Canterbury JC 28 January 2012 – R 8
ID: JCA11304
Code:
Thoroughbred
Meet Title:
Canterbury Racing - 28 January 2012
Meet Chair:
KHales
Meet Committee Member 1:
SChing
Race Date:
2012/01/28
Race Number:
R8
Decision:
The charge, having been admitted is therefore deemed to be proved.
Penalty:
Ms McGregor is suspended from race riding from the conclusion of racing on Wednesday 1st February 2012 until the conclusion of racing on Friday 16th March 2012.
Charge:
Alleged that L McGregor weighed out for her mount on "William of Orange" without wearing a body protector on her person.
Facts:
Prior to Race 8, Mr J McLaughlin, Stipendiary Steward, observed Ms McGregor weighing out. He noticed that she did not appear to be wearing her body protector. When he challenged her about this, Ms McGregor admitted that she was not wearing her body protector and that she had not put it on for the weigh-out, because she did not think that she would meet her contracted weight by wearing it. She said that she had made a deliberate decision to not wear the protector for her weigh-out.
She admitted her wrong doing to the Stipendiary Stewards.
Ms McGregor has also been charged with failing to make the contracted weight pursuant to Rule 330(3)(c) which is a minor infringement, and which carries a penalty of a fine of $100. She has already been fined for that matter pursuant to a Minor Infringement Notice.
Submissions for Decision:
Ms McGregor conceded that her actions constituted a lack of good judgement on her part. When she was invited to take the ride on "William of Orange" at its carded weight of 53kg, she said that she told the trainer, Mr O'Malley that she would struggle to ride at that weight but that Mr O'Malley persuaded her to take the ride. It transpired that Ms McGregor could only get down to 54 kg.
Reasons for Decision:
Ms McGregor has admitted the charge and therefore we do not need to canvas this aspect of the hearing any further.
Submissions for Penalty:
Mr Ray submitted that, to her credit that Ms McGregor had been "up front" with the Stipendiary Stewards, but that there had been a clear attempt on her part to deceive. Had Ms McGregor not been detected at the weigh-out, then chances were that she would have weighed in heavier than the carded weight which may have a fraud on the connections and the betting public, as the horse would have raced carrying a weight that it was not handicapped to carry.
Mr Ray submitted that the matter could dealt with by a fine, but having regard to the seriousness of the matter that a suspension of 4-6 weeks would be more appropriate.
Ms McGregor said that she had come back to race riding approximately one month ago, having had a lay off for about 6 years. She regretted her actions and said that she could afford to pay a fine. She admitted that perhaps she should not have taken the ride, but to use her words, she decided to "give it a go". She did not seem to give an appearance of being remorseful for her actions.
Reasons for Penalty:
Ms Mcgregor attempted to make her contracted weight by a pre-meditated act of deception. She had accepted a ride at a weight which she knew she would have trouble achieving. She was right in her initial assessment that she would not be able to make the weight. She got as far as 54 kg, which is beyond the allowable tolerance. It is an aggravating feature of this offending that Ms McGregor knew from the outset that she would probably not make the weight and that feature will be taken into account in formulating the penalty.
We acknowledge that Ms McGregor was co-operative with the Stipendiary Stewards, but in reality, she had no choice as she was caught "red-handed". We further note that Ms McGregor alerted the trainer to the fact that she would struggle to make the weight, but that presented Ms McGregor with two obvious choices. The first obvious choice was for her to decline the ride before the Rider Declaration time, so that the trainer could make other arrangements. The second obvious choice was for her to inform the Stipendiary Stewards early on race day that she could not make the weight and then she would have only been subject to receiving a fine of $100 pursuant to a Minor Infringement Notice.
Instead, Ms McGregor decided to cheat.
In this case, we do not think that a fine is the appropriate penalty. In our view the offending is far too serious for that. We think that Ms McGregor is lucky not to have been charged with a Serious Racing Offence, pursuant to Rule 801(m) for "commiting a dishonest or fraudulent act connected with racing......", because of the pre-meditated and deliberate nature of her actions.
Instead, the penalty is to be a suspension which is designed to denounce Ms McGregor's actions and to hold her accountable for her conduct. The suspension will be for a period of 6 weeks which will encompass 9 South Island meetings.
She has applied for a deferrment of the coming into effect of the penalty as she has a riding engagement on Wednesday 1st February at Riccarton. That application is granted.
