I don't care what kind of horse race it is, you cannot come out from the 2 lane all the way into the five lane, make contact with another horse, and not expect a DQ. Maximum Security was mere millimeters away from causing a major catastrophe, and all most swept the legs out from War of Wills, Had War of Wills not had checked his horse up, you would have had a pile up of fallen horses like never been seen before.
If you are forced to check up your horse in the stretch, your horse never recovers momentum. I would be like a top fuel dragster having to hit his brakes, and then try to re-accelerate. The sad part is, I know this wasn't intentional, but it does not matter. while I doubt War of Will would have won the race, I have no doubt in my mind he would have finished in the money (in horse racing, the top 5 finishers get paid a percentage of the purse 50%-25%-13%-7%-5%). If the Stewards watch the race, and determine that the interference caused War of Will to finish in a spot in which he would not have if not interfered with, they have no choice but to DQ him. Regardless of the fact Maximum Security looked like the best horse in the race.
“I really thought I was going to win the Derby. I checked pretty hard when the seven [Maximum Security] came out as far as he did.”
Tyler Gaffalione, rider of War of Will
“I was able to get into a good spot after breaking that far wide. We were in a good spot in the far turn but I had to check pretty hard after the seven [Maximum Security] came out.”
Chris Landeros, rider of Bodexpress (13th)
When you watch the replay, pay attention to how far the horse comes out, and how fast he did it. The rider knew it too, that's why he corrected him like he did.
Honestly though, I don't think the race should have ever been run in those conditions to start with, but that is horse racing. Handicapping a race in the mud is a whole different thing, and you can throw the program right out the window.
A lot of horse's will just quit because of all the mud being flung in their eyes, face, nose, etc (this is especially true for some of the late closing horse's that stay back until the last stages of the race)