West Believes Tapes Tell a Different Tale About DQ

The more tape Gary West watches, the more and more convinced he becomes that there was no reason to strip a victory from his homebred Maximum Security in the May 4 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).

If anything, West now believes it was Maximum Security who was fouled by War of Will, instead of how stewards at Churchill Downs viewed the race. The three officials ruled that the front-running Maximum Security drifted out and initiated the contact with War of Will, who was behind him, leading to a chain reaction involving Long Range Toddy and Bodexpress and West's 3-year-old being disqualified from first to 17th.

A slow-motion video posted May 6 by Horse Racing Nation shows a different angle, and West believes that view tells a different story as well.

"I started out trying to make a case for my horse coming down," West said. "I watched what we did to (War of Will) in one video and if anyone is halfway intellectually honest and looks at that video (posted Monday at Horse Racing Nation), they would never claim our horse did anything to War of Will. You will see that every bit of the interference was caused by War of Will against Maximum Security. Watch the tire tracks and watch the horses. Watch how many times War of Will's legs go up under our horse. Our horse gets cut up like crazy. At some point his nose touches the back of our horse. He actually bumps our horse. Our horse almost falls down and if not for our rider there might have been 10 dead riders and horses this morning. 

"(War of Will) did things to us that could have endangered the entire field. Everybody is saying we endangered all these people, which is bullshit. My reputation is worth something and so is the reputation of (jockey) Luis Saez and the horse and (trainer) Jason Servis. This is beyond winning the Kentucky Derby. It is a reputational matter. It would be that way to anyone."

Mark Casse, who conditions War of Will, refuted West's comments May 7.

"He must have been looking at a different race," Casse said. "I've seen 10 different views and if anything, it was worse than I thought originally. He didn't bump us once, he bumped us twice. In my mind, the only reason it took so long to take him down was because they didn't know where to place him.

Asked if he regretted not claiming foul in the Derby (claims of foul were issued by Flavien Prat aboard Country House and Jon Court aboard Long Range Toddy), Casse said, "My job is to protect my owner. If my horse had finished in the money, we would have claimed foul."  

Casse also provided a statement issued by Gary Barber, who owns War of Will.

"I categorically deny this false accusation," Barber said. "The video evidence irrefutably shows that his horse, Maximum Security, caused a major infraction that almost led to a catastrophe, and in so doing denied my horse and others of a better placing. The facts are Maximum Security is a great horse that crossed the line first in the Derby, but unfortunately committed a major infraction that denied him a Derby victory.

"I empathize with Mr. West on this fact and feel the pain of losing out, but Mr. West's horse, and not mine nor my jockey Tyler Gaffalione, denied him the Derby victory, and it is wrong for him to deflect blame anywhere else. I am very disappointed that War of Will was deprived of the opportunity to show his best because of Maximum Security, but I painfully accepted that as part of horse racing.

"Thankfully, I am glad both War of Will and Maximum Security survived the day unscathed and will be good to race another day."

West says he spoke to a number of ex-racing officials about the incident and they backed his view and gave him additional impetus to continue fighting a legal battle to have the disqualification overturned.

"I'm an objective guy and I talked with about 20 ex-racing officials to get their opinion of what they see on the tape. They all say there was evidence a blind man could see that my horse did nothing wrong and had War of Will won the race, we would have had a very legitimate claim of foul against him," West said.

West also mentioned how video of the race also appears to show a photographer standing next to the quarter pole during the race in an area that should have been restricted.

"I've never seen anyone standing at the quarter pole for any race and this is the Kentucky Derby," West said. "I would bet a million dollars it was an unauthorized person and it could have had an influence. Just having him there might have spooked the horses."

Churchill Downs officials did not respond to a request for comment about the photographer.

Although West's request to appeal the disqualification was denied by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Monday, he plans to wage a legal battle over the first disqualification for a foul on the racetrack in the 145-year history of the Kentucky Derby.

"The state racing commission won't hear our appeal, so we will take it to the appropriate legal venue, whatever that might be, probably somewhere in Kentucky," West said. "My lawyers will figure it out. We're in a holding pattern until we figure out where to file the suit."