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It wasn’t on the straight though, it was going into the turn. I could see how it could happen.
They made a mistake, they have been punished – end of.
Everyone makes mistakes at work sometime or other – nobody has died.
Admittedly a bl**dy stupid mistake though
To those like Peter Scudamore who think the course is at fault here is what the rules say:-
40.1 A Rider must consult the plan of the racecourse in the Weighing Room and acquaint himself in advance with the correct course over which he is to ride in a race.
To those like Peter Scudamore who think the course is at fault here is what the rules say:-
Don’t think it’s as simple as that Paul and I would tend to agree with Scu.
I’m sure if the road layout kept getting changed there would be more car crashes.
Why couldn’t a piece of tape, rail or cones point them in the right direction?
The authorites as we know just like to blame the jockeys and move on till it happens the next time.
Regarding the Big H sign, can horses read and does it stop them ducking out at bit’s of rail sticking out here, there and everywhere?
Incidentally why do the jockeys receive 4 times the penalty a jockey received for carrying the wrong weight in a race last Saturday?- Total Posts 17716
I wonder how much a big dod of cardboard with a great big arrow painted on it would cost?. Hell they might even get someone from the course who can spell THIS WAY>
I suppose the course should bare some of the blame but the jockeys are supposed to check the board prior to racing. From that point of view they are to blame and were punished accordingly although if a jockey was carried the wrong way and I believe one or two were, they shouldn’t be punishing them.
I backed the fav but it would seem his jockey was in a nowhere to go situation but that fell on deaf ears.
One thing I would add: Never mond the fact they don’t have to but how long does it take for a steward to pop in before the race through common courstesy and have a word with the lads?
The steward should realise that Joe Punter stands to lose a few quid and do everything they can to help not have this up to them attitude they obviously have.
For those, like me, who didn’t see the race oddschecker has provided a handy colour-coded guide: the horses in pink took the wrong course, the horses in blue knew where they were going.
I wonder how much a big dod of cardboard with a great big arrow painted on it would cost?. Hell they might even get someone from the course who can spell THIS WAY>
It isn’t required, since there’s already a ruddy great pole with a big ‘H’ on it! Every jockey on the course should know that if it’s a hurdle race you go to the outside of the H’s and inside of any C’s! They come across such signs every day so there’s not exactly much excuse for ignoring or missing it.
Mind you, given that countless people regularly ignore red circles with ’30’ or ’40’ on them when driving, should we really find this incident a surprise?
Rob
Just had a look at the replay and i could not believe that in this day and age the jockeys could not work out what their direction of travel was meant to be.
I mean they are on the standside part of the jumps course with a divding rail right infront of them and yet they tack over to the inside.
Another thing is that this was race two on the card and a good few of the jockeys including Jason Maguire rode in that race and still managed to keep to the right course.
Mind numbing stupidity. Whilst i agree with Paul that it is a mistake and thankfully nobody got hurt or injured im still amazed that it got to happen in the first place.
I think the 12 day ban is the standard penalty isn’t it? I know it’s quite steep.
Seems to me it was 90% Jason Maguire’s fault, because he should have realised where he was going. Just a few seconds lack of concentration, and the mistake was made. It was only human nature for the other jocks to blindly follow him.
10% of the blame should go to the course because it wasn’t the most obvious of signs. It didn’t exactly scream at you as you came towards it.But yeah, just one of those things. Nobody’s perfect.
LOL at Glenns post. That was so funny when I worked out what the blue and pink denoted. I enjoyed that.
Stop changing courses, and you don’t get these mistakes. It’s a simple fact. I’m not a huge fan of Jump racing in general, and it’s not an attack on it, but the course issues are disgraceful. We can’t have a simple running rail going round the whole of the inside of the course for what reason? People laugh at All Weather racing, but at least jockey’s can’t take the wrong course at Lingfield and Wolverhampton. We have running rails dolled out metres – we of course never know the true racing distances thanks to this.
Clerk of the course James Armstrong said: "It’s not the first time we’ve had the rail there – we put it there to protect the inside ground on the chasetrack.
"Sometimes we’ve taken the rail right back to the fence, but there was a big H on the end of it so they should have seen it.
