Testimony complete in Elegantimage appeal
by Melissa Keith
In a cumbersome, rather than elegant, outcome, the Sept. 20 Elegantimage (Gr. 1) final was the subject of an Ontario Horse Racing Appeal Panel (HRAP) hearing on Friday (Nov. 7). Last week’s column covered the statements given by driver Dexter Dunn and senior AGCO racing official Dave Stewart.
Drivers Tim Tetrick and Louis-Philippe Roy were questioned on the same date about what happened in the Elegantimage final, in which winner R Dutchess was set back for interference against Global Heritage, leading to Lasting Dream being placed first.
Roy was first to give his statement. The Mohawk regular told the Panel that he had been driving professionally since 2015, with drives on “probably… average of a thousand, fifteen hundred, horses a year.” He drove Lasting Dream in the Elegantimage final.
“Going into the first turn, we were stacked three horses high, beside each other,” Roy said. “There was Dexter [Dunn] on the inside with… I can’t recall the name of the horse. In between, you had Tim Tetrick with R Dutchess, and I was on the outside with Lasting Dream.”
Fred Brethour, counsel for the registrar, asked Roy to describe Lasting Dream’s position as shown in upper pan camera footage from early in the race.
“I’m in front of [R Dutchess],” answered Roy, “Three-wide or third, the third lane. Tetrick now is in the back, the two lane and two-wide.”
A few moments later in the video, Roy said he was “three-wide and everybody’s kind of getting a spot on the inside and I’m waiting for it to happen, and either pursue going to the front or look for a spot or whatever. So, I’m just taking in information.”
With the video on pause, Brethour asked, “Now, if we play this, would it be fair to say that at any time, did you crowd the nine horse… R Dutchess?”
Counsel for the appellant Jean-Marc MacKenzie objected to Brethour “leading the witness.” HRAP chair Stanley Sadinsky agreed, requesting Brethour “let the witness tell his story.”
At the moment R Dutchess bore in on Global Heritage, Roy said he was “still three-wide… To me, the only thing happening is inside, so I don’t have a huge story to say, other than I’m just staying there and waiting and taking the room that’s available there until everybody gets settled in their position more.”
A front tower shot was shown at half-speed. Brethour asked Roy about “where Mr. Tetrick’s horse’s head, where its nose is at this spot [in the race]?”
The driver replied, “A lot of horses, they tend to bear in on the turns, so their body or whatever, they’re inclined to go more on the inside. What I see right now, with my expert eyes, in my opinion, is that that’s what Tetrick’s filly is actually doing. She’s kind of bearing in and he’s trying to restrain her from bearing in, so that’s why you see the nose of the horse is kept to the outside.”
Roy added that Lasting Dream was on a horizontal path, not pressuring R Dutchess.
“She’s a horse that drives straight, so you can tell even by going into the turn, she never gets her head crooked on the side or on the other side,” he said.
He stated that his sulky wheel never made contact.
MacKenzie questioned Roy next, addressing him as “a very accomplished driver and a very strategic driver.” He asked Roy about Lasting Dream’s longshot status and challenging post position [10].
“She’s a horse [who] likes to get into position, so I wanted to be near the front,” Roy said. “I didn’t want to race her too much from off the pace because we didn’t have much success racing off the pace with her.”
MacKenzie asked why Roy wanted to put Lasting Dream near the front.
“To give her the best shot to get the biggest purse,” Roy said.
“And were you aware of who the favorite was in the race?” asked MacKenzie.
“Yeah, the best [horses] in the race were both Tim Tetrick’s horse, R Dutchess, and Dexter’s horse [Global Heritage],” Roy said.
Watching upper pan footage, MacKenzie asked Roy about driving strategy around the time of the interference.
“I had it in my head there that I can either keep going or wait for [Yannick Gingras] to make the front, and once he makes the front he’ll probably try to relax and I can keep pushing there,” Roy said.
When MacKenzie asked Roy about half-speed footage a moment later, inquiring about whether R Dutchess was running in, he responded, “It’s hard to say, with the angle, but [she] was two-and-a-half-wide before, and [she’s] definitely getting closer to the rail with every step… [She’s] actually bearing in going towards the inside, but [she’s] not being corrected by Tetrick, because he has room to go inside there. He’s floating to the inside.”
