Keith Strudler: Photo Finish

If you’re still holding on to betting tickets from last weekend’s Kentucky Derby, perhaps you should simply store them in a safe place for the time being. Granted, winnings have long been paid out, and losers have likely moved on to the next race. But in this particular, very unusual case, better safe than sorry.

That’s because, as you likely know, while the results of the Derby are technically final, it’s likely far from over. The declared winner from Saturday’s race was Country House, a 65-1 longshot that actually crossed the finish line second. But after an appeal and officials review that lasted about 20 times longer than the race itself, the first finisher and betting favorite Maximum Security was penalized for interfering with another horse, which caused something of a chain reaction that changed the results of the race. For that reason and after review, Maximum Security was moved from winner to 17^th, one spot below the lowest finishing horse that was impacted by the melee. And no, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either. That pushed Country House up to first, which was great news for anyone who had bet him to win and hadn’t already ripped up their tickets. It was less exciting for War of Will, who faded to seventh after the contact, and who’s trainer Mark Casse referred to Maximum Security’s jockeying as equivalent to that of a drunk driver. Now, while the results are final, Maximum Security’s owners are considering taking the decision to court, which, although unlikely, would make those worthless tickets worth a whole lot more.

So the final results of this year’s Derby are controversial, at best. No less than the President weighed in – on Twitter, of course. For the record, he thinks that Maximum Security should have won, which makes sense, since he’s clearly not a proponent of either rules or penalties. He also cited political correctness for the official’s verdict, which I don’t fully understand. But if nothing else, it’s nice to know we’re continuing to narrow the window of things that can’t be politicized in the US. To be fair, there aren’t a whole bunch of people who are happy with how this all went down, even including Country House, who’s owners admitted this isn’t exactly the way they’d want to win.

For the Derby and really for horse racing at large, this entire process is the equivalent of a movie spoiler the day before the Avengers comes out. Among many other things, it’s increasingly disenfranchised a dwindling fan base that maybe only tunes in a couple of times a year. Perhaps the only reason people watch horse racing – beyond gambling, of course – is for the dramatic finish. Take that away, like they did here, and there’s not much left. Also to note, neither Country House nor Maximum Security will participate in the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, making that event little more than an excuse to drink an excessive amount of Black Eyed Susans with 100,000 of your closest friends.

I will spare everyone from a long rendering of my own personal feelings about horse racing. In sum, I find it just slightly less brutal and cruel than Roman Gladiator games and think the entire enterprise should be banned. I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon, although ongoing horse slaughters at the track and Derbys like these might precipitate the conversation. But what should also be considered here is the frailty of athletic competition – equine and otherwise.

Part of – or perhaps the lion’s share of broad interest in spectator sports is the general understanding that athletes, for lack of a better term, compete against one another to see who can outperform the others. In a sport like horse racing, or say track, it’s fairly simple. The first one to the line wins. Not a lot of subtlety. And that’s the appeal.

But when the decision isn’t simply a matter of accomplishment, but perhaps also one of interpretation, that tends to sour interest. I might be interested in watching which person can will themselves to the finish line first. I’m less interested in watching skilled officials decide the nuanced determination of what constitutes an infraction. See, we enjoy sports for their blunt simplicity, a linear tie to constructs like determination and talent and desire. And when the Kentucky Derby ended last Saturday, we assumed and largely accepted that Maximum Security personified all that. But when the officials changed the results, it reminded us that sports aren’t just brute competition, but really a contextual negotiation, where athletic performance is but one factor in a larger rubric. And this, by the way, is why fans loathe foul calls in the final seconds of a basketball game, when they’d rather the refs swallow their whistles, as it’s said.

Of course, right now, fans at the Kentucky Derby aren’t worried about all that. For now, they’re simply wondering if those tickets are worth keeping.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.