He Can Run, but He Can’t Hide: Winning Horse Disqualified in the Fog

It was so foggy when Landing Officer sprinted to a 20-length victory last Thursday at Delta Downs that racing officials couldn’t see much of the race. And once they reviewed it, they decided the results were murky enough to disqualify the winner.

Some stewards think jockey Sylvester Carmouche hid the 5-year-old horse in the fog and waited for the rest of the pack to approach before breaking for the finish line.

“I have a question in my mind whether he won or not,” said Clyde Stevens, a racing steward. “I also have a question of where he was during the whole race.”

The fog was so thick the track announcer stopped calling the races.

J.L. Vincent, track security director, told the Houston Chronicle that Carmouche could have hidden in the fog after the start, waiting for the field to approach.

“It would have been easy to hide at the top of the stretch down there because the fog was so thick,” Vincent said. “That’s what we think happened because when the horses came by the first time, we counted only eight, and there were nine starters.”

Stevens said two jockeys filed a protest immediately after the race. After a 20-minute delay, the stewards dropped Landing Officer to ninth.

He said a state Racing Commission inquiry is scheduled today into Carmouche’s actions.

The win for Landing Officer would have represented a 32-length improvement over his last run at a mile.