Canadian Derby result still in limbo
Two appeals yet to yield final judgment on Chief Know It All’s conflicted victory
It’s the race that won’t end.
Four months after Chief Know It All crossed the finish line in front in the Aug. 19 Canadian Derby at Northlands, there is still no verdict: the inquiry sign is still flashing.
After two appeal hearings — the first on Oct. 20 and the second early last week — another continuance is still necessary, and when that third reconvening of the appeal hearing will be heard is anyone’s guess.
The heart of the matter is actually pretty simple.
Did Double Bear, who finished in a dead-heat for second with Trooper John, cause his own problems — as the stewards originally declared and still maintain — by hitting the left hind end of Chief Know It All and tipping the latter sideways and toward the rail into the path of Double Bear?
Or did Chief Know It All do it all on his own taking away the rail from Double Bear just as the field headed down the stretch for the final time?
Whatever the outcome, Double Bear’s gritty performance — or that of Chief Know It All or Trooper John, for that matter — won’t soon be forgotten in what was one of the closest finishes in the 88 runnings of the Derby.
After setting most of the early fractions in the mile and threeeighths race, Double Bear was headed by both Chief Know It All and Trooper John by about a full length with three furlongs to go.
Double Bear appeared spent but that, however, was clearly a mirage. Instead, Double Bear, summoning every ounce of courage and will he had left, started to slowly inch his way back into contention.
And then, just as the horses were rounding the far turn and into the stretch, something happened: Chief Know It All and Double Bear made contact. Double Bear stumbled.
Yet even then, Double Bear, ridden furiously by jockey Dane Nelson, wasn’t done. He kept coming and coming.
But the question remains: who initiated the contact?
Alberta’s perennial leading jockey Rico Walcott, the rider of Chief Know It All, testified it was Double Bear’s fault.
“Double Bear hit the left hind end of my horse,” said Walcott.
“Double Bear initiated the contact.”
Or was it Chief Know It All that came down on Double Bear?
Sheila Gaudreau, a former longtime steward in California, testified in October that it was the latter. If it were up to her, Gaudreau said, she would have taken down Chief Know It All. She testified that Chief Know It All took away the path of Double Bear along the rail.
Robert Noda, a former jockey and steward, offered the other explanation. Noda said the culprit was Double Bear.
The first point of contact, Noda said, was that Double Bear “hit the butt end” of Chief Know It All and that “pointed” (Chief Know It All) in.
“The rest,” said Noda, “was all aftermath.
“(Dane Nelson) put himself in a precarious position. Double Bear got claustrophobic. (The horse) didn’t want to be there and wanted out of there.
“The stewards,” Noda said, “made the right decision.”
Jill Mason and Andrea FugemanMillar, appointed by the provincial government and totally independent of Horse Racing Alberta, head the tribunal.
After a 45-minute adjournment in last week’s hearing, Mason asked Noda where Double Bear hit Chief Know It All.
With no clear response (you certainly can’t see it on the films or on the any of the 12 still photos taken from the replay films), Millar said “I can’t see it either.”
While the originator of the bumping will ultimately determine the outcome of the appeal, there were several discrepancies that were brought up in the hearing.
For starters, did Nelson even put in an objection?
Nelson said he did, saying he lodged an objection with outrider Larry Dagg, which all riders are requested to do if they want to claim foul.
Dagg, however, said Nelson didn’t.
Asked if he was spoken to by any of the riders following the Derby, Dagg said “No. There was a lot of hollering going on (between Nelson and Walcott) but nobody put in an objection to me,” and Dagg then radioed ‘All Clear’ to the stewards.
Steward Wayne Armstrong also testified that Nelson didn’t talk to the stewards and that it was Rod Cone, trainer of Double Bear, who put in the objection.
Armstrong also said that the stewards didn’t put the inquiry sign on the tote board because “We didn’t see an infraction. Basically it was incidental contact and had no bearing on the outcome of the race.”
Whether this appeal is overturned or upheld, it does not affect parimutuel wagering.
What is at stake is the purse money.
First place in the Derby was worth $90,000, second place $30,000 and third place $9,000.