Wellington RC 14 July 2018 – R 6 – Chair, Mr P Williams
ID: JCA11531
Code:
Thoroughbred
Meet Title:
Wellington RC - 14 July 2018
Meet Chair:
PWilliams
Meet Committee Member 1:
NMoffatt
Race Date:
2018/07/14
Race Number:
R 6
Decision:
Penalty:
Facts:
Information A8840 was filed by Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr J Oatham alleging a breach Rule 330(3)(c) by Mr D Turner. The Information stated “(Mr Turner was) unable to make the contracted weight for his mounts in Race 7 “Des” and Race 6 “Onawing”.
Mr Turner signed the Information admitting the breach and at the beginning of the hearing confirmed that was correct. He also confirmed he understood that, whilst a breach of this Rule is normally dealt with by of a Minor Infringement Notice, because it was his third breach of the Rule in the last 120 days the Information had been lodged.
Rule 330(3) states: A Rider shall not:
(c) fail to ride a horse at the weight at which it is handicapped to carry…..
Mr Oatham said Mr Turner was contracted to ride at 55kgs in Race 4 and he was alerted by another Steward that Mr Turner was unable to make that weight. He said Mr Turner was permitted to ride .5kg over, i.e. 55.5kgs, in Race 4 but was taken off his mounts in Races 6 and 7 because his contracted weight in both races was 54kgs. Mr Oatham said that because of the limited number of flat riders at the meeting it then proved difficult to find replacements for Mr Turner with Apprentice, Ms Moki replacing Mr Turner in Race 6 and Mr Bradley replacing him in Race 7. Mr Oatham also pointed out the two races were the main flat Races on the day with each being worth $40,000.
Mr Turner said he had been advised earlier in the week by his agent, Mr Neill, of the rides he had at today’s meeting and the weights allocated to them. He said he was not pressured by Mr Neill to take the rides and it was his decision and his alone. He said he had recently been able to ride at 55.5kgs so did not think he would have an issue making the weight for Race 4 and that he would be able to lose enough weight prior to today to be able to ride in Races 6 and 7 at or close to the 54kgs allocated. He said he had spent several hours in the bath this morning in an attempt to get down to the 54kgs but it had not happened.
Submissions for Penalty:
Mr Oatham said Mr Turner had breached the Rule on 2 September 2017 but the two most recent breaches were on 6 May 2018 at Wanganui where he was fined $100 and on 2 June 2018, also at Wanganui, where he was fined $200. He said the two races today were the principal flat races at the meeting, each for a stake of $40,000, and this, along with the difficulty of finding replacement riders meant that he submitted a fine of not less than $500 was an appropriate penalty.
Mr Turner said he would prefer a fine to a suspension. To a question from the Committee he initially said he had not apologised to either of the trainers affected – Mr Lynds and Mr Wilson – but then said he had in fact apologised to Mr Lynds.
Reasons for Penalty:
The Committee has considered the evidence and submissions presented. There are a number of aggravating factors that we have taken into account in coming to our decision on penalty. Firstly, it was another Steward and not Mr Turner who advised Mr Oatham of Mr Turner being overweight for Race 4. Also, there have been difficulties in finding suitable replacements for Mr Turner for the two races that were each worth $40,000 due to the limited number of flat riders at today’s meeting - 4 of the 8 races on today’s programme being Steeplechase and Hurdle races. Further it is disappointing that Mr Turner did not provide any reason why he had not apologised to Mr Wilson although we concede he did say he was going to. Most significantly however, the Committee believes Mr Turner was being overly optimistic in thinking that he could come close to riding at 54kgs, notwithstanding he was able to ride at 55.5kgs in an earlier race, and he should have told Mr Neill he would not be able to make the 54kgs and to not be put on the two horses. Mr Turner’s minimum riding weight is recorded as 56kgs in the Thoroughbred Calendar and, given the time of year and the added difficulty of losing weight in the winter and his recent history of breaches of this Rule, getting down to be able to ride at 54kgs was always going to be vey difficult to achieve.
We have decided that the starting point penalty for a third breach of the Rule is a fine of $300. Taking into account the aggravating factors above, and noting there are no mitigating factors to consider, we believe on this occasion an additional $200 penalty should be added to that starting point penalty.
JCA Decision Fields (raw)
Dmitry: This section contains all JCA fields migrated from the raw data.
