In a year in which stewards at Canada’s five major Thoroughbred tracks handed down a record 441 rulings and penalties, it was Century Mile in Edmonton that garnered the biggest headlines with a threatening horse-jerking ride by a jockey and 25 jockeys reaping almost $17,000 in fines for 82 violations of the track’s whipping rules.
No ride in 202 days of racing at Woodbine, Fort Erie, Hastings, Assiniboia Downs and Century Mile garnered more attention than that of Dane Nelson, riding a seemingly appropriately named horse, Oops, in race 3 on July 13 in which he duels furiously with a horse named Alberta who is refusing to give an inch. Close to the wire, in a scene reminiscent of the chariot race in the Ben Hur movie, Nelson suddenly veers Oops into Alberta or, in the words of the stewards, “steered his mount into Alberta, elbowing the jockey.” It’s a jaw-dropper.
Watch that stretch drive here (go to the Century Mile website, July 13 race 3 for a more telling slo-mo head-on version):
Onlookers will likely agree that Nelson got off lucky with a three-day suspension. But, then again, Century Mile stewards handed out few suspensions; their preference were fines. The track’s two longest suspensions of 10 days were for testing positive for marijuana use.