Necker Island (Spin hard) crossed the first wire in the $150,000 Chesapeake S. at Colonial Downs on August 16, stopping the timer at 1:07.72, the track’s fastest-ever six-thread dirty watch .
But after many protests and investigations by management, Necker Island was disqualified and demoted to third place for interfering in this stretch of road.
The lights flashed almost non-stop on the tote board as speculation arose on social media about whether the 5-year-old boy’s title as world record holder would be stripped.
The answer, according to Equibase, the industry’s official record keeper, is that Necker Island does not retain any difference in record holdings.
“The track record wouldn’t be worth it if the horse was a DQ’d,” Rhonda Norby, Equibase’s director of marketing and communications, emailed Wednesday morning in response to a TDN query.
“I know it’s happened before but I won’t be able to quantify it with certainty,” she wrote in a follow-up post.
While perhaps less comforting for the horse’s relationship – The Scherr Boys owner and trainer Chris Hartman – Necker Island has earned access to an exclusive (but very little known) club ), who won the DQ after setting the record.
Here’s where Necker Island is different, though: There are at least five other precedents in which winners have been downvoted for race interference over the past 75 years in North America. In each of those cases, their track record is maintained.
To be sure, the list of DQ’d record holders has a murky history that’s not easy to follow. It is not the kind of esoteric stat that anyone in the sport would even compile. TDN researched press archives to unearth five known cases that were well documented as they occurred. But it is very possible that there are other cases where the record was honored or stripped, which has been forgotten over time. Comments are welcome from astute readers who may add to this list.
The most recent appearance was on March 28, 2009, when Big Drama won the GII Swale S. at Gulfstream Park but was placed second by DQ’d due to persistent interference. He has clocked 1:20.88 for seven clamps, and as of Wednesday morning, his Equibase chart still says “New Tracking Record.”
When asked if Equibase considers this a precedent, Norby wrote, “That shouldn’t have been… thanks for bringing my attention.” She also notes that that distance record has already been broken twice, so at this point Big Drama’s status is undisputed (He still holds Gulfstream’s record, however. with six extensions, which he set up without DQ. 2011).
Other known DQ’d record setups all occurred before Equibase took over as the industry’s primary data holder in 1991.
Prior to that, it was not clear which entity, exactly, was responsible for awarding or vacating profile statuses to disqualified winners.
To this day, several states still have a jockeying for books that deal with this infrequent situation. However, Virginia, where Colonial is located, is not one of them.
Not all states publish their racing laws and/or are searchable online. But even among those, there are differences as to how the DQ record-breakers should be handled.
Louisiana and Illinois share an identical rule that states, “If a horse wins a race equal to or more than a record and is disqualified, its time will be recognized as a record unless that horse Disqualified for being stimulated. This track record will be noted with an asterisk that will reveal that the horse was disqualified when it set the record. “
Pennsylvania rules differently: “If a horse sets a record in a race and is subsequently disqualified, that record will be void.”
West Virginia, Delaware, and Massachusetts are all left to the discretion of managers with similarly worded rules stating: “In determining disqualification, a manager may declare a record null and void. established or balanced by a disqualified horse, or any horse entered in due to a common relationship of ownership or training. “
New York does not directly address the track records related to road jamming DQs. But the state has an anti-doping rule that explains, “In the event that a horse sets a track or other record in a race and the competent authority will determine that the chemical analysis of any specimen If any horse is taken from that horse showing the Presence of a drug with properties that could affect the racing condition of a horse in such a race, that record will be void.”
Colonial’s main track played fast on Tuesday. Before Necker Island accelerated rapidly in the eighth race, a figure of $25,000 claimed the name Chakra (Munnings) set a 1:16.12 record for 6 1/2 furlongs in the opening game.
That scenario is eerily similar to what happened on May 15, 1973, at Belmont Park, when two horses set records in sprints – and one of them was also a DQ. ‘d.
In the fifth race of that day, Wanda, the 2-5 favorite, ran 6 1/2 of the track in 1:15 3/5, shaving off a fifth of a second (pre-finish standard) percent) from the current Belmont mark.
However, as the New York Times reported, “Exactly what the managers saw was a devastating ‘rock’ thrown by Wanda at the second runner-up, Tuerta, about 70 yards from the line. If this is the Super Bowl, Wanda will get a raise. Instead, she was eliminated and placed second,” [while retaining her status as setting one of] two traces. “
Almost exactly 20 years earlier, on May 16, 1953, the winner of eight Squared Away lengths had won the DQ’d and placed last at Pimlico Racecourse for meddling in the first sixteenth of the 5th. Baltimore Spring H. team worth $15,000 after having stopped the timer at a record 1:04 4/5.
Squared Away’s career stats are emblematic of the close bond from a bygone era. He’s an eight-time bet winner who will eventually land 31 wins from 103 starts. But his other famous claim concerns his pedigree: He was a pony in 1947 that killed the Imperatrice. His five-year-old half-sister is Somethingroyal, who never competed. But she ended up producing the iconic Secretariat.
And in another strange, but real aspect of this 1953 DQ, the horse put up as the victor for the foul was Senator Joe – who a year earlier had set Pimlico’s previous record. for that distance by winning the same bet while surviving a bad claim against him. So for two years in a row, Senator Joe was the beneficiary of the actions of the managers, both times winning the same amount but ultimately losing his record-setting position. .
“The managers considered for about 20 minutes, and during that time [Squared Away’s owner] Grandma. [Jan] Burke was in the winner’s circle waiting to present the trophy,” The New York Times reported. “She was stunned when the disqualification was announced.”
Officials of the Maryland Jockey Club seem to feel bad for Burke. Daily race form A few days later, it was reported that Pimlico would give her a special engraved plaque to commemorate Squared Away’s achievement.
If there is any horse that can claim kingpin status among the DQ’d record-makers, it has to be Capot. Most people know him as the pony who finished runner-up in the GI Kentucky Derby, then won the GI Preakness and GI Belmont S. en route to 3-year-old Champion and Horse of the Year titles of the year. 1949.
But the really weird aspect of Capot’s career is that he’s set three records overall (Preakness is one of them), but gets DQ twice from those record-setting wins.
At the age of 2 in October 1948, Capot set a Pimlico 1 1/16-mile track record in 1:42 3/5, but was DQ for a foul on an opponent. Post-race news reports indicated that his record would stand.
On July 2, 1949, after his Triple Crown campaign, Capot was the stronger half of the Greentree Stable combined with Wine List that hit 1-10 odds in a nine-horse, four-horse match worth $20,000 Leonard Richards S. at Delaware Park.
Wine List moved forward, but veered off the track at the top of the lane.
“Clearly the expanded Wine List allowed Capot a chance to get past his laudatory trail into the wire,” the New York Times reported, noting that the 1:48 2/5 clock still stands. while the participants were demoted. “The disqualification is the second against Capot after setting a record.”