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: 19306116dc957f34729028c074517671
informantnumber: A5221
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge:
plea: admitted
penaltyrequired: 1
decisiondate: 19/01/2012
hearing_title: Canterbury JC 28 January 2012 - R 8
charge:
Alleged that L McGregor weighed out for her mount on "William of Orange" without wearing a body protector on her person.
facts:
Prior to Race 8, Mr J McLaughlin, Stipendiary Steward, observed Ms McGregor weighing out. He noticed that she did not appear to be wearing her body protector. When he challenged her about this, Ms McGregor admitted that she was not wearing her body protector and that she had not put it on for the weigh-out, because she did not think that she would meet her contracted weight by wearing it. She said that she had made a deliberate decision to not wear the protector for her weigh-out.
She admitted her wrong doing to the Stipendiary Stewards.
Ms McGregor has also been charged with failing to make the contracted weight pursuant to Rule 330(3)(c) which is a minor infringement, and which carries a penalty of a fine of $100. She has already been fined for that matter pursuant to a Minor Infringement Notice.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
Ms McGregor conceded that her actions constituted a lack of good judgement on her part. When she was invited to take the ride on "William of Orange" at its carded weight of 53kg, she said that she told the trainer, Mr O'Malley that she would struggle to ride at that weight but that Mr O'Malley persuaded her to take the ride. It transpired that Ms McGregor could only get down to 54 kg.
reasonsfordecision:
Ms McGregor has admitted the charge and therefore we do not need to canvas this aspect of the hearing any further.
Decision:
The charge, having been admitted is therefore deemed to be proved.
sumissionsforpenalty:
Mr Ray submitted that, to her credit that Ms McGregor had been "up front" with the Stipendiary Stewards, but that there had been a clear attempt on her part to deceive. Had Ms McGregor not been detected at the weigh-out, then chances were that she would have weighed in heavier than the carded weight which may have a fraud on the connections and the betting public, as the horse would have raced carrying a weight that it was not handicapped to carry.
Mr Ray submitted that the matter could dealt with by a fine, but having regard to the seriousness of the matter that a suspension of 4-6 weeks would be more appropriate.
Ms McGregor said that she had come back to race riding approximately one month ago, having had a lay off for about 6 years. She regretted her actions and said that she could afford to pay a fine. She admitted that perhaps she should not have taken the ride, but to use her words, she decided to "give it a go". She did not seem to give an appearance of being remorseful for her actions.
reasonsforpenalty:
Ms Mcgregor attempted to make her contracted weight by a pre-meditated act of deception. She had accepted a ride at a weight which she knew she would have trouble achieving. She was right in her initial assessment that she would not be able to make the weight. She got as far as 54 kg, which is beyond the allowable tolerance. It is an aggravating feature of this offending that Ms McGregor knew from the outset that she would probably not make the weight and that feature will be taken into account in formulating the penalty.
We acknowledge that Ms McGregor was co-operative with the Stipendiary Stewards, but in reality, she had no choice as she was caught "red-handed". We further note that Ms McGregor alerted the trainer to the fact that she would struggle to make the weight, but that presented Ms McGregor with two obvious choices. The first obvious choice was for her to decline the ride before the Rider Declaration time, so that the trainer could make other arrangements. The second obvious choice was for her to inform the Stipendiary Stewards early on race day that she could not make the weight and then she would have only been subject to receiving a fine of $100 pursuant to a Minor Infringement Notice.
Instead, Ms McGregor decided to cheat.
In this case, we do not think that a fine is the appropriate penalty. In our view the offending is far too serious for that. We think that Ms McGregor is lucky not to have been charged with a Serious Racing Offence, pursuant to Rule 801(m) for "commiting a dishonest or fraudulent act connected with racing......", because of the pre-meditated and deliberate nature of her actions.
Instead, the penalty is to be a suspension which is designed to denounce Ms McGregor's actions and to hold her accountable for her conduct. The suspension will be for a period of 6 weeks which will encompass 9 South Island meetings.
She has applied for a deferrment of the coming into effect of the penalty as she has a riding engagement on Wednesday 1st February at Riccarton. That application is granted.
penalty:
Ms McGregor is suspended from race riding from the conclusion of racing on Wednesday 1st February 2012 until the conclusion of racing on Friday 16th March 2012.
hearing_type: Hearing
Rules: Rule 340
Informant: Mr A L Ray - Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer: Ms L McGregor - Licensed Jockey
Otherperson:
PersonPresent:
Respondent:
StipendSteward:
raceid: 9403a818752b88b7f1d20b25fdd69c1b
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R8
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: 3085f2cfcaf9a41e0ecc89df31fb17e6
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 28/01/2012
meet_title: Canterbury Racing - 28 January 2012
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: canterbury-racing
meet_racingtype: thoroughbred-racing
meet_chair: KHales
meet_pm1: SChing
meet_pm2: none
name: Canterbury Racing