Marlborough HRC 24 January 2016 – R 5 (request for a ruling) – Chair, Mr R McKenzie
ID: JCA12069
Meet Title:
Marlborough HRC - 24 January 2016
Meet Chair:
RMcKenzie
Meet Committee Member 1:
PWilliams
Race Date:
2016/01/24
Race Number:
R5
Decision:
The Committee ruled that TEHORO RUBY had not been denied a fair start.
Facts:
Following the running of Race 5, InterIslander Handicap Trot, an information requesting a ruling was filed by Licensed Junior Driver, Miss K A Butt, requesting a ruling that TEHORO RUBY, driven by her, “was denied a fair start”.
Miss Butt was present at the hearing of the information. She was assisted by Mr R D Holmes, Licensed Public Trainer, the trainer of TEHORO RUBY.
Rule 213 (1) provides as follows:
(1) A Stipendiary Steward at any time may scratch from a race or declare ineligible to start in a race until a specific condition is met any horse on all or any of the following grounds:
(j) if a horse was denied a fair start and such occurrence materially prejudiced the chances of that horse.
Submissions for Decision:
Co-Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr N G McIntyre, showed video replays of the start of the race, a 2700 metres standing start event for trotters. The safety limit for the front mark at that starting point is 10, but there were only 5 runners drawn to start from the front mark, Mr McIntyre said, so there was plenty of room for those 5 runners to come into position.
He pointed out Miss Butt turning the horse round and the tape being released. He showed the head-on video replay and showed that the other 4 runners on the front were well in position and in line. Miss Butt had drawn barrier position 5 and had given herself plenty of room, with some distance between her horse and the horse drawn at 4, UNYIELDING SPIRIT. When the tape was released, TEHORO RUBY “tangled away”, Mr McIntyre said.
Miss Butt said that she was following the horse in front of her walking around. As she had gone to turn her horse in, the tape had gone. She had not been able to “bring it right up”, she said. She was still attempting to turn it round when the tape was released. She had not called out to the starter at any stage.
Mr Holmes submitted that the horse was facing toward the markers at a right-angle to the inside of the track and was not facing the barrier strand.
The video of the first 200 metres of the race was shown to the hearing, TEHORO RUBY had gone away in a gallop for a short distance, getting back and losing 10-15 metres, according to Mr McIntyre.
Mr Holmes said that TEHORO RUBY was a 1-win trotter and, when it got back in the field, it was hard for it to make ground when 3-win trotters had gone past it. He supported Miss Butt’s request to have the horse scratched for having been denied a fair start. She would have felt that, following another horse round, she had time to turn her horse around, Mr Holmes said.
Mr Lamb, the starter, said that the video replay was self-explanatory. He said that TEHORO RUBY was moving into line but not all horses addressed the tape square-on and this is often through “driver preference”. He had no way of knowing whether that was the case in this instance. Miss Butt had given no indication that she was having a problem. While not perfectly square with the tape at dispatch, she was on the move and on the front foot. The drivers had been instructed to all turn their horses in together and the other 10 runners had done that perfectly, Mr Lamb said.
Mr McIntyre said that, if it was the driver’s preference to bring his or her horse in standing straight, it was that driver’s obligation to bring the horse up into that position. It was apparent from the side-on video replay that Miss Butt had given herself some room and it was his submission that Miss Butt’s horse had been afforded a fair chance. If the starter had to wait in every standing start race for every horse to be standing straight, there would never be a start, he said.
Reasons for Decision:
Quite simply, there was no evidence before the Committee that TEHORO RUBY had been denied a fair start in the race. Miss Butt had elected to maintain a gap between her horse and the horse that had drawn to her immediate inside. There was room for her to do so and it was open for her to so elect. In the event, she was a little slow in bringing the horse up to the tape whereas the rest of the field was in position. The Committee found that, at the point at which the tape was released, TEHORO RUBY was not standing square up the tape but neither was it at right-angles to the tape, as suggested by Mr Holmes, or unduly out of position. The horse galloped off the mark for a few strides but not, in the Committee’s view, as a result of being denied a fair start.
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: 2d5a7dae500a311e8d79da98c5d34791
informantnumber: A8013
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge:
plea:
penaltyrequired:
decisiondate: 27/01/2016
hearing_title: Marlborough HRC 24 January 2016 - R 5 (request for a ruling) - Chair, Mr R McKenzie
charge:
facts:
Following the running of Race 5, InterIslander Handicap Trot, an information requesting a ruling was filed by Licensed Junior Driver, Miss K A Butt, requesting a ruling that TEHORO RUBY, driven by her, “was denied a fair start”.
