Kumeu TC 24 February 2014 – R 9
ID: JCA15272
Meet Title:
Kumeu TC - 24 February 2014
Meet Chair:
AGodsalve
Meet Committee Member 1:
ADooley
Race Date:
2014/02/24
Race Number:
R 9
Decision:
The Charge is admitted and accordingly it is upheld.
Penalty:
Accordingly the Committee imposes a fine of $200 on Mr Ferguson.
Facts:
Following the running of Race 9, the HUAPAI TAVERN 'OPEN ALL HOURS' MOBILE PACE, an Information was lodged by Stipendiary Steward Mr JM Muirhead against Open Horseman Mr P Ferguson alleging that Mr Ferguson drove VOTE FOR ME carelessly causing interference to ACE OF DELIGHT passing the 300m metre mark.
Mr Ferguson was present at the Hearing and he advised the Committee that he admitted the breach.
It was agreed by the parties that the film and oral evidence used at the earlier Protest Hearing involving the horse could be accepted as evidence for this Hearing.
Submissions for Penalty:
Mr Muirhead said that the JCA Guidelines provide that a charge of 'careless driving' under this Rule calls for a fine of $400 or a suspension of Licence for 8 drives. He added that Mr Ferguson was one of the 'top' drivers in New Zealand and had a good record under this Rule having had no breaches within the past 12 months. He said that Mr Ferguson had admitted the breach, and that the breach fell into the mid to low end on the scale of seriousness. He felt a fine under $400 would be appropriate, adding that Mr Ferguson had assisted the hearing into the earlier protest.
Mr Ferguson agreed that his actions were careless but were at the low end of the scale. He added that he had been driving at another meeting within the past few days where a driver was fined $200 for a similar breach and submitted that his fine should be no more than that. He further added that he had attempted to straighten his horse when it started to veer out but was too late to avoid causing interference to the other horse.
Reasons for Penalty:
The evidence presented to us is clear, and while we take the view that this is not the worst case of interference, it did cause the horse ACE OF DELIGHT to go off stride at a crucial stage of the race.
The JCA Guidelines provide a starting point of a $400 fine or 8 drives suspension of licence. We accept that this breach was at the low-mid range, and to his credit Mr Ferguson has admitted the breach. Unfortunately the 'damage' was done by the time he had straightened his horse and we regard this as an aggravating factor when assessing penalty.
The mitigating factors in Mr Ferguson's favour are that he is a very busy driver and has an excellent record under this Rule in the last 12 months.
We have the benefit of the JCA Penalty Schedules which show a fine of $200 would be appropriate in this matter.
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: 7d7687df95a60420eb7a500ed3502288
informantnumber: A3850
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge: Careless Driving
plea: admitted
penaltyrequired: 1
decisiondate: 23/02/2014
hearing_title: Kumeu TC 24 February 2014 - R 9
charge:
facts:
Following the running of Race 9, the HUAPAI TAVERN 'OPEN ALL HOURS' MOBILE PACE, an Information was lodged by Stipendiary Steward Mr JM Muirhead against Open Horseman Mr P Ferguson alleging that Mr Ferguson drove VOTE FOR ME carelessly causing interference to ACE OF DELIGHT passing the 300m metre mark.
Mr Ferguson was present at the Hearing and he advised the Committee that he admitted the breach.
It was agreed by the parties that the film and oral evidence used at the earlier Protest Hearing involving the horse could be accepted as evidence for this Hearing.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
reasonsfordecision:
Decision:
The Charge is admitted and accordingly it is upheld.
sumissionsforpenalty:
Mr Muirhead said that the JCA Guidelines provide that a charge of 'careless driving' under this Rule calls for a fine of $400 or a suspension of Licence for 8 drives. He added that Mr Ferguson was one of the 'top' drivers in New Zealand and had a good record under this Rule having had no breaches within the past 12 months. He said that Mr Ferguson had admitted the breach, and that the breach fell into the mid to low end on the scale of seriousness. He felt a fine under $400 would be appropriate, adding that Mr Ferguson had assisted the hearing into the earlier protest.
Mr Ferguson agreed that his actions were careless but were at the low end of the scale. He added that he had been driving at another meeting within the past few days where a driver was fined $200 for a similar breach and submitted that his fine should be no more than that. He further added that he had attempted to straighten his horse when it started to veer out but was too late to avoid causing interference to the other horse.
reasonsforpenalty:
The evidence presented to us is clear, and while we take the view that this is not the worst case of interference, it did cause the horse ACE OF DELIGHT to go off stride at a crucial stage of the race.
The JCA Guidelines provide a starting point of a $400 fine or 8 drives suspension of licence. We accept that this breach was at the low-mid range, and to his credit Mr Ferguson has admitted the breach. Unfortunately the 'damage' was done by the time he had straightened his horse and we regard this as an aggravating factor when assessing penalty.
The mitigating factors in Mr Ferguson's favour are that he is a very busy driver and has an excellent record under this Rule in the last 12 months.
We have the benefit of the JCA Penalty Schedules which show a fine of $200 would be appropriate in this matter.
penalty:
Accordingly the Committee imposes a fine of $200 on Mr Ferguson.
hearing_type: Hearing
Rules: 869(3)(b)
Informant: Mr J M Muirhead - Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer: Mr P Ferguson, Open Horseman -driver of VOTE FOR ME
Otherperson:
PersonPresent:
Respondent:
StipendSteward:
raceid: 1351ea6b573aba872b6d17cf12d9424e
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R 9
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: e73777b26dd27e1d670d85f6e822b956
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 24/02/2014
meet_title: Kumeu TC - 24 February 2014
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: kumeu-tc
meet_racingtype: harness-racing
meet_chair: AGodsalve
meet_pm1: ADooley
meet_pm2: none
name: Kumeu TC