Jockey Club to study video of McCoy – Beano incident
The champion jockey was banned for five days after getting into trouble for his handling of the Martin Pipe-trained 12-year-old before the start of the Unicoin New Homes Spa Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The talented but temperamental gelding was reluctant to line up with his five rivals and received some sharp reminders from McCoy before eventually consenting to jump off when the tapes went up.
The incident was played out in full view of Channel 4 and attheraces viewers.
“We will be looking at that this week but I don’t think there will be any imminent announcement or decision coming out. We just need a little time to pool the thoughts of those at this end,” said John Maxse, the Jockey Club’s director of public relations.
“I think it’s more to see, in reviewing the incident, if you can work out what maybe can be done to reduce the chances of that situation recurring. That’s the angle from which I think we’ll approach it.
“If a rider did what Tony McCoy did, then I’m afraid he’s going to have to face the music for that.
“But that doesn’t stop us also looking at anything that can be done to reduce the chances of a rider finding himself in that position in the first place.”
Meanwhile, the appeal by the ‘Ludlow Seven’ is scheduled to get under way this morning at the Jockey Club’s headquarters in London.
The seven jockeys are questioning the severity of a 19-day ban each rider received following a controversial race at the Shropshire track last month.
They are appealing against both the length of the penalty of 12 days for taking the wrong course and against the seven for failing to pull up.
The riders involved are Marcus Foley (who rode Triumph Of Dubai), Timmy Murphy (Blue Savanna), Mark Nicolls (Craigmor), James Davies (Seraph), Paddy Brennan (Sigwells Club Boy), Antony Evans (Diamond Orchid) and Gabriel Hannon (Golden Fields).
The suspensions were due to start on December 29, but were put on hold pending the appeal.
Confusion began when conditional jockey Claire Stretton was sent flying from her mount Mizinky at the first flight in the Tanners Claret Juvenile Novices’ Selling Hurdle.
The obstacle had to be omitted on the final circuit while she was attended by paramedics.
As the runners turned into the home straight, where the field split into three groups, Stretton was still on the ground at the side of the dolled-off hurdle.
A trio of the runners chose to go around the outside of the obstacle and as a result avoided the stricken rider.
However, some of the field went on to the chase course, and others went to the inside of the hurdle and were forced to swerve to avoid Stretton and the paramedics.
The 20-1 winner, Dream Falcon, kept the race after jockey Rodi Greene was deemed to have taken the correct outside course, along with La Rose (Robert Thornton) and Margarets Wish (Carl Llewellyn), who finished well beaten but were promoted to second and third respectively.
Jockeys Keith Dalgleish and Joe Fanning, the only riders who have failed random breath tests in Britain, will learn their fate on Thursday.
Breathalyser tests for riders were introduced in July and Dalgleish became the first to fall foul of the new procedures at Redcar on September 15.
He was stood down for the rest of the day for “safety reasons” after two checks revealed he had tested above the permitted alcohol threshold.
The same happened to Fanning after he failed a breathalyser, also at Redcar, on November 3.
