McCoy expected to team up with Best Mate
McCoy will be partnering Best Mate for the second time in the St Stephen's Day showpiece at Kempton Park following the failure of Jim Culloty, the horse's regular rider, to have a suspension overturned.
Henrietta Knight, the trainer of Best Mate, the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, anticipates finalising the arrangement this morning following discussions with the horse's owner, Jim Lewis.
The only obstacle that might prevent McCoy from taking the ride would be if Martin Pipe, his employer, declined to release him.
Pipe, the multiple champion jumps trainer in Britain, has two possible, though not definite, runners Shooting Light and Wahiba Sands in the King George, but they are relative outsiders, and it is unlikely he will demand McCoy's services.
Culloty, who chose to ride at Exeter yesterday rather than appear in person at the Jockey Club's London headquarters, presented a forlorn figure when he realised his attempt to locate a legal loophole that would keep him free to ride Best Mate had failed.
"I am absolutely gutted about missing the King George but unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it," Culloty said. "I had a few other decent rides but I am going to forget about it now and get on with my life."
Culloty had engaged the services of Andrew Coonan, the Naas-based solicitor who represents the Irish Jockeys' Association, to fight his appeal that had been scheduled for 1.30pm yesterday. On Wednesday Coonan unsuccessfully petitioned the Jockey Club to the appeal against the three-day suspension Culloty incurred for dropping his hands at Doncaster last Friday postponed until he was available to represent his client.
Yesterday, another solicitor, Richard Brooks, who had been at the Jockey Club to aid another jockey in an appeal case, interceded and requested an adjournment until after the Christmas holiday, by which time Coonan would have been available. If this had been allowed, Culloty could have ridden Best Mate, pending the appeal.
However, the Jockey Club's disciplinary committee rejected the application for an adjournment and the Killarney-born jockey's appeal was subsequently withdrawn.
Had Culloty presented the appeal he would have risked being given an increased punishment, as the stewards at Doncaster has erred in handing him a three day ban, when the penalty for his offence losing third place ranges from seven to 10 days.
This is the second year running that Culloty has been forced to miss a date with Best Mate in the King George.
Twelve months ago he was sidelined with a broken arm.
His plight has received a sympathetic ear from his employer.
"It is rotten luck for Jim. Quite unbelievable," Knight said.
