- This topic has 179 replies, 33 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 5 days ago by
.
- Posts
He’s done it!!
222 winners, the most recorded by any rider in a calendar year this century.
Invited in the 2.30 Lingfield.
He gave me the 80/1 winner at Royal Ascot in 2024 when Rashabar won
Well done to him, but considering the number of meetings we have in the racing calendar it had to be done some time.
And Kieren only needed 1055 rides (back in 2002) whereas Billy had an extra 266 rides time to achieve the same mark. This just tells you how special Kieren was who operated at at 20-21% strike rate when in his prime.And Billy was only 19 whilst Fallon was 37. Fallon wasn’t even chea…sorry riding for the Ramsdens at that age.
Oh dear, banned for 21 days for ignoring a vet’s instruction.
I wonder if he will appeal and try to get the length of the ban reduced?
I hope the appeal sees Billy Loughnane’s ban overruled.
If Belzebub arrived at the races with the so called ‘scratch’ already on his leg then the vet has been over cautious in this case. I always thought historic cuts and grazes were marked on a horses’ passport which is checked when they arrive at the racecourse.
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...“The trainer said: “I wasn’t at the races”
And other people were. Down at the start where it happened. So you’re already relying on secondhand information.“but from what I’ve been told”
By whom?“another horse reversed into our horse.”
Reversed into? Or kicked? Big difference.“The vets trotted him up and said they weren’t happy because of the graze on his leg and withdrew him.”
Because of the graze? Or because they thought he was lame?“But the graze they’re talking about on his leg has been on his leg since he arrived at my yard.”
Was it marked on the passport? Was this information given to the vet at the start? Was the passport available at the start?“The horse trotted up sound twice under Billy”
Really? Where has the L word come from?“and no-one told Billy not to ride the horse back,”
Probably didn’t instruct him specifically not to stick his hand in the fire either. But if your horse has been spun by the vet it’s prudent not to canter off into the sunset.” so he cantered him home absolutely sound.”
Who judged the horse sound as it was cantering back? You from your sofa?” “I’ll be getting a vet out first thing tomorrow morning to do a full report on the horse”
The day after the fact. Meaningless“because it’s absolutely mind-boggling. If that’s the way our sport is going we’re in serious trouble.”
If people start arguing the toss with officials instead of accepting the judge’s decision is final, yeah we’re in trouble“We’re all in the sport for the same reason – we love horses and our priority is horse welfare – but there has to be a bit of common sense come into play with the BHA.”
What, like paying an independent MRCVS to inspect any horse thought to potentially be injured at the start and decide whether it’s fit to compete?“My team at the races trotted him up in front of the owners”
Are the owners on the veterinary panel?” and again back in the stable yard”
Yes, back at the yard when the race had probably finished by then“and the horse is 100 per cent sound. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him.”
Look , I’ve been kicked and stood on by horses and cattle, It can be really bloody painful in the moment and you could be hopping lame for a bit, and be going sound 5 minutes later, even if potentially still affected to the point where it might still hurt a bit if you had to sprint. But be fine the next day.
The vets can’t mess about for ages. They have to have get on and make a decision. You accept the decision, take your medicine and go home. If the horse is sound 5 minutes later, that night, the next morning or two weeks hence- it’s irrelevant. Hard luck. Also- tell your jockey to not be bloody lazy and use the legs he was born with the next time.^All of my comments above only apply if the vet at the start thought the horse was lame at some point. If the horse was sound the whole time and the decision was purely based on the apparent graze, and the fact that it was an old injury was proveable in the moment eg if it was documented on the passport and this was shown to the vet down the the start before the decision for withdrawal was made- then I agree it’s overcautious.
Great post greenasgrass.
The trainer seems incredibly well informed about the situation for someone who wasn’t there, so hopefully they can answer the questions about the passport.
First thing to say is there’s no possibility of a passport being at the start – how would it get there and who’d be holding it. I’ve owned enough horses and attended enough races to know that passport is only produced in the stables during the pre-race identity and medical check.
I’ve also seen enough horses withdrawn at the start after being checked by the vet, to believe that the standard procedure is for the withdrawn horse to wait behind the stalls until the race has been started. And that the course would provide transport to the start for stable staff if the horse needs to led back with no jockey – this would be requested by the starter over the radio. The jockey would then be driven back to the stands.
This isn’t a common event and I’d hazard a guess that Billy The Kid has never been in this situation before. The vets assume he knows what he’s supposed to do without being told, he assumes he can ride the horse back as he’s only trotting, not going racing pace, the same as he would do with a horse that had failed to go into the stalls. A classic case of ‘what we have here is a failure to communicate’.
The stewards report gives no detail of what rule they say he has broken, which doesn’t help.
Just to add I’ve had this happen with a horse I owned. He unseated the jockey as they went onto the course, did a circuit of Chelmsford at a canter, and pulled up back at the gate where the jockey and stable staff were waiting for him. The racecourse vet refused to let the jockey remount and ruled the horse a non runner. The horse was fine, had used no more energy than you’d use getting to the mile start at Newmarket. By the time you add up the entry fee, transport, staff overtime, jockey fee (which still had to be paid in full), that cost me the best part of £500 to not get a run. So it’s no wonder connections get a bit irritated when this happens.
There was a more famous example, when Coneygree was withdrawn by the vet at Plumpton before his intended debut over fences. The vet insisted the horse was lame. Four months later he won the Gold Cup.
21 days does seem harsh to me. Only two weeks ago, an amateur jockey only got 12 days for trying to make an utterly exhausted horse jump a fence.
Great posts by both of you green and Alan.
I also agree with CAS that the Fakenham incident was far worse than what Billy The Kid did.
At least they are consistent in being inconsistent.
The more I know the less I understand.
The stewards’ report says:
“The rider, the BHA Veterinary Officer and the Racecourse Veterinary Surgeon were interviewed. Loughnane was suspended for 21 days for improper riding in that in riding his mount back, he had acted against the instructions of the Veterinary Surgeon.”
A face value reading of this gives the impression that Loughnane ignored a clear instruction given by the vet, in which case 21 days wouldn’t seem harsh to me.
However, whether the report gives the full picture of what happened is another matter.
Well done Billy the Kid. It was nice to see the other jockeys congratulating him, I know they usually do but David Egan looked properly delighted for him.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.