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[Bill Cullen]

Originally Posted by dnlgfnk

Later, I saw a blowup of the incident, whereby for at least two strides, War of Will's forelegs are actually between and under the back legs of Max, contacting them twice.

In mine and many other's opinion, the resulting stretch run verified Max's superiority in the context of the individual Derby trips--having the superior early speed to save much energy for the stretch turn and run to the wire. Yet, he caused a very dangerous situation, and secondarily perhaps an unfair placing to War of Will (who did not claim because the connections did not want to deprive the winner of glory in the case of them moving up, but still not hitting the board, according to Blood Horse).

The primary role of the stewards is to judge the fairness of the race and not to act as a surrogate for counteracting any perceived lack of safety.