Trainer Evan Williams and jockey Donal Fahy were found guilty of schooling in public after Whatdoyoucallit finished sixth in the opening race at Ffos Las today.
Williams was fined £3,000 and conditional Fahy suspended for 14 days (March 22-April 4), whilst the horse - who was subsequently foudn to be lame by the racecourse vet - was banned from running for 40 days, beginning on March 11.
Stewards' secretary Simon Cowley said: "We felt, even allowing for the fact that the horse was having his first run over hurdles, Fahy did not ask for sufficient effort."
The decision, in my opinion is ludicrous, and I believe that an enquiry should be held into the well being of the Stewards who came up with this absurd conclusion.
Why? Let's look at the facts.
Firstly, the five-year-old was having it's first run in public and was running against a 1-4 shot (Black Jack Blues) who had to fall to get beat. That is why it was sent off at 50-1 and not expected to win.
Secondly, it only went past a couple of weakening horses at the end and was not finishing like a train. There is no way it would have finsihed any closer if Fahy had got busy with the stick. Indeed the way the horse was jumping - it made a bad mistake at the fifth - it would probably have hit the deck and could have ended up being seriously injured or even killed.
Thirdly, the fact that it was subsequently found to be lame by the racecourse vet fully vindicates, in my opinion, the ride that Fahy gave the horse. It is sometimes difficult for jockeys to tell whether a horse is running green or something is amiss. In the case of a horse having it's debut it is far harder to distinguish between the two. In my opinion he was right to look after the welfare of the horse rather than punish it for no reason when it could not possibly finish in the frame.
The decision to ban and fine all involved has left me totally bemused, and I find it hard to put into words how strongly I feel about the outcome.
Perhaps its about time that the BHA looked into these Stewarding decisions on a regular basis, and also monitored how many times officials fail to pick up incidents which take place on a near daily basis on tracks throughout the country.
Every day I see horses having their hoods removed off late in the stalls and losing vital lengths, having their head cocked over the stalls when they open, jockeys going so wide that they nearly go off the course, horses being switched in behind a wall of horses when they are travelling well and have a gap the size of a bus to go through.
I could go on, and on, and on.
What is annoying is that nothing is being done on a regular basis about these obvious discrepencies, often involving heavily backed horses or more significantly huge drifters on the exchanges. There were no strange betting patterns concerning today's race yet the Stewards come up with a decision to punish a lame 50-1 shot who finishes sixth on his debut to a 1-4 certainty.
It is, quite simply, a joke of a decision in my eyes, and both Williams and Fahy will have little diffulty overtruning it once they go to appeal.
