Sammy Jo Bell, one of this year’s star apprentice jockeys, will get her chance on a big stage this weekend as a late entry into the Shergar Cup, replacing the injured Cathy Gannon. Bell will join Hayley Turner and the Canadian rider Emma-Jayne Wilson in the Girls team at the Dubai Duty Free-sponsored contest at Ascot on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Bell, who had next to no profile at the start of the season, has had 22 winners this year, enjoying such success that she is now in the mix for champion apprentice. She said in a recent interview that she had had to discover some “inner steel” in order to find her place in such a competitive sport. “I probably needed a harder edge, I was a little bit soft,” she told the Daily Mail. “But I am much more like I need to be now. At times this year, I cannot believe how competitive I have been. I’ve surprised myself.”
Born in County Antrim, Bell spent time with Jim Bolger and Kevin Prendergast before joining Richard Fahey in Yorkshire two years ago. She has said she was motivated to come to Britain by the success achieved by Turner and Gannon.
Gannon said she was “gutted” to miss the Shergar Cup with a collarbone injury, having worked hard to re-establish herself this summer after 17 months on the sidelines. “It’s the highlight of the year for me and when they asked me to do it I was over the moon,” she said.
“I had a fall riding down to the start at Chepstow the other day. The horse galloped over the top of me and, unfortunately, the Shergar Cup is going to come a week too soon. Hopefully there’s always next year. There are a lot worse injuries than this and I don’t need an operation, so I’m trying to look on the bright side.”
Olivier Peslier, another Shergar Cup rider, has prompted racing’s ruling body to defend its rules on interference following a controversial finish at Goodwood last weekend. Riding the eventual winner, Dartmouth, Peslier found himself in a pack of horses approaching the furlong pole and opted to force his way into the clear by moving to his left, causing significant interference to River Dart, whose participation in the contest was effectively ended thereby.
Peslier received significant punishment for his action, being handed a seven-day suspension by the stewards which will rule him out of the Jacques le Marois card at Deauville, a Group One raceday. But the stewards filed his offence under ‘careless riding’, allowing Dartmouth to keep the race.
Had Peslier been found guilty of dangerous riding, Dartmouth, owned by the Queen, would have been automatically disqualified. The outcome prompted renewed discussion about the apparent reluctance of stewards to disqualify horses and whether the safety of horses and riders might be improved by sterner enforcement of the rules. Robin Mounsey, spokesman for the British Horseracing Authority, said Peslier’s actions were not sufficiently grievous to necessitate disqualification. “Dangerous riding is defined as interference which causes a horse to fall or nearly fall, or a horse to be severely hampered, for example, up against the running rail,” he said. “A rider is likely to be guilty of dangerous riding if they make a manoeuvre which it would be obvious to a competent and careful rider was likely to endanger another horse or rider.
“Should there be evidence that the penalties are not acting as a sufficient deterrent, then the option is always open to us to revisit them. Our rules, however, are framed to protect the connections of the horse and the betting public by not having an unsatisfactory situation whereby the best horse in the race is disqualified for a manoeuvre which did not cost another horse in the race their chance of winning.”
In 2004, four horses were disqualified under the dangerous riding rules in the space of two months but the BHA’s database does not record a single instance of the rule being applied since an incident involving Tony Culhane in August 2009. The BHA view is that this proves their current rules are having the desired deterrent effect.
River Dart, who finished seventh behind Dartmouth, was reported unhurt by his trainer, Marcus Tregoning. “I think possibly he may not have been going well enough to win,” Tregoning added, though his horse was certainly in contention for a place until being pushed aside.
“It wasn’t great but he [Peslier] was sitting on the best horse. I don’t think anyone was very happy about it but at the end of the day, he won and he got seven days for it. That’s the way the rules are. It’s a very difficult one but I wouldn’t be keen to change that rule.”
