Canterbury R 12 August 2017 – R 10 – Chair, Mr R McKenzie
ID: JCA15933
Code:
Thoroughbred
Meet Title:
Canterbury Racing - 12 August 2017
Meet Chair:
RMcKenzie
Meet Committee Member 1:
SChing
Race Date:
2017/08/12
Race Number:
R10
Decision:
Miss Cowan having admitted the breach, the charge was found proved.
Penalty:
Miss Cowan is fined the sum of $550.
Facts:
Following the running of Race 10, TWS Group Premier, an information was filed by Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr J P Oatham, against Licensed Apprentice Jockey (Class B), Miss K J Cowan, alleging that Miss Cowan as the rider of STANDREWS MASONIC in the race, “used her whip excessively prior to the 100 metres”.
Miss Cowan was present at the hearing of the information, assisted by Apprentice Jockey Mentor, Mr D M Walsh. Miss Cowan indicated that she understood the charge and that she admitted the breach. She also confirmed that she was aware of the Guidelines regarding acceptable use of the whip effective from 1 August 2017.
Rule 638 provides as follows:
(3) A Rider shall not:
(b) strike a horse with a whip in a manner or to an extent which is:
(ii) excessive
The “Guidelines With Respect to Acceptable Use of the Whip” provide as follows:
Without affecting the generality of Rule 638(3)(b) a rider may be penalised if their whip use is outside of the following guidelines:
Inside the final 600 metres of any Race, official trial or jump-out a horse may be struck with the drawn whip up to five times after which the rider must cease their use of the whip for a minimum of five strides before striking the horse again with the drawn whip, with this restriction to apply prior to the final 100 metres. The whip may then be used at the rider’s discretion until the winning post is reached. Prior to the final 600 metres of a race, official trial or jump-out the use of the drawn whip is acceptable if used in moderation and not continually.
Mr J M McLaughlin, Stipendiary Steward, showed a video replay of the final 300-400 metres of the race. He pointed out STANDREWS MASONIC, ridden by Miss Cowan, the widest runner and finishing well. Miss Cowan then struck the horse with the whip in her left hand on thirteen occasions, between the 300 metres and the 100 metres, without her hand going back to the whip rein at any stage, Mr McLaughlin said.
Miss Cowan apologised and admitted that she was in the wrong and had exceeded the guidelines. She accepted that it did not look good on the video replay. She undertook to work very hard on her use of the whip.
Mr Walsh said that the apprentice riders have a lot of work to do following this meeting regarding their whip use. The guidelines were new and, at this meeting, the apprentices had been riding in good races and for good stakes, he said.
Submissions for Penalty:
Mr Oatham said that it was disappointing that Miss Cowan had breached the Rule again only one week after her previous breach. Although the total number of strikes was not high, Miss Cowan’s use of the whip had been continuous with no attempt whatsoever to break it up. He suggested that it was an aggravating factor that Miss Cowan had gone on to win the race. The breach was “at least mid-range”, Mr Oatham submitted.
Miss Cowan is a young and inexperienced rider but is going to have to address her use of the whip, he said.
Mr Oatham referred to the Penalty Guide starting point for a second breach of the Rule of a $500 fine (Miss Cowan had been fined $300 for a breach of the Rule on the 1st day of the meeting on 5th August 2017). He submitted that a fine of not less than $500 was appropriate.
Mr Walsh said that a fine of that amount would be “fair and reasonable”.
Reasons for Penalty:
In determining penalty, the Committee took the starting point for a second breach of the rule of a $500 fine. The Committee applied an uplift for what it regarded as an aggravating factor – the breach was above mid-range on a scale of seriousness having regard to the number of strikes and, in particular, the fact they were continuous with no discernible pauses. In increasing the starting point to $600, we also factored in that Miss Cowan had won the race.
Miss Cowan had made a very frank admission of the breach and, for that factor, was entitled to a small discount which we fixed at $50.
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: a35256a358ff2848fbd141cf9018b962
informantnumber: A09507
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge: Excessive Use of Whip
plea: admitted
penaltyrequired: 1
decisiondate: 15/08/2017
hearing_title: Canterbury R 12 August 2017 - R 10 - Chair, Mr R McKenzie
charge:
facts:
Following the running of Race 10, TWS Group Premier, an information was filed by Chief Stipendiary Steward, Mr J P Oatham, against Licensed Apprentice Jockey (Class B), Miss K J Cowan, alleging that Miss Cowan as the rider of STANDREWS MASONIC in the race, “used her whip excessively prior to the 100 metres”.
