A “computer systems failure” led to the calamity of an ineligible horse winning Saturday’s Badger Ales Trophy, it was announced on Monday night. A hearing may take place as early as Thursday with the aim of determining whether The Young Master, who hacked up by seven lengths, should be allowed to keep the race and the horse himself may be back on the track the following day.
The Young Master should not have been allowed to take part in the Wincanton race, the feature steeplechase of the day, as he had run over fences only twice before, rather than the three required by the race conditions. A horse in that position would normally be prevented from entering in the first place by the software used by Weatherbys, racing’s secretariat, but The Young Master was entered without difficulty at the start of last week and the fact of his ineligibility was not noticed by any official until he had left the winner’s enclosure.
Pressed to explain exactly what had gone wrong, Robin Mounsey, the BHA’s spokesman, said an investigation with Weatherbys had identified a “coding error”. He also shot down a popular theory, that the error had been triggered by a Flat race in which The Young Master had taken part in February and which had the word “Chase” in the title. “That theory’s definitely gone,” Mounsey said.
A BHA statement said: “Further assessment of the systems is being undertaken and, if necessary, system changes will be made to ensure this does not happen again.” Mounsey added that around 850,000 horses had raced over the past decade without a similar issue and suggested that the last similar case might have been 26 years ago, when Prince Of Dance was disqualified after winning a Listed two-year-old race at Newbury.
Disqualification probably also awaits The Young Master. The BHA announced that it had lodged a formal objection to his Wincanton win, triggering a disciplinary hearing, which could take place on Thursday if connections of the horse do not object. However, it may have to be postponed if they want more time to seek legal advice.
That hearing will also consider whether Neil Mulholland, the The Young Master’s trainer, should be punished, since the sport’s rules say a trainer must not enter a horse in a race for which he is not eligible. But any such punishment will be controversial, since Mulholland will in any case lose out through disqualification and because trainers have come to rely on Weatherbys’ software alerting them to such problems in advance.
Mulholland was on Monday able to take some solace from the fact that his star horse had at least returned in one piece. “Perfect” was how he described the five-year-old after riding him out morning and he added that the horse was certainly able to line up in an amateur riders’ race at Cheltenham on Friday if it was decided that was the best option.
He did not wish to enlarge on his other thoughts at this stage. “I’ve just got to keep my head down and wait to see what they have to say,” he said of the BHA.
The sorry saga may yet cost Mulholland in other ways. The ruling body could decide that their official handicapper is entitled to raise The Young Master’s rating to reflect what he achieved on Saturday, even if he is eventually disqualified. An extra 10lb to 14lb seems likely, which would considerably reduce the horse’s chance of winning a similar prize in future.
Also on the BHA’s to-do list this week is the remeasurement of Wetherby, following suggestions by Timeform that the recent Charlie Hall Chase was short of the advertised distance by more than a furlong. The BHA on Monday rebuffed a request from Timeform that one of their staff be present at the re-measuring.
While it is perhaps unsurprising that the authority does not wish to submit to the oversight of a commercial firm, its reluctance to even name the day when the course will be assessed is harder to justify.
The BHA will need to do more than simply issue a statement asserting that the Yorkshire track’s distances are accurate if it wishes to dispell the doubts raised by Timeform, which has used Google Earth and video analysis in its public discussions of the issue.
