The Irish Turf Club is to examine footage from Tramore on Friday which appears to show the high-profile jump jockey Davy Russell aiming a blow at his mount in the moments before a race. The incident was missed by the raceday stewards and indeed by most of those watching but a video of it went viral on social media on Saturday evening, prompting a great deal of criticism of the veteran rider.
Russell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Denis Egan, chief executive of the Turf Club, said in a text: “The stewards weren’t aware of it. Just brought to my attention 30 mins ago. Will be followed up.”
The incident occurred shortly before a mares handicap hurdle in which Russell was aboard Kings Dolly. In a shot broadcast on At The Races, horses are being shown a section of hurdle in the middle of the course, as is routine before a jumps race. Kings Dolly arrives at speed and nearly falls over the hurdle, at which point Russell lifts his right hand and thrusts it forward at the horse’s head. The camera angle does not offer a clear view of the incident but many Twitter users had no doubt last night that it showed the jockey in a very poor light.
“This is news to me,” said Roger McGrath, the County Waterford-based trainer of Kings Dolly, who eventually finished eighth. He added that the mare is “100%, she has no ill effects. She ate up as soon as she got back.”
A comparable incident at Stratford in 2006 resulted in a one-day ban for the jockey Paul O’Neill, who head-butted his horse in the face after being unseated before the start. That incident was also missed by the raceday stewards and dealt with later by the ruling body, which stressed that the horse in question had been entirely uninjured. Timmy Murphy was also suspended for a single day when he threw his whip at a horse at Plumpton in 2004.
But a more recent case in Ireland suggests a longer punishment if Russell is indeed found to have hit his horse. Shane Foley was suspended for seven days, reduced to five on appeal because of his previously excellent disciplinary record, after he hit his mount for being “unruly” before the start of a race at Fairyhouse.
Russell is one of the most admired and respected of jump jockeys, which is why considerable shock greeted the airing of the footage. His tally of 18 successes at the Cheltenham Festival is fourth among current jockeys, behind only Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty and Richard Johnson. He won the 2014 Cheltenham Gold Cup aboard the 20-1 shot Lord Windermere, prevailing by just a short-head. Earlier this month, the 38-year-old won the Galway Plate for the first time, on Balko Des Flos.
At Newbury, Massaat and Owen Burrows put themselves back in the big time with victory in the Hungerford Stakes, the first success they have enjoyed together after 18 months of early promise and lasting frustration. A Dewhurst runner-up when with Barry Hills in 2015, Massaat was the dream horse that Burrows was handed at the start of his training career and then threatened to turn into a nightmare.
Just a month after Burrows had his very first runner, Massaat ran second in the 2,000 Guineas, providing the kind of thrill and a quantity of hope that few trainers ever get to experience. But then he was a blatant non-stayer in the Derby and injured a leg trying to pick up a Group Three at Salisbury. He came here without a run for more than a year, having crocked himself again when he was supposed to be taking it easy over the winter.
In the meantime, Burrows had endured additional angst with the filly Talaayeb, fourth in the 1,000 Guineas and then seventh of eight at odds of 4-7 on her only run since. There have surely been some anxious nights at Burrows’s Lambourn base. No one wants to become known as the trainer who gets prime material and fails to win with it.
But in a matter of 90 seconds here, Massaat changed everything, powering clear for a Group Two success that was in no doubt for the last couple of furlongs. Burrows does not really do effusive but did not disguise what this meant to him. “Massive” was one word he reached for. “Huge” was another.
The trainer said: “He’d been working nicely but I just thought he’d be rusty. I was just looking to get him back on track. He had a chip removed from a fetlock after Salisbury and then unfortunately injured himself while recuperating at Shadwell – he chipped a bit of bone off his pedal bone. Just hope and pray that, tomorrow morning, he comes out of the race fine and we’ll start plotting then.”
Jim Crowley, riding Massaat for the first time, said the horse did it the wrong way, being understandably fresh in the early stages, so there must be hope he can do better again with the air out of his tyres next time. That will surely involve a step up into the highest class, perhaps the Forêt in France or the QEII at Ascot. Burrows, who will insist on some cut in the ground, won with all three of his runners on Saturday.
Defoe was cut to 8-1 in the market for next month’s St Leger after winning the Geoffrey Freer, meaning Roger Varian’s charge is unbeaten in four this year. But there was a stewards’ inquiry after he cut off the eventual runner-up, Wall Of Fire, in switching to the rail, prevailing by three parts of a length.
“He would have won,” Josephine Gordon, aboard Wall Of Fire, told the stewards, and his trainer, Hugo Palmer, expressed a similar thought on Twitter. But the stewards ruled he had lost little momentum and merely cautioned Andrea Atzeni about allowing his mount to shift across when not sufficiently clear.
“He was the best horse in the race,” Atzeni told the stewards. “I was the last off the bridle. Yeah, I did come across to the rail but … my horse has gone away, I’ve only given him one smack and I’ve put my stick down and it was hands and heels.”
There was an unequivocal response from Frankie Dettori, when asked about rumours swirling in Newmarket that he had decided to retire at the end of the year. Speculation had it that the Italian’s lingering shoulder injury, together with the chance to go out on a high aboard Enable in the Arc, might induce the 46-year-old to call it a day, but such is not the case.
“Whoever told you that needs a good kick in the bollocks,” said a cheerful Dettori, resting in Deauville before his ride on So Mi Dar in Sunday’s Prix Jean Romanet. “Call me in four years and we’ll talk about it.”
Although he needed time to bounce back from the broken shoulder he suffered in June, Dettori has since won the Stewards’ Cup, the Jacques Le Marois and rode three winners from five rides at Newbury on Friday.
Chris Cook’s Sunday tips
Southwell
2.00 Azzuri 2.35 Skilled (nap) 3.10 Art Of Payroll (nb) 3.40 Destiny’s Gold 4.15 Premier Rose 4.50 Runasimi River 5.25 Tempuran
Pontefract
2.15 Viscount Loftus 2.50 Bear Valley 3.25 La Fritillaire 4.00 Spain Burg 4.35 Lomu 5.10 Ascot Week 5.40 Sandra’s Secret 6.10 Mr Orange