Here’s a message to Mr Armstrong as well because of the photo I’m viewing on the Racing Post currently. The next time you wish to alter and fiddle with this course, because you’ll do it again no doubt and you’re accountable to just about no one, run the rail from the point of the last fence to where you want to protect the turn. That way the jockey’s can’t make an error at that point, and the more we do to stop them doing so the better for racing.
The course should be avoiding scenarios like this at all costs (all roughly £2 of it), and should know by now that 95% of Jockeys can hardly write their names if asked, so having to concentrate on anything else before racing may well drive them to drink and a different charge altogether…. Pointing a finger in their direction and hiding behind the rules is pathetic; people lost money because of them. DO something ffs.
Pointing a finger in their direction and hiding behind the rules is pathetic; people lost money because of them. DO something ffs.
What can be done other than jocks taking notice of whats on the notice board, walking the track and being able to read a bloody big sign. A 12 day ban is about right but it does not compensate the owners who have paid entry fees, travel costs and jockey fees. Of course there is no recompense for punters either.
Er, running the rail back to the last fence like Mr Amrstrong has said he’s done previously. Look at the Racing Post photo and you’ll see what’s meant. There will be no need for no huge marker sign with a letter on it. The rail will just stop them taking the wrong course in that situation, provided the last hurdle is near enough level with the last fence.
I have just looked at the photograph which is shown on the RP site. Some of those concerned haven’t got a leg to stand on, they are very lucky professionals indeed to escape so lightly.
It makes you laugh when you here some pundits bumming up jockyship with comments on "Jockeys having a clock in their head" and talk of them "judging pace to perfection" as if there are thousands of mental calculations per second going on. That may be the case for one or two but
I suspect that yesterdays situation is nearer the mark, "wandering round a field like sheep" with some "just following each other" with barely a thought in their head.Surely you’ve sussed this one out by now… this is the annual excuse to go on a nice sunny winter break prior to putting all one’s efforts into Cheltenham.
There’s a certain hotel in Spain that lays on special rates for banned jockeys during February.
I found out about this holiday ritual some years ago after backing a horse at 20/1 that finished seventh but was subsequently promoted to first place. In the changing room the disqualified jockeys were packing their swimming trunks even before the Stewards Enquiry was called. I overheard them singing ….we’re off to sunny Spain, viva….- Total Posts 17716
It makes you laugh when you here some pundits bumming up jockeyship with comments on "Jockeys having a clock in their head" and talk of them "judging pace to perfection" as if there are thousands of mental calculations per second going on. That may be the case for one or two but I suspect that yesterdays situation is nearer the mark, "wandering round a field like sheep" with some "just following each other" with barely a thought in their head.
Anyone who’s ever done anything which puts them "in the zone" knows exactly how these things happen: and I hope nobody’s brave enough to suggest that galloping along at nearly 30 miles per hour, on a living animal, with obstacles periodically in the path, is not in that condition.
When you’re in such a heightened state, you’re more sensitive to some things (such as minutiae of pace, relative position, how the horse is "feeling") and far less so than normal to "ordinary" cognitive decision-making (e.g. right or left) which gets blurred. One of the differences between the excellent and merely good – and with professional jockeys the latter’s the norm – is the ability to keep a "third eye" going, which monitors these "ordinary" things, at the same time as leaving you focused entirely "in the zone".
This might sound a tad mystical, and I’m aware that I’m not putting it very clearly: but I’m sure many people will understand exactly what I mean.
The rail will just stop them taking the wrong course in that situation, provided the last hurdle is near enough level with the last fence.
The reason the last hurdle isn’t ‘near enough level’ with the last fence is because of the need to omit the fence or hurdle due to injured horse or jockey on the track. If they were close to each other there wouldn’t be room for the horses to go through.
Regarding your earlier point about moving rails, have you noticed the sort of going we get in teh UK during the winter? Rails are moved so that the ground can be kept in as good a condition as possible. If you continually race on the same ground without moving rails on a regular basis then all you get is a mud hole.
The course is sufficiently well marked and we are dealing with professionals whose job it is to note course markers.
Rob
- Total Posts 17716
The course is sufficiently well marked and we are dealing with professionals whose job it is to note course markers.
Rob
Disagree.
Horse racing is a sport, its object to find the best horse – not bloody orienteering.
How many times a season must this fiasco be repeated before the BHA finally comes to terms, and fines the real villains in this – the racecourses.
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