A Protest in Name Only : Stevens Calls It a Courtesy to Owners, Concedes That King Glorious Is the Best

Odd as it may sound, it isn’t always necessary to see or hear a horse race in order to know who won. Just wait inside the jockeys’ room, then watch and listen when the riders return to change silks.

Invariably, their actions will provide an instant--and often considerably more dramatic--replay of the race just run. The losers will sometimes cuss and fling down their helmets in disgust. The winner will be the last to return, and he’ll usually be the one with the widest smile.

Sunday afternoon’s $1-million Hollywood Futurity, the richest and potentially most significant race of the Hollywood Park fall meeting, was an exception.

Instead of gathering around the television monitor to watch the replay and indulge in the usual second-guessing and exchange of good-natured insults, the mud-spattered riders trooped in in single file, strangely silent.

A stewards’ inquiry--the result of a protest by Music Merci’s jockey, Gary Stevens, and trainer, Craig Lewis, against King Glorious and Chris McCarron--delayed the TV replay, so there was nothing to watch and little to argue about.

Even the protest was nothing more than a formality, a courtesy to Music Merci’s owners, as Stevens pointed out.

“I felt like the best horse probably won today,” Stevens said of the unbeaten King Glorious. “My horse ran a good race. It was obvious that the (winning) horse came out in front of me and I claimed foul more for my owner’s protection. Mr. Lewis said he was going to claim foul if I didn’t. I felt I owed it to the people I was riding for, when you’re running for that much money.

“He (King Glorious) obviously came out in front of me, but they (Hollywood Park stewards) haven’t made a change for that the whole meet. I can’t say I was going to go ahead and beat the other horse, but it did break my horse’s momentum. If it would have cost him second (place) money, they might have taken a longer look at it.”

Stevens, the meet’s leading rider, said Music Merci had run as well as he had in winning a division of the Hoist the Flag Stakes Nov. 25, but still could not catch the favorite.

“He (Music Merci) ran a super race,” he said. “You’ve got to give this other colt all the credit in the world. He was lugging out with Chris from the three-eighths pole. Coming off the big (4-month) layoff to win a 7-furlong race (Nov. 12) and then bouncing back today in the mud. He’s the first horse that’s gone wire-to-wire in the last 3 days, so he’s a very, very nice colt.”

Laffit Pincay, who finished third aboard Hawkster, thought he had a shot at winning the Grade I event, but the tactics he was forced to adopt cost him the chance.

“I was supposed to keep him in the clear,” Pincay said of Hawkster. “He doesn’t like the mud in his face. So he lost some ground (going wide around the turns), more than I wanted to. Coming down the stretch I really thought he was going to catch them. But they weren’t really stopping like I thought they would and I got out-run for second.

“He ran a good race, very good. I don’t think this was the best track for him, he likes fast tracks. But he’s such a good horse that he tries.”

When McCarron finally returned to the jockeys’ room, he was nursing his hand, testimony to King Glorious’ power.

“Man, can he run,” McCarron said. “My (small) finger went numb from holding him. I put heat on it trying to get the feeling back into it.

“He was tugging that hard, not down the backstretch but coming off the turn. I didn’t want him going out with me and I was wrestling trying to keep him in.”

The effort failed and King Glorious’ apparent interference in the stretch resulted in the protest that was denied.

Soon, McCarron may be launching a protest of his own, this one aimed at the Daily Racing Form.

Sunday’s victory, combined with his victory in the Japan Cup 3 weeks ago, pushed McCarron past Jose Santos as the year’s leading money-winning rider.

“That old tax man’s gonna love you this year,” one of the jockeys’ room valets joked to McCarron, referring to his more than $14 million in purses.

“I’m going to have to get ahold of the tax man,” McCarron replied. “He’s going to have to stick up for me. They (Racing Form statisticians) took that million-dollar (Japan Cup) purse away from me. They credited my standings with it at first, then this past Friday it was gone, it wasn’t there. I don’t know why. I don’t know if they want to count foreign earnings or not, but they’ve always done it in the past.

“I’ll tell them if the government’s going to count it, then the Racing Form’s got to count it.

“With that, I’m in front (of Santos); without it, I’m not.”

The earnings race may still be too close to call, but on King Glorious Sunday McCarron was in front all the way.