The Racing Officials Accreditation Program (ROAP) has developed an On Call Stewards Program so that a designated racing official will be available during telecasts of major racing events to explain the rules of racing if an unusual event occurs in a race.

“The On Call steward will be non-judgmental, meaning he or she is not there to make a determination one way or the other on any incident,” said ROAP chairman Stan Bowker. “Instead, the On Call steward will explain in layman’s terms the nature of the incident, the applicable rules of racing, and the process by which stewards determine a call as it pertains to the incident in question.”

The On Call Stewards Program will make its debut at the 2009 Bank of America Challenge Championships at Los Alamitos on Oct. 31 and will also be available at the 2009 Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Oak Tree at Santa Anita on Nov. 6-7.

The initial group of On Call stewards is composed of senior stewards Eddie Arroyo, Stan Bowker, Hugh Gallagher, Frank Lamb, Denny Oelschlager and Kim Sawyer, each of whom has completed media training sessions