Only 2 Stewards for a race meeting?

[yeats]

A presenter at a recent meeting on tv pointed to a list outside the stewards room with only 2 names on it and stated that he hoped there was more than 2 stewards covering the meeting.

But according to the officials list in the Racing Post there are only 2 stewards for each meeting, what an “odd” number of stewards to have? What if they both disagree about an incident in a race, presumably the stipe will have the deciding vote but I thought their role was purely advisory?

I seem to remember more than 2 stewards covering meetings in the past but to have only 2 seems very strange, surely it would make make more sense to have 3 if we’re not going to have centralised stewarding? Anyone know what the logic is behind it?

[yeats]

Apparently the stewards in the Chepstow 3.10 was a split decision, understandable with it taking so long. So the 2 stewards decided to toss a coin to decide and it came down in favour of the outsider in the stewards enquiry.

A multi million pound industry with millions bet on every race and the stewards enquiries are just a lottery

[Marcus Weedon]

There are 2 local Stewards at each meeting and 2 Stipes. There will be more of each at major meetings.

The “Acting” Stipe (usually the longer serving of the two) sits on the panel which as you rightly state is always made up of three members, with the chairman having the casting vote. One of the local Stewards will be a qualified chairman who has several years’ experience and has undergone extra training to prepare them for the role. Having 2 locals and 2 Stipes means that you always have one spare person to step in if someone is unlucky with sudden illness or car trouble.

Sorry you didn’t agree with the Chepstow decision, which I thought was spot on, but it didn’t come about through a coin flip.

[Author]

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