DQ in Ohio on rare ruling

Thistledown stewards have disqualified the winner of the 14th race from June 10 because she did not carry her rider during the entire post parade.

The stewards disqualified Waimea for not carrying her assigned weight the day after her victory in a one-mile race for $6,250 maiden claimers. According to state steward Phillip Gore Jr., the horse froze after coming out of the paddock for the race and again about a quarter-mile from the starting gate. Jockey Weldon Cloninger Jr. dismounted and Waimea was ponied from the quarter pole to the gate. She stood near the gate without a rider for three or four minutes, Gore said, until the rest of the field reached the gate.

Waimea, a 5-year-old mare owned by Terry Cramlett and trained by Rodney Faulkner, won by by 1 1/2 lengths as the 8-5 favorite and paid $5.20. After the race trainers Tim Hamm, Richard Genovese, and Lawrence Antus protested the result, Gore said.

"The next morning we went to the Ohio State Racing Commission rule book and found a rarely used rule which states that each horse must carry the assigned weight from the paddock to the starting gate, and disqualified the horse on that basis," Gore said.