Canterbury R 2 December 2016 – R 1 – Chair, Mr S Ching
ID: JCA16572
Code:
Thoroughbred
Meet Title:
Canterbury Racing - 2 December 2016
Meet Chair:
SChing
Meet Committee Member 1:
DAnderson
Race Date:
2016/12/02
Race Number:
R 1
Decision:
The charge was found to be proved.
Penalty:
Mr Johnson was fined the sum of $500.
Facts:
Following the running of Race 1, the Rangiora New World Maiden, an Information was filed by Stipendiary Steward, Mr J McLaughlin, against Class A Rider, Mr C Johnson, alleging that Mr Johnson broke an engagement to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET in this event.
Rule 330(3)(a) reads as follows:
(3) A Rider shall not:
(a) wilfully or without reasonable cause break a riding engagement;
Mr Johnson had indicated on the Information that this breach of the Rules was not admitted and he confirmed this at the hearing. He also confirmed he understood the charge and the Rule it was brought under.
Submissions for Decision:
McLaughlin submitted that evidence heard at the Request for a Ruling hearing prior to the first race where it was determined that Mr Johnson had allowed himself to be engaged to ride both HEE’S OUR SECRET and PIPPI REA in the first race on today’s card be taken as read. He stated that a dispute had arisen which was subject to the earlier Request for a Ruling from Mr Carston, trainer of HEE’S OUR SECRET.
As a result of that hearing the Committee had ruled that HEE’S OUR SECRET’s engagement held precedence. Subsequent to that ruling, Mr Johnson had refused to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and instead had ridden PIPPI REA. Mr McLaughlin stated that this left the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET, despite their request for a ruling being successful, without their preferred rider and placed at a disadvantage with few riders left available to ride the horse.
Mr Johnson stated that the reason he refused to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and opted to ride PIPPA REA, was purely out of loyalty to the Parsons team and the horse PIPPI REA.
Reasons for Decision:
The Committee was satisfied after hearing the Request for a Ruling prior to the first race which determined that Mr Johnson had allowed himself to be engaged for two rides in this race. We were also satisfied that the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET, had precedence with their engagement of Mr Johnson, and despite this Mr Johnson refused to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and instead opted to ride PIPPA REA for no other reason than loyalty to the Parsons team.
We found that Mr Johnson did break his engagement to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET which was deemed to be an engagement prior to the engagement of PIPPA REA and therefore held precedence over that ride. The Committee considered that Mr Johnson had a duty to the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET as it was ruled that theirs was the first confirmed engagement, which he wilfully broke. We therefore determined that the charge was found proved.
Submissions for Penalty:
Mr McLaughlin stated that this was an unusual case. He, stated that aggravating factors in this case were that two favoured runners were left without riders until ½ an hour before the race. Another aggravating factor was that the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET were disadvantaged after believing they had engaged Mr Johnson correctly, had a ruling in their favour as to which engagement held precedence, and were still left without Mr Johnson. Half an hour from the race was not ideal to find a replacement rider with only a small number of riders to choose from. Mr McLaughlin stated that the JCA Penalty Guide recommends a fine of $300 for a breach of this rule and submitted that due to the aggravating factors and to act as a deterrent that a substantial fine of $1000 be imposed in this case.
Mr Johnson stated that a $1000 was excessive and that the Penalty Guide recommendation of a $300 fine be considered as penalty.
Reasons for Penalty:
In determining penalty the Committee took into consideration all aggravating and mitigating factors. Aggravating factors were that two favoured runners were without riders up to ½ an hour before the race, the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET were disadvantaged after a successful ruling in their favour, the ruling determined that Mr Johnson was engaged to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and despite this Mr Johnson refused to ride that horse out of loyalty to the Parsons team.
The JCA Penalty Guide recommends a starting point of $300 for a breach of this rule and by adopting that starting point we determined that the aggravating factors in this case commanded an uplift which we set at $300 to $600. We were however able to give Mr Johnson a discount of $100 for his good record over the previous 12 months. We therefore determined that an appropriate penalty in this case was a fine of $500.
