Auckland TC 21 February 2014 – R 4 (instigating a protest)
ID: JCA11737
Meet Title:
Auckland TC - 21 February 2014
Meet Chair:
ADooley
Meet Committee Member 1:
GJones
Race Date:
2014/02/21
Race Number:
R4
Decision:
Accordingly the protest is dismissed.
It was ordered that dividends and stakes be paid in accordance with the official result.
Facts:
Following the running of race 4, Breckon Farms Young Guns Series (Ht 5) Mobile Pace 1700m, an information Instigating a Protest pursuant to Rule 869 (4) (8) was filed. The informant Mr Ydgren, Stipendiary Steward, alleged that STRIKE THE GOLD, placed 4th by the Judge, interfered with the chances of DELIGHTFUL OFFER, placed 7th by the Judge, by shifting downward on the track.
Judge's placings were:
1st No 1 BETTOR SPIRITS
2nd No 5 ARDEE
3rd No PRINCE OF POPS
4th No 6 STRIKE THE GOLD
The official margins were ½ NECK, 1 ¼ L, 3/4 L.
Rule 869(4) provides:
“No horseman shall during any race do anything which interferes or is likely to interfere with his own horse and/or any other horse or its progress.”
Rule 869(4A) provides:
“No horse shall during any race do anything which interferes or is likely to interfere with any other horse or its progress.”
Rule 869(8) provides:
“The Judicial Committee may in addition to any other penalty which may be imposed pursuant to Rule 1003 thereof place any horse which:
(a) may have gained an advantage by any conduct or interference prohibited by any preceding provision of this Rule and/or;
(b) may have interfered with, or whose horseman may have interfered with, the progress or chance of any other horse or horses -
immediately after any horse from which it may have gained an advantage or whose chances or progress may have been affected thereby.”
Submissions for Decision:
Mr Ydgren demonstrated the alleged incident via video footage. He said that near the 1300 metres STRIKE THE GOLD (S Lawson) was racing in a 3 wide position and attempting to shift down. On his inside was DELIGHTFUL OFFER (Z Butcher) and trailing DELIGHTFUL OFFER by about one length was ARDEE (A Herlihy).
He said that when Mr Lawson attempted to shift down, Mr Butcher restrained DELIGHTFUL OFFER at the same time and this resulted in contact being made by the sulky wheel of STRIKE THE GOLD. Both horses galloped momentarily and settled at the rear of the field.
Mr Butcher submitted that he was endeavouring to angle DELIGHTFUL OFFER onto the inside of the track and at the same time ARDEE moved up inside of his sulky wheel. He said that there was contact between his drive and Mr Lawson’s, but his horse's racing manners contributed to the incident. He said he did not think any one driver was at fault and emphasised that his horse was over racing and all were green 2 year olds.
Mr Lawson submitted that both his and Mr Butcher’s horse were attempting to ease inwards on the point of the turn and both were rough in their action. He added that as a result of the incident STRIKE THE GOLD went back to last place and made ground strongly in the straight to finish in 4th place.
Mr Green advised the Committee that he had nothing to add other than both horses were equally affected and STRIKE THE GOLD finished the race off better than DELIGHTFUL OFFER.
In response to a question from the Committee, Mr Butcher acknowledged that the incident did not have any bearing on his placing as his horse was battling up the final straight.
Reasons for Decision:
The Committee carefully considered all of the evidence including submissions from the various parties. The Committee reviewed the video footage of the incident several times. Our assessment of the incident is that contact did occur between STRIKE THE GOLD and DELIGHTFUL OFFER when their drivers were easing for positions closer to the marker line and both horses lost approximately 3 lengths. The Committee is of the opinion that the racing manners of both horses contributed in that they were not pacing smoothly and tractable on the point of the turn. We noted both horses were having their second raceday start. As a result of the incident both horses settled at the rear of the field and in the final straight STRIKE THE GOLD ran on strongly into 4th place and DELIGHTFUL OFFER did not run on and finished in 7th place (4 lengths in arrears of STRIKE THE GOLD).
Having weighed up all the evidence and submissions it is the Committee's view that STRIKE THE GOLD did not gain any advantage as a result of the incident. In fact we find that it was disadvantaged in that it galloped briefly after the incident and settled at the rear of field behind DELIGHTFUL OFFER. The Committee also notes Mr Butcher's submission that DELIGHTFUL OFFER's chances were not affected by the incident. This is consistent with and supported by the video evidence.
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: 23962c889c34ef7e3d8619941e111ab2
informantnumber: A3843
horsename: STRIKE THE GOLD
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge:
plea:
penaltyrequired:
decisiondate: 10/02/2014
hearing_title: Auckland TC 21 February 2014 - R 4 (instigating a protest)
charge:
facts:
Following the running of race 4, Breckon Farms Young Guns Series (Ht 5) Mobile Pace 1700m, an information Instigating a Protest pursuant to Rule 869 (4) (8) was filed. The informant Mr Ydgren, Stipendiary Steward, alleged that STRIKE THE GOLD, placed 4th by the Judge, interfered with the chances of DELIGHTFUL OFFER, placed 7th by the Judge, by shifting downward on the track.
