A long-running controversy over toe grabs before the California Horse Racing Board could turn into a referendum on trainer authority.

Responding to some conditioner complaints, a majority of the CHRB voted against enforcing a regulation that outlawed toe grabs longer than four millimeters on front shoes.

The unusual vote, taken at the board’s Jan. 23 meeting in Arcadia, ired longtime commissioner John Harris, who has campaigned for safer horseshoes for several years.

“I feel this creates a terrible precedent and may well damage the safety of horses and jockeys,” Harris said. “I am terribly disheartened