Riderless Horses Win Not One But Two Races Wednesday [Video]
Riderless horses win two different races on Wednesday, making it one of the crazier days in sports betting recently.
As you will see in these videos, in two different races with two different horses at two different tracks, jockeys are ignominiously thrown off their mounts and left behind in the dirt as the feisty thoroughbreds break ahead of the pack to win on their own.
Alas for the unlucky jockey, trainer, and owner — not to mention gamblers — an unmounted horse is of course immediately disqualified. Neither horse was allowed to claim its win.
In the earlier of the two races, shown below, six-year-old Downtown Hottie wastes no time in throwing off her jockey at New York’s Belmont Park. The commentator tries to keep his cool, but it’s clear that the horse is demanding attention.
In the second episode shown in the video up top, Counter Move tosses off the jockey and romps in ahead of the pack at Charles Town racecourse in West Virginia. This commentator couldn’t really overlook the thrilling run — although, of course, the racehorse still had to be disqualified for the stunt.
So what’s up with that, guys? Do tracks and sports books need to start offering odds on whether or not the jockey can keep his happy you-know-what in the driver’s seat?
We seem to be seeing a revolt of the ponies, who think they can take on the game without a jockey:
Jockeys will be out of a job at this rate #riderless horse #wins #magicmillions pic.twitter.com/xCDD2MEj
— Martin Pascoe (@martypascoe) January 12, 2013
Here’s a May riderless horse win:
OK, I fully understand that these horses are athletes, and they want to win. But c’mon, folks. If you’re not carrying the weight of a jockey, you’re cheating. You’re out. You’re disqualified. You’re done.
As usual, the riderless horse wins only in its own mind.
[race horse photo by Tsutomu Takasu via Flickr, Creative Commons]
