Wellington RC - 17 April 2010 - R 7
638 (1) (d)
RACEDAY JUDICIAL COMMITTEE DECISION
Informant: N Goodwin, R Neal
Defendant: Ms K Myers
Information No: 6690
Meeting: Wellington Racing Club
Date: 17 April 2010
Venue: Trentham
Race: 7
Rule No: 638 (1) (d)
Judicial Committee: N Moffatt, Chairman – CT McKay, Committee Member
Following the running of Race 7, the Keep The Peace Cup, Ms K. Myers admitted a breach of Rule 638 (1) (d) in that as the rider of DARBY SHAW she shifted outwards near the 800m dictating SEEKER (K. Smith) wider on the track off its rightful line of running.
Mr. Goodwin showed a film of the incident taken from the 800m tower. He pointed to Ms Myers racing on the rail in behind rider Mr. P. Bell with Mr. Smith beside her. Ms Myers, in looking to improve her position, elected to angle her mount outwards which pushed Mr. Smith’s mount over extra ground. He tried to maintain his position but ended up going back onto the horse behind him, TEDDY’S DILEMMA, which had to be steadied. Mr. Smith lost approximately 2 –3 lengths of ground in the incident.
Ms Myers said that Mr. Smith gave her enough room to get off the rail and that in her opinion the interference was reasonably minimal.
PENALTY SUBMISSIONS
Mr. Goodwin said the Stewards placed the degree of carelessness at the lower end describing the incident as “jostling” rather than a check. He said that Ms Myers was not helped by the rider in front of her easing backwards as she made the decision to improve.
He considered Ms Myers to be a national rider with a good record. Two suspensions incurred in the last racing season were:
23/1/10 Trentham (Group 1) 2 weeks & $1,200
3/10/09 Hawkes Bay 5 days
Mr. Goodwin submitted that a four day suspension was appropriate.
Ms Myers advised the committee that she had commitments to ride at Hastings on Saturday April 24th.
DECISION & REASONS
The committee carefully considered all of the submissions presented and took into account Ms Myers admission of the breach and her riding record. Ms Myers is an in-demand rider and considering the large number of rides that she has in a season we acknowledge her record to be a good one.
The films presented of the incident showed Mr. Smith lose ground quickly after Ms Myers decided to move off the rail in an attempt to move forward. As she angled her mount outwards looking for a better position she made contact with Mr. Smith who lost ground as a result. The horse in front of her did ease which may have caused her to go wider than what she had initially anticipated.
The committee could not be absolutely certain that this contributed to Mr. Smith’s loss of ground but we could not discount it being a mitigating factor either.
Balancing all of these matters and taking into account Ms Myer’s immediate riding commitments she is suspended from the close of racing on Saturday April 24th until the close of racing on Friday April 30th – in effect four days.
N.Moffatt C. T. McKay
CHAIR Committee Member
6690
