Chief’s Crown Rallies to Win the Flamingo in a Hearing Room

Chief’s Crown, disqualified for interference after finishing first in the $265,000 Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah March 30, got the victory back Tuesday when a blue-ribbon panel of experts overruled the three stewards in a decision believed to be unprecedented in horse racing.

In a unanimous decision reached only 10 minutes after a 90-minute hearing at Hialeah, three former stewards ruled that Chief’s Crown’s drifting out in the stretch wasn’t serious enough to merit disqualification.

Chief’s Crown, last year’s 2-year-old champion and one of the leading contenders for this year’s Kentucky Derby, won the Flamingo by a length over Proud Truth, but the order was reversed after the race by the Hialeah stewards.

The Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, which supervises racing in the state, received two appeals a few days after the race--one each from the owners of Chief’s Crown and the owner of Stephan’s Odyssey, who finished third, a neck behind Proud Truth. Henryk de Kwiatkowski, owner of Stephan’s Odyssey, said that his colt had been interfered with by Proud Truth in the stretch run.

Bob Rosenberg, executive director of the state division, accepted the special panel’s recommendation to reinstate Chief’s Crown as the winner and also endorsed its opinion that Stephan’s Odyssey remain in third place.

As a result, Andrew Rosen and his family, owners of Chief’s Crown, will receive the winner’s share of the purse, which was $150,000, leaving $50,000 for John Galbreath, owner of Proud Truth, and $27,500 for De Kwiatkowski.

Wagering on the race is not affected, which means the fans who bet $73,176 on Chief’s Crown to win, $22,719 on a Chief’s Crown-Proud Truth perfecta and $23,347 on a Chief’s Crown-Proud Truth-Stephan’s Odyssey trifecta had the right horses but will collect nothing. Payoffs based on the stewards’ disqualification of Chief’s Crown were made the day of the race. Proud Truth, the winner of the Florida Derby, had been the 6-5 favorite in the race and paid $4.40 to win. Chief’s Crown was the second choice at 13-10.

The special panel that ruled Tuesday consisted of Cal Rainey and Myron Davis, former New York stewards, and Leo O’Donnell, a retired Kentucky steward.

Stewards have previously been overruled regarding errors and misinterpretations on rules, but this is believed to be the first time a stewards’ decision based on judgment has been reversed.

The three stewards who officiated the race were Joe Anderson, Pete Gacicia and Dee Wade. Wade, assistant chief of operations in Rosenberg’s office, was acting as a substitute steward for Walter Blum, the former jockey who was absent because of the death of his mother.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the panel saw videotape replays of the Flamingo, heard the stewards’ version of the disqualification and then listened to the jockeys involved--Don MacBeth on Chief’s Crown, Jorge Velasquez on Proud Truth and Eddie Maple aboard Stephan’s Odyssey.

In addition to winning the Flamingo, MacBeth also had a 10-day suspension rescinded Tuesday. The jockey had continued riding pending an appeal of the suspension, which had been handed him by the stewards “for failure to maintain a straight course with his mount.”

After Tuesday’s decision, John Veitch, trainer of Proud Truth, shook hands with Roger Laurin, trainer of Chief’s Crown, but Veitch was said to be upset by the outcome.

“They gave absolutely no credence at all to the fact that Chief’s Crown bore out all the way through the stretch,” Veitch said later in a telephone conversation with Dan Galbreath, son of the owner of Proud Truth. “Our horse was like a moving target--Jorge didn’t know which way to go.”

The owners of the three horses signed agreements before the hearing that they would not contest the race in the courts after the state’s decision.

“We were in an awkward, untenable position--we had nothing to gain and everything to lose,” Dan Galbreath said. “We were the target. If we didn’t submit to the racing mechanism, we probably would have been forced into a courtroom. It was very unfair for us to be placed in that position, and I’ve second-guessed myself the last few days about going along.

“Going into court would have been detrimental to racing, the sport’s had enough of that, already. A couple of years ago, in the Twin Spires Stakes on Derby day at Churchill Downs, a horse of ours named High Honors won the race and was disqualified. It was an unbelievably bad decision by the stewards, but we took our lumps and moved on. What I question about Tuesday’s decision is what it does to the stewards and their authority--does it change the structure of the whole thing?”

As for a rematch, Chief’s Crown and Proud Truth probably won’t run against each other until the Kentucky Derby May 4. Proud Truth’s next start is scheduled to be the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct April 20, and Chief’s Crown is headed for Kentucky, where he may not race again until the Derby.