, read.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10073863/cowboy-jones-fixed-horse-race

[curtis]

. . . to let a 70 year old jock become the oldest jockey to win a race.

Very long, but interesting, read.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10073863/cowboy-jones-fixed-horse-race

There was a DRF article about that race just after it happened.  Fairmount archives video of their races so I went to their site and watched the race.  It was pretty blatant.  I have family in the St. Louis area and my brother-in-law took me to Fairmount the previous summer.  Though the track has a long, storied history, it definitely flies under the radar now.  I can see something like that happening.

[KD]

Case not proven.
LeJeune getting 60 days for that is a travesty.

I actually do lightly play Dog Food Downs...I mean Fairmount...on occasion since it's charming to me how the track announcer calls the horsies "harses" but it really is the bottom level or at least pretty much as close as yer gonna get in America. The idea of fixing a race with minimal pools (if someone cares to research the total bet on a similar weekday race aside from that one I'll guarantee it'll be a lot less) and not even have the fix come in is just plain silly.

If I had, oh, $1,500 handy I'd buy the track and fire the stewards who overacted on this.
Oops! The state hires the stewards!
So I'd just have to frame them somehow...

[curtis]

Case not proven.
LeJeune getting 60 days for that is a travesty.

I actually do lightly play Dog Food Downs...I mean Fairmount...on occasion since it's charming to me how the track announcer calls the horsies "harses" but it really is the bottom level or at least pretty much as close as yer gonna get in America. The idea of fixing a race with minimal pools (if someone cares to research the total bet on a similar weekday race aside from that one I'll guarantee it'll be a lot less) and not even have the fix come in is just plain silly.

If I had, oh, $1,500 handy I'd buy the track and fire the stewards who overacted on this.
Oops! The state hires the stewards!
So I'd just have to frame them somehow...

The alleged fix, originally, had nothing to do with betting, it was about getting the older jock a win for a good story.  Anybody who lost money betting was just an unfortunate victim.  What should have been done was to have all the jocks riding morning line favorites on a given day--as opposed to one race, turn their mounts over to Jones and then share the purse with him.  If he can't boot home a winner riding a card full of M/L favorites then it's not meant to be.  What happened--though in this case unsuccessful--was similar to what Brett Favre did against Michael Strahan a few years ago when Favre took a dive so Strahan could break the single season sack record.  Around the same time a Women's college basketball player was a point away from the career points record only to injure herself to the point where she could barely walk, let alone play basketball.  I remember the opposing team agreed to give her a completely uncontested layup so she could break the record, which she did before half-hobbling/half-collapsing off of the court.

[Zenyatta]

The alleged fix, originally, had nothing to do with betting, it was about getting the older jock a win for a good story.  Anybody who lost money betting was just an unfortunate victim.  What should have been done was to have all the jocks riding morning line favorites on a given day--as opposed to one race, turn their mounts over to Jones and then share the purse with him.  If he can't boot home a winner riding a card full of M/L favorites then it's not meant to be.  What happened--though in this case unsuccessful--was similar to what Brett Favre did against Michael Strahan a few years ago when Favre took a dive so Strahan could break the single season sack record.  Around the same time a Women's college basketball player was a point away from the career points record only to injure herself to the point where she could barely walk, let alone play basketball.  I remember the opposing team agreed to give her a completely uncontested layup so she could break the record, which she did before half-hobbling/half-collapsing off of the court.

It's nice to know other sports do it too, but there probably wasn't any gambling involved either. Their hearts were (sorta) in the right place.

[Dave in TJ Mex]

It's nice to know other sports do it too, but there probably wasn't any gambling involved either. Their hearts were (sorta) in the right place.

You could not be more misguided with your sympathy toward jockeys throwing a race.

Just because you are "pretty pony girl" who does not bet, you should not ignore the fact that without betting, there is NO horse racing.  And without the perception that all races are fairly contested, there will be no betting.

You must not be interested in the long term viability of horse racing.

[Zenyatta]

You could not be more misguided with your sympathy toward jockeys throwing a race.

Just because you are "pretty pony girl" who does not bet, you should not ignore the fact that without betting, there is NO horse racing.  And without the perception that all races are fairly contested, there will be no betting.

You must not be interested in the long term viability of horse racing.

I don't lose any sleep over it, if that's what you're intimating. 

[Dave in TJ Mex]

I don't lose any sleep over it, if that's what you're intimating. 

This board will go under if there is no horse racing!

[KD]

I understand the supposed idea was to let the old guy win but they did check out wagering patterns and all so that was a consideration.
If this were a Dick Francis story the race would have been fixed and everyone would assume it was for the old guy, but it would actually have been set up as a betting coup.
In any case the idea of a bunch of jockeys hanging on by the skin of their teeth doing this with the press there for the 1st time in forever is a far longer shot than I'd ever bet on, and that one of them got so harsh a penalty is shameful. Watch a full card at Fairmount sometime and count how many mounts run strangely or hardly at all.