Horse Racing / Bill Christine

Had any owner protested that last Saturday’s Citation Handicap was run about 25 yards short because of a misplaced starting gate, Hollywood Park’s stewards did some instant research to make sure they would be able to handle an appeal properly.

What Hubert Jones found in the Jockey Club’s Rules of Racing would probably discourage an owner from protesting.

“First of all, when a race is run at the wrong distance, the protest must be made before the ‘official’ sign goes up on the race,” Jones said. “But get this. In the event a protest is allowed, the rules say that the race must be run again. And the rerun should be after the last race of the day, but not less than 30 minutes after the wrongly run race.”

That sounds like a rule in need of rewriting.