Surely if you take the rule as it is worded the horse should not have been declared a non runner, there was no starting stalls fault and the jockey remained in the saddle. Why have these rules only for someone to fudge it’s intention for an unjust outcome. It is odd that the losers in this fiasco are actually the winners who backed Christmas Day if they had the Rule 4 applied to their winnings. The people who claim to run horse racing in the UK really do themselves no favours.
The more I know the less I understand.