disqualifications | Horse Racing Free Tips

When is a Maiden Not a Maiden? It Cost this Owner $5,331 to Find Out

When is a maiden not considered a maiden for entry purposes? Pennsylvania-based owner Albert “Abby” Abdala III lost $5,331 in second-place purse money trying to find out after an “ineligible entry” ruling was imposed upon him and his trainer, Bernard Dunham, on Feb. 2 by the Turfway Park stewards.

Abdala, who has owned Thoroughbreds for 10 years after getting started in horse ownership with Standardbreds, told TDN in a Feb. 8 phone interview that he still doesn't understand why Turfway officials accepted his entry for the 0-for-9 Magnolia Wind (Central Banker) in a $30,000 maiden-claiming race Jan. 4 if the stewards later deemed the 4-year-old filly to be ineligible.

The eligibility issue arose after the Jan. 4 race when Magnolia Wind was going to be entered again, and Turfway stewards Barbara Borden, Ron Herbstreit, and Brooks Becraft III learned that Abdala had an appeal pending with the Maryland Racing Commission over Magnolia Wind's race-interference disqualification from first to second in a $30,000 maiden-claimer at Laurel Park Nov. 9.

In that Laurel race, the 12-1 Magnolia Wind led all the way in a 5 1/2-furlong grass sprint. According to the Equibase chart, she “drifted out near the sixteenth pole, dug in and prevailed.”

“She won the race,” Abdala said. “But the stewards said we were 'herding,' which I thought was ridiculous because both riders were riding to the wire, nobody checked, and we held on. I appealed it, but the hearing wasn't going to be until Feb. 6.”

In the interim, after Magnolia Wind had gone nearly two months without a start, Abdala said he told Dunham, who has been a licensed trainer for 33 years, “She's good right now, we've got to race her.”

Although Magnolia Wind trains at Fair Hill in Maryland, Abdala did not want to run her on the dirt somewhere closer to home, because that's not her best surface, he explained.

“That's why I went out to Turfway, because she needs the Tapeta or the turf,” Abdala said.

Because Magnolia Wind's record on Equibase clearly showed the she had zero lifetime wins, “I assumed that the horse was eligible as a maiden,” Abdala said.

“I told my trainer to put her in, and he put her in. He entered her [electronically via] the computer. And we never said anything to anybody [about the Maryland appeal], because I didn't know we had to. They accepted the entry. Then we drove that filly nine hours to get to Turfway.”

The long journey appeared to pay off. Magnolia Wind ran second at 5-1 odds.

“And now they come after me saying that we knew she wasn't eligible, and that we're unlawful,” Abdala said.

Abdala said that after being notified of the ineligibility, he didn't come away from a conversation with Borden, Herbstreit, and Becraft with a clear understanding of why the Turfway's racing office officials or the stewards didn't bear some responsibility for allowing the entry in the first place.

TDN emailed Borden, the chief state steward, plus Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) executive director Jamie Eads, asking for some context behind the ruling and for clarification about why the Jan. 4 entry was approved by Turfway officials.

A different KHRC spokesperson replied with an email that outlined some of the sequence of events on “background only.” Because what was disclosed in that email could not be attributed to a specific KHRC official, the entire explanation has not been provided here. A follow-up request by TDN asking if the KHRC wanted to provide any response for the record did not yield a reply prior to deadline for this story.

The Turfway stewards' report for that date that is signed by all three stewards and posted on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission website makes no mention of the ineligibility.

But the subsequent Feb. 2 stewards' ruling disqualified Magnolia Wind from second place and ordered her $5,331 in purse earnings redistributed.

“I'm an accountant, a CPA, and I have an accounting firm,” Abdala said. “We have a lot of horse racing people as clients. I've asked everybody, and they all told me, 'Abby, your horse was eligible.'”

Abdala said he is no longer pursuing any appeals in Maryland or Kentucky regarding his twice-DQ'd filly.

“I didn't want to cause trouble or anything, and I want the filly to be able to race,” Abdala said. “So I just dropped everything–I dropped the hearing in Maryland, and I dropped the [potential appeal] at Turfway. I just want her to run. It's detrimental to her. After I dropped everything, they said they'll accept our entry now.”

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Letter to the Editor – The Aftermath of Disqualifications

I retired in 2019 as the most prolific bugler in horse racing history with over 60,000 performances of “First Call” at a record-setting 51 racetracks in 23 states and Canada. My herald trumpet, which I used at NYRA for most of my time there, has been on display at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame for the past three years. Of this, I am very proud.

But this is not the subject of my email.

