Can a horse win a race without a jockey? January 19th, 2010
When i ask this question i want to know does anyone know of a race where a horse has run without a jockey from beginning to end…..meaning he had no jockey at any point in the race not even the starting gate and still ran and won? And also i do know they get DQ’ed without a jockey but i would like to view a race even with the DQ of a horse out running the other jockeys, and winning although the horse is disqualified.
kmnmiamisax
January 19th, 2010 at 3:22 am
The gate crew aren’t going to load a riderless horse into the gate. If there’s no jock, there’s no horse. Loose horses are dangerous and unpredictible… they’re not just going to let one go out there for no reason. I saw a horse lose its rider in a steeplechase after one of the fences. The horse continued on, but when it got to the next fence, it didn’t want to jump it, so it stopped and took a sharp turn to its right… right in front of another horse who was about to jump that fence. It could have been disasterous.
There are a lot of times that horses stumble when leaving the gate and the jockey will fall off. If possible, the outriders will run up and grab the horse… but if the horse has continued to run with the field, they have no choice but to let it go.
When that happens, yes some of those horses have gone on to win the race… of course they’re DQed, but they finished in front. The reason they’re DQed is because every horse in the race has to carry a set amount of weight on their back. If they toss the jockey, they’re carrying 110 less pounds than they’re supposed to. That’s a huge advantage!
There was one New York bred named Gander who dropped his rider at the start, then ran the race alone. He weaved through the other horses on the backstretch, made the lead, then led the field all the way to the finishline. He then galloped out another 1/8 before walking over to the outrider and leading him to the winners circle! Gander thought he won!