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By Betsy Burke Parker

They don’t wear a zebra-striped uniform or wear a whistle, but they’re referees just the same.

Racing referees.

Stewards enforce the rules of racing, responsible for enforcement and adjudication, safety and success. Pure and simple.

But a steward’s job is anything but easy.

To start with, modern-day stewards are as well-trained and well-educated as any judge or official in any pro sport anywhere in the world. Steeplechasing is serious business, with serious money and serious implications if something goes wrong. To be sure, participants from hotwalkers to handicappers to horse owners agree that steeplechasing is a most pleasing and enjoyable business to be involved in – vocation as well as avocation for most, but the stewards of racing will tell you: they’ve got to get it right.

“Tad got about as close as you can get to being on the team and not going on,” Wofford told a magazine after his pupil’s second time left at home.

While at Wofford’s Fox Covert Farm near the Piedmont point-to-point course, Zimmerman started, and finished, his race-riding career. “Billy King had this horse for the Rokeby Bowl at the Piedmont point-to-point,” Zimmerman recalls his brief stint as a jockey. “He asked Jimmy Wofford to ride the horse (Burr Hill), but Jimmy declined. I took the ride.

“To be fair, the horse jumped every jump on the course. Trouble was, you had to jump some of them more than once. He took out the stone wall before the stacked rails by the roots,” a heavy fall re-entering the main Salem Farm course near U.S. Route 50.

Zimmerman’s race riding career was over, but he galloped on the farm one winter for Dr. John Fisher, and “got on some really top horses for him – (eventual Hall of Famer) Fire Control, Juggernaut, some other really good horses, but I just couldn’t make the (racing) weight and put horses behind me for a time.”

He sold Fine Tune and headed back to Princeton. He married Virginia foxhunter Cathy Stettinius (pictured, right ©Douglas Lees) in 1977, but didn’t get back in the saddle for nearly 20 years.

Zimmerman enrolled at the University of Virginia business school, and they moved to Goochland. He helped on the sidelines starting in 1981, officiating at the old Deep Run Races at the state fairgrounds in Richmond.

They moved to Cathy’s family farm near Upperville when Zimmerman went to work at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. He retired five years ago after a 27-year career that saw him rise to chief of general services.

Zimmerman eventually got back into riding, and hunting. This year marks his 20th season as Piedmont joint-master, serving with Shelby Bonnie and Gregg Ryan. Son, Teddy, lives with his family at Buttonwood. Teddy had a three-year race career – Virginia foxhunters’ timber champion in 2008 and 2009 and the Seven Corners owner-rider series. Tad Zimmerman leads the field on several of his son’s former timber horses and credits old friends Daphne and Frankie Wooten with having sent them a lot of nice horses over the years. (Photo: Teddy Zimmerman won the Foxhunters timber at the 2008 Casanova Pt. to Pt. Races on his father's Royal We, trained by Cathy Zimmerman. Shown below in winners circle with Julie Gomena, Cathy and Tad Zimmerman. ©Douglas Lees)

Wayne VanSant was born into horse racing. He grew up 5 miles from Fair Hill; his father, Eddie VanSant, was a flat trainer based primarily at Delaware Park. Wayne VanSant is a longtime journeyman farrier, and was longtime horse manager for Bruce Smart’s Trappe Hill Farm in Upperville, Virginia. (Liz Callar photo, left)

His whole family is involved: Wife Leslie was executive director and president at Great Meadow, she now works for the Rainforest Trust. Daughter Beatrice, soon 16, shows at the A-level. She was honored with the Laura Pickett Award for sportsmanship and horsemanship in 2018 and serves on the junior committee for the Washington International Horse Show.

When Bruce Smart died in 2018 and the farm and horses were dispersed, VanSant says he had a bit of extra time on his hands. He wanted to stay involved in racing, to give back to the sport.

“If you look around at the officials’ ranks, you know it’s hard to get experienced officials because most people have a dog in the fight,” VanSant says, since – naturally – active owners, trainers and riders are ineligible. “I was in the unique position with a lifetime of knowledge and experience, but no conflict of interest.

“I started out like most people, volunteering (at local point-to-points and hunt meets in Virginia), showing up and doing the best I could.”

Two years ago, VanSant – ramped it up. He earned a Racing Officials Accreditation Program scholarship based on an essay he wrote explaining why he wanted to be a steward.

And, just like that, he headed back to school.

“It was intense,” VanSant says of the week-long ROAP course conducted at Santa Anita Park in August, 2019. Thirty pupils from around the nation spent that first Sunday afternoon in a casual race-day meet-and-greet with Santa Anita officials, watching races from the skybox with stewards, looking behind the mutuels, observing vet protocol.

Monday morning, it got real.

They hunkered down in a conference room at the Marriott down the road from the racetrack, digging deep into the three parts of a steward’s responsibility – medical (veterinary), legal and general.