Roy agreed that he had looked to the left before R Dutchess moved inward against Global Heritage. He disagreed with MacKenzie’s suggestion that a horse will turn its head to see what is happening in tight quarters,” Roy said. “If they were doing that, they’ll be looking sideways all the time at the horses coming on both sides of them during a race. They’re trained to keep their head as straight as possible.” Roy later agreed that banking can cause “maybe 60 or 80 per cent of the horses” to bear in on turns.
Tetrick was the last witness. He told the Panel that he had been driving professionally since autumn 2000, reaching 15,000 drives and almost $280 million in purses won.
Tetrick said that R Dutchess “was coming into the race very, very strong. She was definitely one of the favorites to win… I thought she was by far the best horse running in to that race.”
He said he had driven the filly in all of her 2025 starts and found that R Dutchess was “a very professional racehorse” who is “very simple to drive and stays on both lines well.”
Tetrick responded to questions from MacKenzie as race footage was shown. The driver said he was “waiting for the dust to settle a little bit” leaving, “to get where I need to be in the outer flow and have a clean shot” going into the first turn.
“I’m two-and-a-half wide. I’m right on Yannick [Gingras’] back; he’s two-wide moving to the front [driving Highlandstarburst],” Tetrick said. “Roy is three-, four-deep there, so I’m just going to follow Yannick onto the lead. I thought I had the best horse, and as you can tell here [before the interference], I’m still two-and-a-half wide and got plenty of room.”
With the replay paused, MacKenzie asked Tetrick to describe what was happening before the interference.
“Right now, she’s very straight,” Tetrick said. “You can see her head’s straight and… we’re trotting pretty good through the first turn. My mare feels really, really comfortable and she’s on both lines. I’m pretty happy with my position right here.”
Tetrick added that Roy seemed to be “in no-man’s land… looking for a spot to go and looking for somewhere to get to, and he knows he’s kind of in trouble at this point.”
Sadinsky asked MacKenzie to “let the witness give the evidence.” The counsel for the appellant’s next question was about Tetrick’s early strategy.
“Trying to get to the front,” said the driver. “My horse was the favorite, and I thought she had the best shot to win… I wasn’t even planning on going to the rail… I wanted to stay out of trouble and stay on the outside so I had a clear path to the lead.”
Tetrick described the interference in the race, which was displayed on-screen.
“I’m being crowded from the outside,” Tetrick said. “Roy’s trying to push his way down in, to get into a spot, and I’m trying to hold my own, but you know, he’s right on my legs on the outside.”
“How close did he get to your horse?” asked MacKenzie.
“Way more comfortable than I felt about it,” Tetrick said. “He was very, very close to my [filly’s] front legs. Roy’s horse on the outside is coming down and pushing me down into the inside, crowding on Dex [Dunn and Global Heritage], but I had no choice; either my legs get hit, or I have to give a little inch or two, to get away from Roy’s wheel. I was just getting really crowded from the outside, which was pushing me down farther and farther to the rail.”
Tetrick said he didn’t want to lose position, but Roy was “three-and-a-half, four-wide, and now he’s two-and-a-half, three-wide, pushing down on top of my [horse’s] legs.”
MacKenzie asked about his next move.
“I have to try to give inches,” Tetrick said. “I don’t want to get hit or have my horse fall down, or you know, have an accident, so I’m trying to give as much space as I can without me getting in trouble as well.”
Tetrick said he called the judges after R Dutchess was set back.
“They placed me and they said they couldn’t see it on the video that he was crowding me,” Tetrick said. “They thought it was all my fault. They made their decision and I told them that I did not agree with it.” Tetrick said that after the judges interviewed Dunn about the incident, Dunn told him, “It wasn’t your fault. You were getting pushed from the outside.”
Tetrick explained that R Dutchess “was looking at Roy’s wheel… She was running in because Roy was right down, almost touching her knee and getting close to the side of her foot.”
The hearing concluded on Nov. 7. The HRAP has yet to make a decision in the case.