Data from these fields should be mapped appropriately to display amongst the standard fields above; please make note of any values below that are missing in the above standard fields but should be there.
hearingid: 2b88053afe1e5d30c5193523daaba247
informantnumber: A8840
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge: Failed to make contraced weight
plea: admitted
penaltyrequired: 1
decisiondate: 15/07/2018
hearing_title: Wellington RC 14 July 2018 - R 6 - Chair, Mr P Williams
charge:
facts:
Information A8840 was filed by Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr J Oatham alleging a breach Rule 330(3)(c) by Mr D Turner. The Information stated “(Mr Turner was) unable to make the contracted weight for his mounts in Race 7 “Des” and Race 6 “Onawing”.
Mr Turner signed the Information admitting the breach and at the beginning of the hearing confirmed that was correct. He also confirmed he understood that, whilst a breach of this Rule is normally dealt with by of a Minor Infringement Notice, because it was his third breach of the Rule in the last 120 days the Information had been lodged.
Rule 330(3) states: A Rider shall not:
(c) fail to ride a horse at the weight at which it is handicapped to carry…..
Mr Oatham said Mr Turner was contracted to ride at 55kgs in Race 4 and he was alerted by another Steward that Mr Turner was unable to make that weight. He said Mr Turner was permitted to ride .5kg over, i.e. 55.5kgs, in Race 4 but was taken off his mounts in Races 6 and 7 because his contracted weight in both races was 54kgs. Mr Oatham said that because of the limited number of flat riders at the meeting it then proved difficult to find replacements for Mr Turner with Apprentice, Ms Moki replacing Mr Turner in Race 6 and Mr Bradley replacing him in Race 7. Mr Oatham also pointed out the two races were the main flat Races on the day with each being worth $40,000.
Mr Turner said he had been advised earlier in the week by his agent, Mr Neill, of the rides he had at today’s meeting and the weights allocated to them. He said he was not pressured by Mr Neill to take the rides and it was his decision and his alone. He said he had recently been able to ride at 55.5kgs so did not think he would have an issue making the weight for Race 4 and that he would be able to lose enough weight prior to today to be able to ride in Races 6 and 7 at or close to the 54kgs allocated. He said he had spent several hours in the bath this morning in an attempt to get down to the 54kgs but it had not happened.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
reasonsfordecision:
Decision:
sumissionsforpenalty:
Mr Oatham said Mr Turner had breached the Rule on 2 September 2017 but the two most recent breaches were on 6 May 2018 at Wanganui where he was fined $100 and on 2 June 2018, also at Wanganui, where he was fined $200. He said the two races today were the principal flat races at the meeting, each for a stake of $40,000, and this, along with the difficulty of finding replacement riders meant that he submitted a fine of not less than $500 was an appropriate penalty.
Mr Turner said he would prefer a fine to a suspension. To a question from the Committee he initially said he had not apologised to either of the trainers affected – Mr Lynds and Mr Wilson – but then said he had in fact apologised to Mr Lynds.
reasonsforpenalty:
The Committee has considered the evidence and submissions presented. There are a number of aggravating factors that we have taken into account in coming to our decision on penalty. Firstly, it was another Steward and not Mr Turner who advised Mr Oatham of Mr Turner being overweight for Race 4. Also, there have been difficulties in finding suitable replacements for Mr Turner for the two races that were each worth $40,000 due to the limited number of flat riders at today’s meeting - 4 of the 8 races on today’s programme being Steeplechase and Hurdle races. Further it is disappointing that Mr Turner did not provide any reason why he had not apologised to Mr Wilson although we concede he did say he was going to. Most significantly however, the Committee believes Mr Turner was being overly optimistic in thinking that he could come close to riding at 54kgs, notwithstanding he was able to ride at 55.5kgs in an earlier race, and he should have told Mr Neill he would not be able to make the 54kgs and to not be put on the two horses. Mr Turner’s minimum riding weight is recorded as 56kgs in the Thoroughbred Calendar and, given the time of year and the added difficulty of losing weight in the winter and his recent history of breaches of this Rule, getting down to be able to ride at 54kgs was always going to be vey difficult to achieve.
We have decided that the starting point penalty for a third breach of the Rule is a fine of $300. Taking into account the aggravating factors above, and noting there are no mitigating factors to consider, we believe on this occasion an additional $200 penalty should be added to that starting point penalty.
penalty:
hearing_type: Hearing
Rules: 330(3)(c)
Informant: Mr J Oatham - Chief Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer: Mr D Turner - Jockey
Otherperson: Mr D Balcombe - Stipendiary Steward
PersonPresent:
Respondent:
StipendSteward:
raceid: 8082b39d3adb9a5dfb151d623c2c281a
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R 6
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: 82d0d2faf123fcbce9342276dea90de9
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 14/07/2018
meet_title: Wellington RC - 14 July 2018
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: wellington-rc
meet_racingtype: thoroughbred-racing
meet_chair: PWilliams
meet_pm1: NMoffatt
meet_pm2: none
name: Wellington RC