Nakatani Denies Breaking Whip Rule

Elaborating on a statement that he issued earlier this month, jockey Corey Nakatani testified Saturday that he did nothing wrong while riding Tillie’s Joy in his final race and only struck the 2-year-old lightly with the whip before the colt broke down and was destroyed.

Nakatani, the leading jockey at the Santa Anita season based on victories and a rider with the second-highest purse total in the country last year, testified before Santa Anita’s three stewards, who are conducting a hearing into a complaint by the California Horse Racing Board that he violated one of its use-of-whip rules. After two days, no more witnesses are scheduled, and Nakatani is expected to finish his testimony today.

Tillie’s Joy, who finished sixth as the favorite in a maiden race at Santa Anita on Dec. 29, suffered a broken left foreleg as he was returning to the saddling area.

Before the breakdown, Nakatani estimated that he had struck Tillie’s Joy six times with his whip--three times as the colt was galloping out past the finish line and three more times after he had made the turn on the backstretch was headed back to be unsaddled in front of the winner’s circle.

Asked by his attorney, Darrell Vienna, how hard he hit Tillie’s Joy, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the hardest, Nakatani said the first three blows were a “3 or 4” and the others were a “2 or 3.”

“At first, I hit him on the shoulder because he started to bear out,” Nakatani said. “I was galloping him out because I was hoping that he would run a route of ground [a longer race] in his next race. He responded the first two times I hit him, but then he started to drift [to the right].”

On the backstretch, Nakatani said that he hit Tillie’s Joy again because he was acting like a green horse. The maiden claimer had just run only his third race.

“I hit him on the shoulder again,” Nakatani said. “I wanted to make sure he didn’t prop [stop abruptly] or lean on other horses.”

Vienna said that Nakatani has had seven whip violations since he began riding in 1988 and none since June 1993. Eva Wheeler, a pony rider who was stationed near where Tillie’s Joy and the other 11 horses in the race were being pulled up, testified Friday that Nakatani frequently whips horses after races.

“When you hit horses on the shoulder, you can’t hurt them,” Nakatani said Saturday. “You hurt horses when you hit them in the eye or cut them. I haven’t hit a horse in anger in four years. I don’t get mad at horses anymore. I used to, but it affects what you do in the next race and the next race after that. I’ve accepted that you lose more races than you win.”