Cambridge-Te Awamutu HRC 10 January 2014 – R 2
ID: JCA11408
Meet Title:
Harness Racing Waikato - 10 January 2014
Meet Chair:
AGodsalve
Meet Committee Member 1:
GJones
Race Date:
2014/01/10
Race Number:
R2
Decision:
As the breach was admitted we find the charge proved.
Penalty:
We therefore impose a fine of $250 on Mr Lawson.
Facts:
Following the running of Race 2, the Breckon Farms Mobile Pace, an information was laid by Stipendiary Steward, Mr J Muirhead against Open Horseman, Mr S Lawson alleging that Mr Lawson shifted ACE OF DELIGHT inwards when insufficiently clear of COUGAR BROMAC (Mr S Phelan) resulting in GOING TO CALIFORNIA (Mr Z Butcher) jumping a pylon and breaking from its gait.
Mr Muirhead advised the Committee that the incident occurred with about 650m to run. He demonstrated the incident on the available video films of the race and identified ACE OF DELIGHT, driven by Mr Lawson, being in a 3 wide position. Inside him was Cougar Bromac, and inside that horse was GOING TO CALIFORNIA. Mr Muirhead said that GOING TO CALIFORNIA had been leading the field but had started to hang and weaken. ACE OF DELIGHT, travelling 3 wide, commenced to shift inwards causing COUGAR BROMAC to put pressure onto GOING TO CALIFORNIA. This resulted in the sulky wheel of ACE OF DELIGHT going inside the sulky wheel of GOING TO CALIFORNIA. As a result Mr Butcher was forced to pull his horse onto the marker pegs, resulting in GOING TO CALIFORNIA jumping a peg and going off-stride. Mr Butcher pulled the horse further into the inside of the track to avoid inconveniencing any other runner.
Mr Lawson told the Committee he fully accepted that he crossed from a 3 wide position. He said he had taken a good look and none of the other drivers had called out to him which he thought was unusual. In response to a question from the Committee Mr Lawson said that other horsemen usually call out when there is a risk of tightening as had occurred on this occasion.
Submissions for Penalty:
Mr Muirhead told the Committee that Mr Lawson had 2 previous breaches of this rule in the last 6 months. The most recent was on 27 June 2013 when he was fined $350. The other earlier charge resulted in a $300 fine. He submitted that in his opinion not too much weight should be given to the earlier breaches as the circumstances were quite different to this matter. He stated that the Stewards felt this breach was at the lower end of the scale and that a fine in the vicinity of $200-$250 would be appropriate.
Mr Lawson agreed that the incident was at the lower end of the scale and said that there were circumstances that contributed to the breach. He asked that the Committee note his good driving record and also take into account his previous 2 breaches were worse than the current one.
Reasons for Penalty:
The Committee accepts that this breach falls into the lower end of the scale. While the incident caused one of the favourites in the race to break it was clear that the horse was not going to figure in the finish. While we feel the effect of the breach was mid-range it was apparent that overall it was minimal given that the driver of GOING TO CALIFORNIA had said the horse was not going well at the time.
We take into account Mr Lawson's admission and his good record in the previous 6 months. Mr Lawson is an increasingly busy driver, and after consulting the JCA Penalty Guide and assessing penalties for similar breaches recently we feel an appropriate penalty is a fine of $250.
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: 27900f65274cebd656e345b1328f8088
informantnumber: A3968
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge: Breach of Rule 869(3)(b)-Careless Driving
plea: admitted
penaltyrequired: 1
decisiondate: 06/01/2014
hearing_title: Cambridge-Te Awamutu HRC 10 January 2014 - R 2
charge:
facts:
Following the running of Race 2, the Breckon Farms Mobile Pace, an information was laid by Stipendiary Steward, Mr J Muirhead against Open Horseman, Mr S Lawson alleging that Mr Lawson shifted ACE OF DELIGHT inwards when insufficiently clear of COUGAR BROMAC (Mr S Phelan) resulting in GOING TO CALIFORNIA (Mr Z Butcher) jumping a pylon and breaking from its gait.
Mr Muirhead advised the Committee that the incident occurred with about 650m to run. He demonstrated the incident on the available video films of the race and identified ACE OF DELIGHT, driven by Mr Lawson, being in a 3 wide position. Inside him was Cougar Bromac, and inside that horse was GOING TO CALIFORNIA. Mr Muirhead said that GOING TO CALIFORNIA had been leading the field but had started to hang and weaken. ACE OF DELIGHT, travelling 3 wide, commenced to shift inwards causing COUGAR BROMAC to put pressure onto GOING TO CALIFORNIA. This resulted in the sulky wheel of ACE OF DELIGHT going inside the sulky wheel of GOING TO CALIFORNIA. As a result Mr Butcher was forced to pull his horse onto the marker pegs, resulting in GOING TO CALIFORNIA jumping a peg and going off-stride. Mr Butcher pulled the horse further into the inside of the track to avoid inconveniencing any other runner.
Mr Lawson told the Committee he fully accepted that he crossed from a 3 wide position. He said he had taken a good look and none of the other drivers had called out to him which he thought was unusual. In response to a question from the Committee Mr Lawson said that other horsemen usually call out when there is a risk of tightening as had occurred on this occasion.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
reasonsfordecision:
Decision:
As the breach was admitted we find the charge proved.
sumissionsforpenalty:
Mr Muirhead told the Committee that Mr Lawson had 2 previous breaches of this rule in the last 6 months. The most recent was on 27 June 2013 when he was fined $350. The other earlier charge resulted in a $300 fine. He submitted that in his opinion not too much weight should be given to the earlier breaches as the circumstances were quite different to this matter. He stated that the Stewards felt this breach was at the lower end of the scale and that a fine in the vicinity of $200-$250 would be appropriate.
Mr Lawson agreed that the incident was at the lower end of the scale and said that there were circumstances that contributed to the breach. He asked that the Committee note his good driving record and also take into account his previous 2 breaches were worse than the current one.
reasonsforpenalty:
The Committee accepts that this breach falls into the lower end of the scale. While the incident caused one of the favourites in the race to break it was clear that the horse was not going to figure in the finish. While we feel the effect of the breach was mid-range it was apparent that overall it was minimal given that the driver of GOING TO CALIFORNIA had said the horse was not going well at the time.
We take into account Mr Lawson's admission and his good record in the previous 6 months. Mr Lawson is an increasingly busy driver, and after consulting the JCA Penalty Guide and assessing penalties for similar breaches recently we feel an appropriate penalty is a fine of $250.
penalty:
We therefore impose a fine of $250 on Mr Lawson.
hearing_type: Hearing
Rules: Rule 869(3)(b)
Informant: Mr J M Muirhead - Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer: Mr S Lawson - Open Horseman
Otherperson:
PersonPresent:
Respondent:
StipendSteward:
raceid: 1e91bdfeccbc217dacee9b48e2681522
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R2
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: 87e78fcfc5d5b3f44ed715a928c16bae
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 10/01/2014
meet_title: Harness Racing Waikato - 10 January 2014
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: harness-racing-waikato
meet_racingtype: harness-racing
meet_chair: AGodsalve
meet_pm1: GJones
meet_pm2: none
name: Harness Racing Waikato