Turfway Park Stewards to Explain Disqualifications

With NFL fans accustomed to hearing a brief explanation from officials if replay reverses a call on the field, Turfway Park and the stewards at the Northern Kentucky track are going to try a similar approach.

If a horse is disqualified during racing at Turfway, chief state steward Barbara Borden will provide a voice-over explanation while the track replays the incident in question. In an effort to provide clarity and transparency, Turfway and the stewards plan the feature for both its holiday meet, which concludes Dec. 31; and the winter-spring meet, which runs Jan.1-March 31.

"I think it's a responsible way to inform people that are wagering on our races, our signal, of what's happening," said Turfway general manager and director of operations Daniel "Chip" Bach. "There could be a lot of consequences to a decision like that.

"If they don't understand our rules—a lot of people from different jurisdictions may have different rules or they don't understand them—so they think it's a bad call. I think it lends integrity to our signal and at the same time informs the betting public of what those infractions are."

Bach noted that a few years ago chief steward John Veitch would go on-camera and provide explanations. Under the new format, chief state steward Barbara Borden will have a microphone and headset to communicate decisions that result in a disqualification. Borden noted that her voice-over will be a live version of the written reports the stewards post to the Keeneland website during that meet.



"I think it's well worth doing just to have some transparency," Borden said. "On all the calls we make, we want people to understand why we made them."

She said the verbal report will aim to provide some clarity on decisions.

"What it will entail will be similar to what we put in a stewards' report, 'An objection was lodged by this rider and after reviewing the race replay and interviewing the jockeys this is our determination and why,'" Borden said. "It's not going to be an interview or question and answer session, just a brief explanation."

Borden said Kentucky stewards are comfortable explaining their decisions, noting that they routinely field phone calls from bettors or connections. She said they will provide answers to those callers as long as they have time and the phone call remains cordial. They'll provide that approach to the simulcast audience.

"We want to explain our decisions," Borden said. "For one thing, we feel like our calls are solid and we have good reasons for why we made them."

Turfway has installed a secure headset and has worked with the stewards to coordinate how such explanations will be communicated to ensure accurate, concise, and consistent reporting. Bach said sports fans have come to expect some level of explanation when a call on the field is overturned.

"Sometimes you get a call that goes against your favorite football team," Bach said. "In football they review it and tell you what the results of the review are. I think it's common in sports now to have that explanation."