Eddie Ahern’s ride on O’Gorman

[Frankelthegreat]

Any thoughts and theories on the 4:45 race at Lingfield on Friday? I think it’s a disgrace that the favourite was never put in the race and this is considered okay. And whilst events conspired in such a way that it could conveniently be dismissed as a case of bad luck in running, it would take an unrivalled amount of bad luck to find that much trouble in running in a 6 horse race around a track the jockey knows like the back of his hand. And yet still the stewards only deemed fit to issue a 3 day ban for briefly hampering another horse (which, by the way, did little to convince me the jockey truly wanted to win the race).

I’d love to know just out of interest what was happening on the exchanges immediately prior to this race taking place. I noticed via my bookmaker the horse came in to 5/4 before drifting back out again to 6/4. Does anybody care enough to look into this sort of thing? Probably not. Happy bookmakers > integrity of the sport.

Yeah, sure, I got burned badly on this race from a financial point-of-view. And no doubt I’ll be dismissed as a punter talking out of pocket, even though I am putting across my concerns in a rational and thoughtful manner. But I can assure you I’d shell out the money I lost again to remove all of the people from racing that drag the sport down. Races such as this one at Lingfield leave a sour taste in the mouth, and frankly were it not for the attachment I’ve developed to the sport it would have been the last bet I ever placed.

I’d like to make clear here I’m not accusing anybody of anything. I am merely making a series of observations about a truly absurd race that was as much use in demonstrating the true ability of the key protagonists as rolling a dice to determine the placings. It’s not right that things like this happen on a British racecourse and are glossed over or grossly under-reported. And it’s definitely not right that two jockeys can lose up to a week’s pay for errors they made in running which in turn affected the outcome, and yet there is no justice for the punters who potentially had substantial sums of money riding on it.

[andyod]

How about Tiger Woods knowingly breaking the rules by not dropping the ball where he should and admitting that he did so to get a better chancre to stay close to the pin from his illegal cheating position? Then after being penalized two strokes he cheekily said the ruler are the rules(and must be observed) even while he was breaking them!Makes the jockeys look like saints,it does.

[robnorth]

I suspect Eddie Ahern just had ‘one of those afternoons’! He picked up a 4 day suspension in the previous race.

The O’Gorman race pretty much hinged on a gap opening swinging inot the striaght. It looked to me as if Ahern hoped he could nip up the inside of the leader, but the gap didn’t open up and the race was pretty much conceded even before barging a couple of runners out of the way to get through.

He wouldn’t have won, but from side on it was difficult to see what the reining back was in aid of in the final 50 yards. A head-on of the race would have been a lot more informative, but I can’t remember seeing such a shot on ATR’s replays.

O’Gorman is fast becoming a professional loser and I suspect he’s got a good deal more ability than he cares to let on.

Rob

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