Judge's placings were:
1st No 1 BETTOR SPIRITS
2nd No 5 ARDEE
3rd No PRINCE OF POPS
4th No 6 STRIKE THE GOLD
The official margins were ½ NECK, 1 ¼ L, 3/4 L.
Rule 869(4) provides:
“No horseman shall during any race do anything which interferes or is likely to interfere with his own horse and/or any other horse or its progress.”
Rule 869(4A) provides:
“No horse shall during any race do anything which interferes or is likely to interfere with any other horse or its progress.”
Rule 869(8) provides:
“The Judicial Committee may in addition to any other penalty which may be imposed pursuant to Rule 1003 thereof place any horse which:
(a) may have gained an advantage by any conduct or interference prohibited by any preceding provision of this Rule and/or;
(b) may have interfered with, or whose horseman may have interfered with, the progress or chance of any other horse or horses -
immediately after any horse from which it may have gained an advantage or whose chances or progress may have been affected thereby.”
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
Mr Ydgren demonstrated the alleged incident via video footage. He said that near the 1300 metres STRIKE THE GOLD (S Lawson) was racing in a 3 wide position and attempting to shift down. On his inside was DELIGHTFUL OFFER (Z Butcher) and trailing DELIGHTFUL OFFER by about one length was ARDEE (A Herlihy).
He said that when Mr Lawson attempted to shift down, Mr Butcher restrained DELIGHTFUL OFFER at the same time and this resulted in contact being made by the sulky wheel of STRIKE THE GOLD. Both horses galloped momentarily and settled at the rear of the field.
Mr Butcher submitted that he was endeavouring to angle DELIGHTFUL OFFER onto the inside of the track and at the same time ARDEE moved up inside of his sulky wheel. He said that there was contact between his drive and Mr Lawson’s, but his horse's racing manners contributed to the incident. He said he did not think any one driver was at fault and emphasised that his horse was over racing and all were green 2 year olds.
Mr Lawson submitted that both his and Mr Butcher’s horse were attempting to ease inwards on the point of the turn and both were rough in their action. He added that as a result of the incident STRIKE THE GOLD went back to last place and made ground strongly in the straight to finish in 4th place.
Mr Green advised the Committee that he had nothing to add other than both horses were equally affected and STRIKE THE GOLD finished the race off better than DELIGHTFUL OFFER.
In response to a question from the Committee, Mr Butcher acknowledged that the incident did not have any bearing on his placing as his horse was battling up the final straight.
reasonsfordecision:
The Committee carefully considered all of the evidence including submissions from the various parties. The Committee reviewed the video footage of the incident several times. Our assessment of the incident is that contact did occur between STRIKE THE GOLD and DELIGHTFUL OFFER when their drivers were easing for positions closer to the marker line and both horses lost approximately 3 lengths. The Committee is of the opinion that the racing manners of both horses contributed in that they were not pacing smoothly and tractable on the point of the turn. We noted both horses were having their second raceday start. As a result of the incident both horses settled at the rear of the field and in the final straight STRIKE THE GOLD ran on strongly into 4th place and DELIGHTFUL OFFER did not run on and finished in 7th place (4 lengths in arrears of STRIKE THE GOLD).
Having weighed up all the evidence and submissions it is the Committee's view that STRIKE THE GOLD did not gain any advantage as a result of the incident. In fact we find that it was disadvantaged in that it galloped briefly after the incident and settled at the rear of field behind DELIGHTFUL OFFER. The Committee also notes Mr Butcher's submission that DELIGHTFUL OFFER's chances were not affected by the incident. This is consistent with and supported by the video evidence.
Decision:
Accordingly the protest is dismissed.
It was ordered that dividends and stakes be paid in accordance with the official result.
sumissionsforpenalty:
reasonsforpenalty:
penalty:
hearing_type: Protest
Rules: 869 (4) & (8)
Informant: Mr N Ydgren-Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer:
Otherperson:
PersonPresent: Mr Z Butcher - Driver of DELIGHTFUL OFFER
Respondent: Mr R Green - Trainer of STRIKE THE GOLD, Mr S Lawson - Driver of STRIKE THE GOLD
StipendSteward:
raceid: 39ffcee48fceb78cf0ff55c5259a2e89
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R4
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: 0f0fe29f2699c5b827257b47b0b23bfe
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 21/02/2014
meet_title: Auckland TC - 21 February 2014
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: auckland-tc
meet_racingtype: harness-racing
meet_chair: ADooley
meet_pm1: GJones
meet_pm2: none
name: Auckland TC