The subject is betting on horses, and I had some success in this endeavor. In fact, after my Pick Six score at Aqueduct in January of 1992, I maintained a flat-bet profit of $60,000 for 29 years. The CAWS and past-posting and the drug problem caused me to blow all of that in just three years. I played a few more years and then abruptly quit betting horses (forever!) last September. After sending about $1.5 million dollars through the windows, my net loss over 37 years amounts to $35 a week. Less than the price of a ball game at Fenway Park.

The point of this email, however, is the aftermath of disqualifications. I can recall how angry this game made me and certainly other horse players when our horses were disqualified. We put in a lot of time and effort handicapping, and when we are right, we expect to get paid. And then we don't. This is the only sport where if your team wins you still might not get paid. That's not an attractive thing to market to newbies. “Hey, your horse may win, but you might not get paid.” This never happens in poker. But chopped pots happen all the time and it keeps the game moving.

Why do I mention “chopped pots”? Because this is the idea, I have to help horse racing stay alive. If your horse wins, but the horse is disqualified for any reason, you still get paid-but like a dead heat. You chop the pot with the horse that got moved up. Everything. WPS, all exactas and other exotics. Chop the pot. BUT ONLY FOR THE BETTORS. The connections of the DQd horse are still penalized the same way they are now. They lose the purse, and the purse gets redistributed to the connections of the horse who was moved up via DQ. But the bettors still get paid.

Maybe it's an idea already floated by others, but I hope that this idea might be helpful to the game that sustained me for 32 years. There's not a lot I can do to give back, so maybe this idea will catch on and suffice.

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Letter To The Editor: Dr. Jerry Bilinski On the Great White Way DQ

Regarding the Great White Way fiasco: The stewards made a huge mistake! We all make them. It happens in football all the time! When it happens there are no calls to remove the Commissioner. As in this situation, there should be no calls to remove Jockey Club leadership.

What is needed is to look at the Stewards box. Stewards involved should be interviewed, past decisions reviewed and what we need is industry-wide implementation to improve the process. Possibly a fourth person “in the booth” might help when a foul occurs. Evaluation of current requirements, education, improved training, age requirements, cognitive skills, etc.

Whatever blame rests 100% with the stewards in this case!

–Jerry Bilinski DVM, former New York Racing Chairman

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Jockeys’ Guild Underscores Support for Keeping Category 2 Interference Standards

The Jockeys' Guild and its Board of Directors released a statement Tuesday underscoring that the organization has taken the position that the United States should remain under the Category 2 approach for adjudicating potential interference during Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing.

The press release was issued in advance of a panel discussion at Tuesday's Global Symposium on Racing hosted by the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program (RTIP) in Tucson titled “Embracing Change: Are We Ready to Adopt Category 1 Rules In the US?”

The Guild also noted that it plans to “voice opposition” to proposed modifications to that standard that will be up for discussion during the Association of Racing Commissioners International Model Rules Committee meeting Dec. 7.

“While considering this decision, the Guild considered the safety of both the human and equine athletes, as well as fairness for all parties involved,” the release stated. “The Category 2 method provides Stewards with the authority to disqualify a horse if, in their opinion, it interfered with other horses, regardless of whether the interference was accidental, willful, or the result of careless riding.

“Based on experience, the Guild believes that Category 2 provides for some additional safety protections for the riders,” the release continued. “By giving the Stewards the ability to disqualify the horse which has caused the interference, regardless of where the horse finished, it will serve as a deterrent to unsafe riding.

“We, as an industry, have a responsibility to assure safety for both the horses and the jockeys. It is unreasonable to create a racing environment that is potentially going to lead to more hazardous riding styles,” the release stated.

“Additionally, with regards to the fairness of such rules, while Category 1 often protects 'the best horse,' Category 2 rules enable strong advocacy on behalf of all horses and jockeys who suffered interference,” the release stated.

“This is achieved by ensuring that the interferer is placed behind all of the horses who suffered the interference, both directly and indirectly. Using this method provides a safeguard against horses having their finishing position compromised as a result of the interference, and in turn, provides a fairer playing field to all participants, as opposed to just the 'best horse'…

“It should be noted, with the exception of Oklahoma, no other racing jurisdiction in the United States has adopted Category 1 method,” the Guild's release stated.

A pre-symposium summary of the RTIP panel discussion stated that “The conflict of equity and fairness versus heightened consistency in decisions is the heart of the conundrum that surrounds the disqualification policies between Categories 1 and 2.

“While most international racing jurisdictions have shifted away from Category 2, which requires the demotion of a horse for consequential interference if the sufferer of the interference loses a placing, North America remains reluctant to embrace this global approach which only demotes horses when the sufferer would have beaten the interferer.

“In the age of the growing global wagering market, it is imperative for our racing companies to revisit this issue as our domestic bettors have already embraced such practices at events like Ascot, and our new international customers are already accepting of Category 1 disqualification policies,” the RTIP summarized prior to its panel discussion.

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