Making a Case for Transparency

Blood-Horse

Originally published in the Aug. 27 edition of Blood-Horse Daily. To download the Blood-Horse Daily smartphone app or to receive the edition in your inbox each evening, visit BloodHorse.com/Daily.

Being a racing steward is a thankless job.

Perhaps that’s a candidate for understatement of the year. The gang of three really can’t win no matter what it collectively decides because with any ruling, someone is going to lose and, most likely, won’t be happy about it.

The Racing Officials Accreditation Program doesn’t hide from that reality. But it’s working to get rulings out in the open in terms of stewards publicly explaining their reasons for disqualifying a horse or allowing a disputed result to stand.

On a busy Saturday afternoon in August at Saratoga Race Course, three of the track’s stewards—Dr. Ted Hill, Stephen Lewandowski, and Braulio Baeza—met with the media after the final race to discuss two races: One resulted in a disqualification; another did not. The stewards also regularly publish a “Stewards’ Corner,” which explains the results of their deliberations.

Hill explained that post-program steward meetings with the media began earlier this year at Aqueduct Racetrack and will continue through 2015, mainly on major racing days.

“It’s an experiment,” Hill said. “We weren’t sure it would be well received. Hong Kong does it every racing day, but it only races two days a week. After last year’s Breeders’ Cup we said, ‘Maybe this is the year to do it.’ ”

Hill was referring to the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I), which resulted in the non-disqualification of the winner, Bayern. The fallout from the controversial call was exacerbated by national television coverage and the growth of social media as an outlet for horseplayers and racing fans.

Hugh Gallagher, the New York Racing Association safety steward and chairman of ROAP, said transparency with the public across the country is one of the current points of emphasis for the organization.

“I don’t think any of us have any fear about talking to the press,” Gallagher said. “By setting this up, it gives us more structure.”

As for the printed reports of on-track interference and resulting decisions, Lewandowski said that has been going on for some time.

“It gives us the opportunity to explain (our reasoning),” Lewandowski said. “It’s not as easy to do as one may figure it is. The blood is flowing for us, too. We try to get it out as fast as we can.”

The stewards said they want to be proactive, not reactive.

“All of us make a living in this business,” Baeza said. “We’re all trying to take a step forward.”