Miss Cowan was present at the hearing of the information, assisted by Apprentice Jockey Mentor, Mr D M Walsh. Miss Cowan indicated that she understood the charge and that she admitted the breach. She also confirmed that she was aware of the Guidelines regarding acceptable use of the whip effective from 1 August 2017.
Rule 638 provides as follows:
(3) A Rider shall not:
(b) strike a horse with a whip in a manner or to an extent which is:
(ii) excessive
The “Guidelines With Respect to Acceptable Use of the Whip” provide as follows:
Without affecting the generality of Rule 638(3)(b) a rider may be penalised if their whip use is outside of the following guidelines:
Inside the final 600 metres of any Race, official trial or jump-out a horse may be struck with the drawn whip up to five times after which the rider must cease their use of the whip for a minimum of five strides before striking the horse again with the drawn whip, with this restriction to apply prior to the final 100 metres. The whip may then be used at the rider’s discretion until the winning post is reached. Prior to the final 600 metres of a race, official trial or jump-out the use of the drawn whip is acceptable if used in moderation and not continually.
Mr J M McLaughlin, Stipendiary Steward, showed a video replay of the final 300-400 metres of the race. He pointed out STANDREWS MASONIC, ridden by Miss Cowan, the widest runner and finishing well. Miss Cowan then struck the horse with the whip in her left hand on thirteen occasions, between the 300 metres and the 100 metres, without her hand going back to the whip rein at any stage, Mr McLaughlin said.
Miss Cowan apologised and admitted that she was in the wrong and had exceeded the guidelines. She accepted that it did not look good on the video replay. She undertook to work very hard on her use of the whip.
Mr Walsh said that the apprentice riders have a lot of work to do following this meeting regarding their whip use. The guidelines were new and, at this meeting, the apprentices had been riding in good races and for good stakes, he said.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
reasonsfordecision:
Decision:
Miss Cowan having admitted the breach, the charge was found proved.
sumissionsforpenalty:
Mr Oatham said that it was disappointing that Miss Cowan had breached the Rule again only one week after her previous breach. Although the total number of strikes was not high, Miss Cowan’s use of the whip had been continuous with no attempt whatsoever to break it up. He suggested that it was an aggravating factor that Miss Cowan had gone on to win the race. The breach was “at least mid-range”, Mr Oatham submitted.
Miss Cowan is a young and inexperienced rider but is going to have to address her use of the whip, he said.
Mr Oatham referred to the Penalty Guide starting point for a second breach of the Rule of a $500 fine (Miss Cowan had been fined $300 for a breach of the Rule on the 1st day of the meeting on 5th August 2017). He submitted that a fine of not less than $500 was appropriate.
Mr Walsh said that a fine of that amount would be “fair and reasonable”.
reasonsforpenalty:
In determining penalty, the Committee took the starting point for a second breach of the rule of a $500 fine. The Committee applied an uplift for what it regarded as an aggravating factor – the breach was above mid-range on a scale of seriousness having regard to the number of strikes and, in particular, the fact they were continuous with no discernible pauses. In increasing the starting point to $600, we also factored in that Miss Cowan had won the race.
Miss Cowan had made a very frank admission of the breach and, for that factor, was entitled to a small discount which we fixed at $50.
penalty:
Miss Cowan is fined the sum of $550.
hearing_type: Hearing
Rules: 638(3)(b)(ii)
Informant: J P Oatham, Chief Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer: K J Cowan, Licensed Apprentice Jockey (Class B)
Otherperson: D M Walsh, Apprentice Jockey Mentor, Mr J M McLaughlin - Stipendiary Steward
PersonPresent:
Respondent:
StipendSteward:
raceid: 2f35bf9795e7642b729cdfd26ba0d674
race_expapproval:
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race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R10
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
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meetid: 7cf87b9edf6d7ea56ec09b262c0308f7
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meet_emailed1: 0
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meetdate: 12/08/2017
meet_title: Canterbury Racing - 12 August 2017
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: canterbury-racing
meet_racingtype: thoroughbred-racing
meet_chair: RMcKenzie
meet_pm1: SChing
meet_pm2: none
name: Canterbury Racing