Retired steward would have DQ’d Journalism in Preakness

Bernie Hettel spent more than 40 years working as a racing steward at every level from maiden claimers to the Kentucky Derby. Asked how he would have ruled on Journalism’s bump-and-grind victory Saturday in Preakness 2025, he did not mince seven particular words.

“I think I would have disqualified Journalism.”

Add his to the chorus of conflicting opinions that came out of the pivotal squeeze play between inward-bound Goal Oriented and retreating rail runner Clever Again. Hettel, 74, brings heft to his point of view. He is a racing lifer who spent years as the chief steward in Kentucky and later in Arkansas.

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After watching countless replays of what turned into a thrilling classic, Hettel said that at the top of the stretch, jockey Umberto Rispoli put Journalism through an opening that really was not there.

“He was making his own path,” Hettel said on Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “Look, a jockey is strategically placing his horse. I’ve got that. He was trying to put himself in the best position. He had a ton of horse and thought he was on the best horse, obviously. And he kind of made his own way. There was a hole there of some proportion, but it wasn’t big enough for him to slide through without impeding the progress of either Goal Oriented or Clever Again.”

Rispoli came to his own defense Thursday against the overarching criticism, telling Thoroughbred Daily News, “My intention was to take (Journalism) out to see if he would give me any response like he did in the Kentucky Derby. In a couple of strides he didn’t do it, and the turn was approaching. At that point I had to make a decision.”

As for Hettel, his point of view differed from that of another former steward. Retired Santa Anita morning-line writer Jon White has officiated races from Southern California to Idaho. He felt the blame belonged elsewhere.

“In my opinion, Goal Oriented should have been disqualified and placed last for instigating a chain reaction,” White wrote for Racing Dudes. “It is my view that Goal Oriented came in and caused interference to Journalism. And when Goal Oriented came in, he pushed Journalism into Clever Again, which resulted in Clever Again being severely impeded.”

Hettel did not see it that way, and he used the Equibase chart from the Preakness to illustrate his point.

“It’s pretty demonstrative,” he said. “The comment section says Goal Oriented angled in, bumped, checked at the three-sixteenths pole. For Clever Again it says roughed up at the three-sixteenths pole. The comment for Journalism is through tight, three-sixteenths and then surged. He ran a superb race after he got cleared, no doubt. You can’t take that away from him, but getting there was the problem.”

Hettel acknowledged that Goal Oriented veered inward coming out of the second turn, but he disagreed with White and others who blamed jockey Flavien Prat.

“A lot of people were upset with Prat,” Hettel said. “They probably were mistaken with their chagrin to Prat, because I think he was just reacting and seemed somewhat surprised that (Journalism) made that bold a move between horses.”

Steve Asmussen, who trains Clever Again, said Wednesday he still was emotional about what happened when his colt got shoved against the rail. He still was fired up about the inaction from Maryland stewards.

“I strongly believe that Prat’s horse turns in when he gets hit in the ass, and that’s what happens when you get hit in the ass,” Asmussen said in a radio interview for Steve Byk’s “At the Races.” Later he said, “I think it’s on the stewards constantly. ... How about if you quit letting them run into each other? How come everybody just passes the buck? It was OK at the other place, so why isn’t it OK here? At no point is what actually is happening being addressed. It’s commented on, but it’s never addressed.”

With all the literally moving parts, Hettel said only one variable compelled him to point his finger of blame.

“Given where Journalism was before the incident and where the other two horses were before the incident, what’s the X factor that caused both Goal Oriented and Clever Again to have some reaction?” he said. “It was the infusion of the other horse Journalism between those two. The X factor to be there has to be Journalism.”

Hettel said if his idea of standard procedure had been used Saturday, there would have been phone conversations with Rispoli, Prat and Clever Again’s jockey José Ortiz. That did not happen in the less than three minutes it took for Maryland stewards to light the inquiry sign and to decide not to change the order of finish.

“Rispoli was being interviewed by Donna Barton (Brothers on horseback for NBC Sports), which is her job to do after the race to go get him,” Hettel said. “She said there’s an inquiry. She told Rispoli there was an inquiry. Shortly thereafter in her conversation of what a magnificent race it was, she informed him the race was official.”

Hettel stopped short of saying whether he would have fined or suspended Rispoli. Again, he said he would have wanted to speak to the jockeys first before coming to that sort of conclusion.

Rispoli, the first Italy native to ride the winner of a U.S. classic, bristled at the notion he was overly aggressive, saying his reputation belies that perception.

“That’s not the type of rider that I am,” he told TDN. “I have been here (in the U.S.) for five years. Find me another race where people said I was reckless, or find me another race where I was in that position. I am not a kamikaze rider. I have a wife and two kids, and I didn’t want to kill myself or see anyone get killed. It’s easy for people to say that I should have gone around the other horses, but if I’m ever in a position like that again and think I can win if I save ground, I’m going to do it.”

The last time a Triple Crown race had a winner disqualified for something that happened on the racetrack was 2019, when Maximum Security was ruled to have caused interference in the second turn of the Kentucky Derby. Twenty-two minutes after the finish, he was disqualified, and Country House was promoted to the victory.

With such a prestigious race as the Preakness hanging in the balance, would the stewards have felt more heat than usual?

“You’ve got to watch that race like it’s any other race,” Hettel said. “Now that’s hard to do, but that’s why stewards make the big money. ... You’ve got to judge it like it’s any other race much like I think the people who do the Super Bowl officiating or the World Series, you’ve got to take it like it’s a race on Tuesday, a baseball game on Tuesday or a football game on Monday night. You just do it the way you’re trained to do, and you put all that other stuff aside and make the call.”

Retired in Louisville, Ky., but still working occasionally as a consultant, Hettel said some things never will change when it comes to officiating races from the stewards’ booth.

“I tell the jocks when we’re reviewing the films the next day, take yourself into the position of a car accident,” he said. “If you’re driving a car, and you run into somebody, you’ve got one perspective. The person you’ve run into has got a different perspective. And a person maybe standing on the corner watching that mess has a third perspective. Like I tell people, I always start every hearing or every hearing with the caveat reasonable people can disagree.”

Hettel acknowledged one other not so minor factor in the post-Preakness criticism.

“If you bet on the horse, if you’ve ridden the horse, if you’ve trained the horse, if you owned the horse,” he said, “you’re probably going to have a very considered opinion.”