Horse Racing: Top jockey fined for striking assistant trainer

English jockey Richard Hills has been fined £193 (€320) in the United Arab Emirates for hitting an assistant trainer with his stick.

Trainer Uday Singh was trying to calm down his stable horse, Marawis, which was ridden by Hills.

As Singh held the horse, he said Hills ''got a bit scared'' and told him to let go of the horse. Hills then hit him on the arm with his stick.

Hills escaped a possible suspension when the stewards committee inquiry accepted his guilty plea and remorse, according to Finn Powrie, chairman of the stipendiary stewards at the association.

Hills is the stable jockey for Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, one of the world's premier horse race owners and breeders.

Singh said: "Marawis was playing up in the paddock for the first time and I held the other side of the horse to calm him.

"Richard got a bit scared and told me to let go of the horse. When he told me the second time ... he hit me on the arm with his stick.

"It didn't hurt me, but it is disrespectful and it is humiliating," said Singh, the assistant trainer at Zabeel Stables.