At the end of the week, students were tested.

First, they watched two hours of films – 10 races showing various infractions and interference. They had to adjudicate individually, no discussion.

Next was a one-hour one-on-one oral exam, three discussion questions drawn at random. Questions ranged from the simple – what weight allowance does a 3-year-old filly get racing in open company in October, to the complex – the exacting procedure on how to handle a split sample hearing when it is challenged by a trainer.

The third section was a 60-page written test – one third multiple choice, one third true-or-false, one third essay questions.

To call it thorough is understatement.

“I mean, the last written test I’d taken was 20 years before,” the journeymen farrier course, VanSant says. “It was really eye-opening, but really worth doing.”

With the accreditation, VanSant qualifies to work as NSA safety steward and has shadowed experienced stewards at three meets, both requirements before serving as a race-day steward.

“All the NSA stewards I’ve worked with were very helpful, and (it was) a great learning experience. They’re so willing to share what they know.”

VanSant is scheduled to act as safety steward at Foxfield this Sunday, Virginia Fall on Oct. 9 and Montpelier Nov. 6. (Liz Callar photo, above, of VanSant at an official's meeting last year)

Day before, or at least 4 or 5 hours before paddock time: Walk the course/s. “In a perfect world,” says NSA director of racing Bill Gallo, “all three stewards walk the course together, since they work as a team on race day.”

The course walk is important because the stewards will double check every knot on every rope holding down every national fence tarp, and every notch in every timber fence. They check beacons, confirm starting points and address any issues like road crossings and spectator access points. “But, there’s less and less problems these days because the whole game has gotten more professional,” Gallo says.

Wayne VanSant says the key indicator is a rider “moving” in the saddle, standing up abruptly to avoid clipping heels when another horse slices in front of him, for instance, or sitting back to steady a horse that’s been bumped.

Where are they? The stewards are usually together on the elevated tower. They may or may not go to the paddock between races. Sometimes, one steward watches the video monitors while the other two watch the live action through their field glasses.

It depends, Zimmerman says, on the space available on the stand and on the individual racecourse – blind spots and field of view play a critical role in deciding whose eyes are where.

After each race: All three stewards, plus Gallo, watch the video replay.

If there’s a problem? Zimmerman explains that either the stewards see an incident and announce a stewards’ inquiry, or a claim of foul is lodged by a rider, or both.

In either event, the stewards review the video and interview the riders as well as the patrol judge in the vicinity.

They then make a series of decisions – if there was interference. If yes, whether the interference affected the outcome of the race.

These two decisions need to be made without delay in order to determine if a horse should be disqualified and the placing altered before the race can be made official.

The decision of the stewards with regard to an incident occurring during the running of a race is final and cannot be appealed.

After the race is declared official, if there was interference, whether it affected the outcome of the race or not, a hearing will be held later that day with the riders involved. This hearing is to determine the cause of the interference.

If the interference is found to be accidental, and therefore beyond the control of the riders, no penalty will be imposed. If the Stewards determine that the interference was not accidental, the next question is whether it was careless or reckless riding.

"Careless" riding assumes no ill intent. However, it does mean that insufficient effort was made to avoid or mitigate the severity of the interference. A finding of careless riding results in a fine.

If the incident is caused by “reckless” riding, whether deemed intentional or not, it results in a large fine and possible suspension, depending on the severity of the interference and danger posed to other horses and riders.

At the end of the day: The stewards and the safety steward meet to go over the day’s events. “This is a very long methodical process that seems to be working pretty well,” Gallo adds. “It is a very sophisticated system.”

A few days later: The process is streamlined and transparent, Gallo says – a detailed stewards’ report goes up on the NSA website along with results from each meet.

“We have some really good people working in this game,” Gallo concludes. “I’ve worked side by side with them for many years. They’re performing a real service to our horsemen and our national organization.”

Practical experience: It helps to be a horseman, says NSA director of racing Bill Gallo, though it’s certainly not a requirement. A lot of former jockeys and trainers, and some owners, end up volunteering as racing officials, some taking it to the accreditation stage.

Giving back: Most officials’ positions are volunteer – Gallo says some jobs – stewards included – come with a small stipend to defray expenses, but sometimes it doesn’t even cover costs for the all-day, sometimes multi-day, job.

Most officials do it to give back to the sport, not for fame – or fortune, Gallo adds.

Keeping it local: NSA encourages hunt meets to use regional stewards, and other officials, but some officials have to travel for their assignments.

Start small: The way to get started, he says, is to help at a local race meet – point-to-point or NSA. Many jobs require little experience and no accreditation. There are apprentice official opportunities to gain base knowledge before considering advanced study.

VSA learning opportunities: The Virginia Steeplechase Association offers officials’ seminars, and the NSA office can help steer prospective officials to educational courses and accreditation opportunities.

Racing Officials Accreditation Program: horseracingofficials.com

©Tod Marks