So, there was this horse race. The winning horse was not expected to win, 110-1 odds, which is about the longest shot they make them. Turns out this long shot winning horse was mistakenly not the horse that was supposed to be in the race. In fact, this horse was not even allowed to participate. See this was a race for fillies only. The winner was a stallion. In other words this horse was a male in a female only horse race.

The resulting consequences were fines and suspensions. The stable hand who brought out the horse initiated this mistake. He took the stallion out of the stall which was next to the filly who was supposed to be in the race. The owner did not notice that this wasn’t the right horse. The rider did not notice that this wasn’t the right horse. None of the other riders noticed!! There is the race inspector who failed to discover that this was not the correct horse entered into this race. And what is supposed to be the method for checking if the horse brought to the race is the right one? He checks the tattoo on the lip of the horse. As they say, the identification is “Right from the horses mouth”. You know, after a few thousand horse lip rolls and always finding the correct number for the horse, I might not want to look into every horse’s mouth either. But I keep coming back to the thought no one noticed the “other” differences between this horse and the one that should have been in the race, which is why I chose this lovely picture of a lovely horse for today’s perspective.

The racing board met and decided there is to be a new process for ensuring the horse is the right one for each race. Um, I have a suggestion. Have the inspector sit in a chair. I think they would have seen something. Just don’t think a change in procedure is needed to catch this the next time it happens. May you have a Happy Friday and be assured that you catch all of your mistakes before they happen this holiday season. Remember to subscribe on the Perspectives page.

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