The Canadian Sportsman
Tongue Tie Off
Back To Tongue Tie Off
“Sit up straight!!” How many times have you heard that one in your life? Most likely it was long ago, from a parent, or a teacher. But recently? And from a gambler?
Well, here I am, saying it. And I’m saying it to all our leading drivers out there, people whose talent I truly admire and envy. And I say it knowing I am most likely wasting my breath. But all this new-style leaning-straight-back aerodynamics is seriously, insidiously, damaging the racing product. There’s always been a serious front-end bias over half-mile racetracks, but over the last decade, it seems, even on the larger ovals, horses go to the front and last till the wire far more than they ever did during our sport’s glory days. Any chance that some of this is due to the new-school posture of our current group of leading reinsmen?
When I started betting on the races, in the days when the wooden Jerald sulky was state-of-the-art, the driver sat above the wheels of the bike, his handholds at most a couple or three feet behind the stitched-together portion of the lines. (Leather lines only in those days, kids.) As a race unfolded, and the horses dropped into place nose-to-helmet, picture the amount of ground a horse would have to make up during the course of the mile to reach the finish line first.
And then picture it now. To begin with, each driver now sits behind the wheels of his race bike. His handholds might be anywhere from four to five feet to even further away from the stitching. Imagine the red-hot George Brennan (above) on the front end as a field of horses hits the quarter at the Big M. Although I suspect I may be conservative in my estimation, between current sulky design and his preferred posture, let’s say his helmet is three feet further back then Buddy Gilmour’s was back in the day. Now, in the two-hole, picture the aggressive Yannick Gingras, trying to relax his mount, a bit charged up from leaving hard, following tightly along. Now, my math skills are awfully rusty, which I prove every time I try to help my daughter with her homework, but I can still do simple addition, and three plus three equals six, which is how many feet Yannick’s helmet is behind where the guy sitting in the two-hole in the 1980’s was.
And I can still do simple multiplication, and eight times three equals 24. Which is how many feet further back the poor fella who got away eighth is than his counterpart from the old days was. So now, in order to come from eighth place, a horse has to make up an additional 24 FEET to win the race! Twenty-four feet in a sport where I’m pretty sure the average winning margin is less than a quarter of that.
When I was a teenager, falling in love with the sport from the other side of the fence, as a field of horses turned for home at the Meadowlands, every one of them still had a chance to win. Sadly, that is rarely the case anymore. The same is true at Mohawk, and drastically more so at Woodbine. We are our own worst enemies, as we so often are. In an effort to go faster and faster, we make the actual racing far worse. One bright spot is Hoosier Park, where the management and stewards are to be commended for their strict rules about how far back the drivers are allowed to recline. So it is possible to change. Which makes our sport’s continued march toward the edge of the cliff all the more frustrating.
Comments (1)
Print
Displaying 1 to 1 of 1
- 1
1.
May 28, 2010
10:52 AM
10:52 AM
The funny thing is that this new driving posture, or the "The Lean" -- as annoying as it is -- has become de rigueur insofar as young drivers are concerned. The new set of drivers wouldn't be caught dead sitting straight up. I mean, it's not like they need to see where they're going.
In the past two years I have let two novices -- kids about 15 -- jog a horse or two and the first thing I saw both kids do when they got down the backstretch, and seemingly out of sight, was to lean all the way back and pretend they were whipping their way to the wire.
I've seen amateur races where the 16 year-old kid who is last turning for home is leaning all the way back and hard-driving his horse home (in his head) to victory in The Little Brown Jug.
Yes, it's very dopey, but kind of funny too. Perhaps the most irksome aspect of this skyward steering occurs when a driver turns for home with a 12-length lead and is still leaning and driving. Maybe they're afraid they might get struck by lightning or something.
It reminds me of little league baseball. You have kids that are 7 and 8 years old walk up to the plate, spit, tap the base a few times with the tip of their bat, spit again, stub their sneaker into the dirt a few times, the kick the plate a few times, spit again, roll a few swings at the pitcher, spit again, and then squat down for a pitch that arrives at 4 mph towards a swing that's about 3 seconds too late. You have to laugh. I've even seen little leaguer's stuff their cheeks with bubble gum -- pretending it's chaw.
Anyway, some of these vertically impaired drivers will not hesitate to put their horse's head and shoulders right over the driver in front of them. I mean, that has got to be pretty darn frightening, and thankfully I know of no incidents where a driver or bike was actually stepped over, but there's a first time for everything.
It all started with one driver in New York and it spread from there. It became de rigueur and now we're stuck with it. The funny thing I might add is that I have often worried while headed for the track that I had the handholds set too far back only to see the driver hop on and move them back half a foot more.
I'm sure many a race has been won or lost by a few feet because a horse couldn't make up those last 20 inches he lost while trying not to put a hoof through the shoulder of the driver in front of him. Back in the old days there were drivers who would bend over backwards to win a race, but they were always sitting straight up in the bike.
In the past two years I have let two novices -- kids about 15 -- jog a horse or two and the first thing I saw both kids do when they got down the backstretch, and seemingly out of sight, was to lean all the way back and pretend they were whipping their way to the wire.
I've seen amateur races where the 16 year-old kid who is last turning for home is leaning all the way back and hard-driving his horse home (in his head) to victory in The Little Brown Jug.
Yes, it's very dopey, but kind of funny too. Perhaps the most irksome aspect of this skyward steering occurs when a driver turns for home with a 12-length lead and is still leaning and driving. Maybe they're afraid they might get struck by lightning or something.
It reminds me of little league baseball. You have kids that are 7 and 8 years old walk up to the plate, spit, tap the base a few times with the tip of their bat, spit again, stub their sneaker into the dirt a few times, the kick the plate a few times, spit again, roll a few swings at the pitcher, spit again, and then squat down for a pitch that arrives at 4 mph towards a swing that's about 3 seconds too late. You have to laugh. I've even seen little leaguer's stuff their cheeks with bubble gum -- pretending it's chaw.
Anyway, some of these vertically impaired drivers will not hesitate to put their horse's head and shoulders right over the driver in front of them. I mean, that has got to be pretty darn frightening, and thankfully I know of no incidents where a driver or bike was actually stepped over, but there's a first time for everything.
It all started with one driver in New York and it spread from there. It became de rigueur and now we're stuck with it. The funny thing I might add is that I have often worried while headed for the track that I had the handholds set too far back only to see the driver hop on and move them back half a foot more.
I'm sure many a race has been won or lost by a few feet because a horse couldn't make up those last 20 inches he lost while trying not to put a hoof through the shoulder of the driver in front of him. Back in the old days there were drivers who would bend over backwards to win a race, but they were always sitting straight up in the bike.
~ David Mattia
RESULTS 1 TO 1
- 1
Add Your Comment