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Well it’s got me scratching my head, I’ve watched this a few times and
I can’t work out how the stewards came to this decision. Wayne Lordan,
to my eye, rode a confident race on Music Box in the Light Up Your Night
Maiden at Dundalk on Friday evening. She was kept to the inside throughout,
traveled well and when they came into the straight, a furlong or so out,
Lordan sat behind the 2 front runners and went for a space between the 2
which closed slightly. He pulled the horse to the left, towards the rail,
when the horse on the left of the 2 in front edged left. He had to pull
the horse to his right, go round them, and was making good progress but
too late to catch the winner and finished 1L and a nose in 3rd. I don’t
even think Lordan rode a bad race, it just didn’t go for him at the business
end of the race, and how many times does that happen?O’Brien was fined 2000 euros, Lordan was banned for 5 days and the filly
Music Box was banned from racing for 42 days under the new rule 212 “non
triers” rule. Without the problems in running, I think the horse would have
won comfortably, but because she should have won isn’t sufficient reason to
brand it a “non trier”. I don’t know what the Stewards are thinking, do they
believe O’Brien is trying to keep her potential handicap mark hidden under
a bushel? Do they think “the boys” need to try and make a few quid by hiding
how decent she is? Do they think Lordan purposely tried to get her beat? All
are obviously absurd, so I’m left clueless as to why they came to this decision.Apparently Aidan O’Brien is considering an appeal, I think he would be mad not to.
Oops, the date in the subject field should have been 31/03/17, but it seems I can’t
change the subject, just the text. Corm, or Bobby, maybe you could correct that for
me if you read this one.Said in his report to the steward that he was educating the horse. Races are not for educating, that’s probably the stewards point but yes in 2/3 year old races with horses having their 1st runs they might be treated more with the benefit of the doubt, particularly in this case as it didn’t look particularly blatant.
I agree Wexford, I didn’t think there was anything blatant in the ride the
horse was given, with a little luck in passage at the end, he would most
likely have won. I think they are being hash on Lordan, I think he was
being honest when he said it was an education for the horse, I think that
would apply to any horse on it’s first outing. From what I’ve read,
O’Brian thinks they have got this badly wrong, he reportedly described it
as “bizarre”.Wayne Lordan apparently admitted that there was room to challenge on the inside but stated that he didn’t do so because that would have meant (rather obviously) that there was no other horse between his mount and the rail.
I have seen them get away with far worse than this but if you admit there was room to challenge, then the rail being there is a pretty lame excuse for not going there. The rules have to be the same for every race, you can’t have special rules for certain types of races. Jockeys have the responsibility to obtain the best possible finishing position. There is no special dispensation for “Educating” the horse
What the Stewards badly need and don’t have is consistency, it’s pot luck policing of the sport.
I suspect a lot more fuss would have been made had the favourite been the one not put into the gap to try to win the race and this is part of the problem, because everyone is hunky dory about it until it is their horse who is affected and then you hear all about it in spades.
I think we saw enough with US Army Ranger being given an easy time last year when his stablemate looked well capable of turning him over on the day, to expect Stewards to be keeping a closer eye on some of the races with O’Brien running multiple horses, in order to see that they all get given the full chance to win the race. I feel Port Douglas could have beaten the overrated US Army Ranger that day at Chester in the Vase.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
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