Davy Russell and Philip Enright will be free to ride at the major Christmas racing festivals after the five-day bans imposed on both jockeys for their role in a bizarre whip-borrowing incident at Clonmel this month were reduced to two days following an appeal on Tuesday.
Russell, who was riding the hot favourite Leave At Dawn on 4 December, dropped his whip when his mount made a mistake at the first flight. Russell was then seen to take Enright’s whip before the second hurdle. Leave At Dawn and Enright’s mount, Backinyourbox, a 33-1 outsider, eventually finished unplaced, but the local stewards found both jockeys to be in breach of Rule 272, which relates to bringing racing into disrepute, and banned them from riding on 20-21 and 26-28 December.
Following an appeal hearing at the Turf Club, however, the jockeys will be sidelined for just the first two days of the original ban and free to ride at the valuable and prestigious Christmas fixture at Leopardstown, which opens on 26 December.
Russell in particular will be relieved by the decision as he will now be able to ride Lord Windermere, the winner of last season’s Gold Cup, in the Lexus Chase, the most prestigious of the meeting’s Grade One events, on 28 December.
“The panel agreed with the Clonmel stewards that both riders were guilty of breaking Rule 272, in that their actions were prejudicial to the proper conduct of racing,” Cliff Noone, the Irish Turf Club’s press officer, said.
“The panel is keen to send out a message that these things should not happen. However, both have clean records and the panel has decided their bans should be reduced from five to two days.”
The British Horseracing Authority has its own problems to deal with, declaring that “more steps” may need to be taken if it is to meet its targets for increasing field sizes over the next six years.
A series of prestigious and valuable events in recent weeks have attracted fields of five runners or fewer, while the average number of starters in jumps races has dropped from 9.7 in 2010 to 8.9 this year. In September, October and November, the problem has become acutely apparent, with an average field size of 6.4 in chases and just 45% of jumps races overall attracting eight or more runners.
The BHA announced a long-term initiative to increase field sizes in October and Paul Bittar, its chief executive, said on Tuesday that concerns over the integrity of small-field races were also behind the regulator’s push to boost the number of starters. “Small-field and uncompetitive races are damaging for British racing,” Bittar said. “They are unattractive for punters as a betting medium, they undermine the credibility of the sport internationally, and crucially, in a factor sometimes overlooked, they create much greater threat of integrity issues.
“We are well aware that field sizes and the number of races with sufficient numbers have been well below what we consider acceptable at this stage of this season. This trend was predicted and is exactly why we have taken action to address it by introducing a range of robust measures, including the removal of around 100 jump races from the programme in 2015.
“This is not going to be a quick fix and we have set what we believe are realistic targets. However, to meet those targets it is likely that more steps will need to be taken. This is why we have instigated a thorough and ongoing statistical analysis of jump racing, so that we can address specific areas of concern accordingly.”
The BHA’s target is to raise the percentage of chases with eight or more runners from 43.8% to 50% by 2016 and to 60% before the end of 2020. Both on the Flat and over hurdles, it aims to see 75% of races with eight starters or more by the end of 2020, up from 64.8% and 71.1% respectively in 2013.
The Young Master, who was disqualifed following his easy victory in the Badger Ales Trophy at Wincanton last month when it transpired that he had not been eligible to run, will return to action in the Mappin & Webb Silver Cup at Ascot on Saturday. Despite his connections being denied the £30,000 prize for his Wincanton victory, however, Neil Mulholland’s chaser must compete from a 14lb higher mark in the weights.
“It’s always been the plan to run at Ascot,” Mulholland said. “We just gave him the entry at Haydock [in Saturday’s Tommy Whittle Chase] as a back-up option, but he’ll go to Ascot, all being well.
“He seems in good form. He worked this morning and we’re very happy with him. Barry [Geraghty] rides him again, which is great. He knows him well and he deserves to ride him after what happened at Wincanton.”
