When, through any fault of either horse, rider, or driver, the Judges are prevented from giving a fair and prompt start, they shall warn the faulty party of the penalties to which he is subject, and if such warning is not heeded, they shall rigidly enforce said penalties.
The horse winning a heat shall take the pole (or inside position) the succeeding heat, and all others shall take their positions in the order assigned them in judging the last heat. When two or more horses shall make a dead heat, the horses shall start for the succeeding heat in the same positions they occupied at the finish of the dead heat.
In coming out on the homestretch the foremost horse or horses shall keep the positions first selected, or be liable to be distanced; and the hindmost horse or horses, when there is sufficient room to pass on the inside or anywhere on the homestretch, without interfering with others, shall be allowed to do so, and any party interfering to prevent him or them shall be distanced.
If a horse, in attempting to pass another on the homestretch, should at any time cross or swerve, so as to impede the progress of a horse behind him, he shall not be entitled to win that heat.
Although a leading horse is entitled to any part of the track, except after selecting his position on the homestretch, he shall not change from the right to the left, or from the inner to the outer side of the track, during any part of the race, when another horse is so near him that in altering his position he compels the horse behind him to shorten his stride, or causes the rider or driver of such other horse to pull him out of his stride; neither shall any horse, rider, or driver, cross, jostle, or strike another horse, rider, or driver, nor swerve or do any other thing that impedes the progress of another horse; nor shall any horse, in passing a leading horse, take the track of the other horse so soon after getting the lead as to cause the horse passed to shorten his stride.
In any heat wherein there shall be a violation of any of these restrictions, the offending horse shall not be entitled to win the heat, and he shall be placed behind all other horses in that heat. And if the impropriety was intentional on the part of the rider or driver, the offending horse may be distanced, and the rider or driver shall be suspended or expelled. [See also Rule 48.]
Rule 30.—Horses Breaking.—When any horse or horses break from their gait in trotting or pacing, their riders or drivers shall at once pull them to the gait in which they were to go the race, and any party failing to comply with this requirement, if he come out ahead, shall lose the heat, and the next best horse shall win the heat; and whether such breaking horse come out ahead or not, all other horses shall be placed ahead of him in that heat, and the Judges shall have discretionary power to distance the offending horse or horses, and the rider or driver may be punished by a fine not to exceed $100, or by suspension not exceeding one year.
Should the rider or driver comply with this requirement, and the horse should gain by a break, twice the distance so gained shall be taken from him at the coming out; but this provision must not be so construed as to shield any trotting or pacing horse from punishment for running.
In case of any horse (in a trotting race) repeatedly breaking, or running, or pacing, while another horse is trotting, the Judges shall punish the horse so breaking, running, or pacing, by placing him last in the heat, or by distancing him.