Miss Butt was present at the hearing of the information. She was assisted by Mr R D Holmes, Licensed Public Trainer, the trainer of TEHORO RUBY.
Rule 213 (1) provides as follows:
(1) A Stipendiary Steward at any time may scratch from a race or declare ineligible to start in a race until a specific condition is met any horse on all or any of the following grounds:
(j) if a horse was denied a fair start and such occurrence materially prejudiced the chances of that horse.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
Co-Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr N G McIntyre, showed video replays of the start of the race, a 2700 metres standing start event for trotters. The safety limit for the front mark at that starting point is 10, but there were only 5 runners drawn to start from the front mark, Mr McIntyre said, so there was plenty of room for those 5 runners to come into position.
He pointed out Miss Butt turning the horse round and the tape being released. He showed the head-on video replay and showed that the other 4 runners on the front were well in position and in line. Miss Butt had drawn barrier position 5 and had given herself plenty of room, with some distance between her horse and the horse drawn at 4, UNYIELDING SPIRIT. When the tape was released, TEHORO RUBY “tangled away”, Mr McIntyre said.
Miss Butt said that she was following the horse in front of her walking around. As she had gone to turn her horse in, the tape had gone. She had not been able to “bring it right up”, she said. She was still attempting to turn it round when the tape was released. She had not called out to the starter at any stage.
Mr Holmes submitted that the horse was facing toward the markers at a right-angle to the inside of the track and was not facing the barrier strand.
The video of the first 200 metres of the race was shown to the hearing, TEHORO RUBY had gone away in a gallop for a short distance, getting back and losing 10-15 metres, according to Mr McIntyre.
Mr Holmes said that TEHORO RUBY was a 1-win trotter and, when it got back in the field, it was hard for it to make ground when 3-win trotters had gone past it. He supported Miss Butt’s request to have the horse scratched for having been denied a fair start. She would have felt that, following another horse round, she had time to turn her horse around, Mr Holmes said.
Mr Lamb, the starter, said that the video replay was self-explanatory. He said that TEHORO RUBY was moving into line but not all horses addressed the tape square-on and this is often through “driver preference”. He had no way of knowing whether that was the case in this instance. Miss Butt had given no indication that she was having a problem. While not perfectly square with the tape at dispatch, she was on the move and on the front foot. The drivers had been instructed to all turn their horses in together and the other 10 runners had done that perfectly, Mr Lamb said.
Mr McIntyre said that, if it was the driver’s preference to bring his or her horse in standing straight, it was that driver’s obligation to bring the horse up into that position. It was apparent from the side-on video replay that Miss Butt had given herself some room and it was his submission that Miss Butt’s horse had been afforded a fair chance. If the starter had to wait in every standing start race for every horse to be standing straight, there would never be a start, he said.
reasonsfordecision:
Quite simply, there was no evidence before the Committee that TEHORO RUBY had been denied a fair start in the race. Miss Butt had elected to maintain a gap between her horse and the horse that had drawn to her immediate inside. There was room for her to do so and it was open for her to so elect. In the event, she was a little slow in bringing the horse up to the tape whereas the rest of the field was in position. The Committee found that, at the point at which the tape was released, TEHORO RUBY was not standing square up the tape but neither was it at right-angles to the tape, as suggested by Mr Holmes, or unduly out of position. The horse galloped off the mark for a few strides but not, in the Committee’s view, as a result of being denied a fair start.
Decision:
The Committee ruled that TEHORO RUBY had not been denied a fair start.
sumissionsforpenalty:
reasonsforpenalty:
penalty:
hearing_type: Request Ruling
Rules: 213(1)(j)
Informant:
JockeysandTrainer:
Otherperson:
PersonPresent: R D Holmes, Licensed Public Trainer, P C Lamb, Starter, K A Butt - Licensed Junior Driver
Respondent:
StipendSteward: NG McIntyre - Co-Chief Stipendiary Steward
raceid: d427827816b8fe0b2900c4588503fca6
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R5
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: 4bea8b088f515f1c3f92a78cf063bd97
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 24/01/2016
meet_title: Marlborough HRC - 24 January 2016
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: marlborough-hrc
meet_racingtype: harness-racing
meet_chair: RMcKenzie
meet_pm1: PWilliams
meet_pm2: none
name: Marlborough HRC