On a blustery Sunday afternoon, another day of racing unfolded at Aqueduct Racetrack, far removed -- at least in terms of geography -- from the controversy that engulfed Santa Anita Park after the previous day's $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic.

Even some 3,000 miles away from California, talk about the stewards' decision not to disqualify the victorious Bayern swirled about the Big A as gustily as the winds themselves.

Largely criticized for their ruling that Bayern did no wrong -- or not enough wrong -- during his antics at the start of the race, the stewards found some sympathy, but no shows of two thumbs-up for their verdict.

Javier Castellano, last year's Eclipse Award-winning jockey, had the best view of the incident as he rode 28-1 shot Moreno, who took the worst of it when Bayern and jockey Martin Garcia veered to the left from post seven at the break, bumping the favored Shared Belief and jockey Mike Smith, who in turn plowed into Moreno.

Castellano said it was a "tough call" for stewards but felt in fairness there probably should have been a disqualification -- of the first two finishers.

Beyond the problems caused by Bayern, Castellano said it was the bump delivered by runner-up Toast of New York and European jockey Jamie Spencer that sealed his fate. Castellano said his horse was fine after the initial bump and was still in position to challenge Bayern for the lead. But when Toast of New York crossed over from post nine, bumping Moreno and taking away his running lane, the gelding wound up behind horses and lost all chance of running his typical race on the front end.

"For me, what Spencer did was worse than what Garcia did. I was coming back when he came over and bumped me. Everyone blames Garcia, but what about Spencer?" said Castellano, who finished last in the field of 14 with Moreno. "Garcia did not have control of his horse at first. He took a hold, but it was too late. I can accept that. But what Spencer did was worse than what Garcia because he had control of his horse and he moved him over so sharply."

In the end, Castellano believed the actions of Toast of New York put the stewards in a bind, since he reasoned that if Bayern deserved to be disqualified, so did Toast of New York.

Under that scenario, Bayern and Toast of New York would have been dropped to last and next-to-last, and it would have elevated California Chrome, Shared Belief and Tonalist, in that order, to the top three finishers.

"If they take down Bayern, Toast of New York wins. Spencer did something worse, so why reward him?" Castellano said.

Speaking in California on Sunday morning, Santa Anita steward Scott Chaney said the decision to let the result stand was unanimous among the three stewards and that the rocky start did not impact the placings of any of the participants.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, who rode Cigar Street to seventh place finish in the Classic, called it a 50-50 decision and did not want to say yea or nay about the stewards' ruling, but he did believe that the trouble at the start impacted the race.

"If Shared Belief has a clean trip, he'll be closer to the pace and he has better chance to win the race. I think, if you talk to Mike Smith, and I didn't, you'll get a totally different opinion. It knocked his horse off his game right at the start, and the way the track was playing, he had to make up so much ground, and he wasn't going to do it. The top 3 horses ran 1-2-3 all the way around," Velazquez said. "It's a hard call to make, but on the other hand, you can't say it didn't change the outcome of the race."

Velazquez also said Garcia did not do enough to straighten his horse once Bayern began to veer to the left.

"As a jockey you need a better effort when you come out of the gate, I will say that. I don't think Garcia's effort was enough, that's for sure," said Velazquez, who also felt that Toast of New York deserved to be DQ'd if Bayern was. "[Garcia] could have done a better job of trying to straighten out his horse before he got on top of the other ones. He let him go one, two strides too far inside. He should have straightened him as soon as he jumped out of there. Sometimes you can't do anything, but you are there to put in an effort.

"He's a very good rider, and I don't think he did it on purpose. He's not an aggressive guy. I just don't think he put enough into controlling the horse."

Prominent owner Barry Irwin, president of Team Valor International, which raced Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, was more adamant that Bayern and Bayern alone was responsible for the mess.

"It's one thing for a horse to break to the left -- we see that all the time," Irwin said. "But he not only broke left, the jockey didn't do that much to straight him out until after a few strides and by then he had done the damage."

Given the circumstances -- the championships on the line, the value of the race and that Bayern was trained by one of the sport's icons in Hall of Famer Bob Baffert -- Irwin said in spite of what he saw, he was not surprised by the non-call.

"The stewards, in my opinion, the first thing they think about in life is not to do anything to cause them to be in jeopardy about losing their job," Irwin said. "Anytime there's going to be controversy or major, major players with clout involved, they rarely do the right thing.

"If they were like the Supreme Court justices and couldn't lose their jobs, they'd do the right thing. But they're not. They are political appointees."

Six-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher, the sport's all-time leading money-earner, agreed that the stewards were faced with a difficult call, but understood it fell in line with similar calls at the track.

"At least from what I've seen and heard there seems to be some consistency in what the stewards allow out there at the break," said Pletcher, who took a red-eye flight to the East Coast to saddle the victorious Blofeld in Sunday's $250,000 Grade 2 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct.

When asked what he would have done if he was in the stewards' booth, Pletcher, who did have a horse in the Classic, said no mas.

"I get paid to make a lot of calls in this game," he said, "but not that one. That's up to [the stewards]."

Indeed it is, and while some might disagree with the stewards' judgment, history will always show that Bayern was the winner of the 31st Breeders' Cup Classic. That doesn't mean everyone's happy about it.

Considering how the BC Classic was supposed to settle Horse of the Year in a battle to the finish line between Shared Belief, California Chrome, Tonalist and Bayern, and it wound up adding some more fuel to the debate because of the bumping controversy, some folks even longed for a do-over.

"I wish," Irwin said, "they could re-run the race, because it was very dissatisfying." On that point, in something unusual for the BC Classic, there might be no arguments.