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: c78ce9ad1c73c0dc3709e5597dc958a5
informantnumber: A8103
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge: Broke an engagement
plea: denied
penaltyrequired: 1
decisiondate: 06/12/2016
hearing_title: Canterbury R 2 December 2016 - R 1 - Chair, Mr S Ching
charge:
facts:
Following the running of Race 1, the Rangiora New World Maiden, an Information was filed by Stipendiary Steward, Mr J McLaughlin, against Class A Rider, Mr C Johnson, alleging that Mr Johnson broke an engagement to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET in this event.
Rule 330(3)(a) reads as follows:
(3) A Rider shall not:
(a) wilfully or without reasonable cause break a riding engagement;
Mr Johnson had indicated on the Information that this breach of the Rules was not admitted and he confirmed this at the hearing. He also confirmed he understood the charge and the Rule it was brought under.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
McLaughlin submitted that evidence heard at the Request for a Ruling hearing prior to the first race where it was determined that Mr Johnson had allowed himself to be engaged to ride both HEE’S OUR SECRET and PIPPI REA in the first race on today’s card be taken as read. He stated that a dispute had arisen which was subject to the earlier Request for a Ruling from Mr Carston, trainer of HEE’S OUR SECRET.
As a result of that hearing the Committee had ruled that HEE’S OUR SECRET’s engagement held precedence. Subsequent to that ruling, Mr Johnson had refused to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and instead had ridden PIPPI REA. Mr McLaughlin stated that this left the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET, despite their request for a ruling being successful, without their preferred rider and placed at a disadvantage with few riders left available to ride the horse.
Mr Johnson stated that the reason he refused to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and opted to ride PIPPA REA, was purely out of loyalty to the Parsons team and the horse PIPPI REA.
reasonsfordecision:
The Committee was satisfied after hearing the Request for a Ruling prior to the first race which determined that Mr Johnson had allowed himself to be engaged for two rides in this race. We were also satisfied that the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET, had precedence with their engagement of Mr Johnson, and despite this Mr Johnson refused to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and instead opted to ride PIPPA REA for no other reason than loyalty to the Parsons team.
We found that Mr Johnson did break his engagement to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET which was deemed to be an engagement prior to the engagement of PIPPA REA and therefore held precedence over that ride. The Committee considered that Mr Johnson had a duty to the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET as it was ruled that theirs was the first confirmed engagement, which he wilfully broke. We therefore determined that the charge was found proved.
Decision:
The charge was found to be proved.
sumissionsforpenalty:
Mr McLaughlin stated that this was an unusual case. He, stated that aggravating factors in this case were that two favoured runners were left without riders until ½ an hour before the race. Another aggravating factor was that the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET were disadvantaged after believing they had engaged Mr Johnson correctly, had a ruling in their favour as to which engagement held precedence, and were still left without Mr Johnson. Half an hour from the race was not ideal to find a replacement rider with only a small number of riders to choose from. Mr McLaughlin stated that the JCA Penalty Guide recommends a fine of $300 for a breach of this rule and submitted that due to the aggravating factors and to act as a deterrent that a substantial fine of $1000 be imposed in this case.
Mr Johnson stated that a $1000 was excessive and that the Penalty Guide recommendation of a $300 fine be considered as penalty.
reasonsforpenalty:
In determining penalty the Committee took into consideration all aggravating and mitigating factors. Aggravating factors were that two favoured runners were without riders up to ½ an hour before the race, the connections of HEE’S OUR SECRET were disadvantaged after a successful ruling in their favour, the ruling determined that Mr Johnson was engaged to ride HEE’S OUR SECRET and despite this Mr Johnson refused to ride that horse out of loyalty to the Parsons team.
The JCA Penalty Guide recommends a starting point of $300 for a breach of this rule and by adopting that starting point we determined that the aggravating factors in this case commanded an uplift which we set at $300 to $600. We were however able to give Mr Johnson a discount of $100 for his good record over the previous 12 months. We therefore determined that an appropriate penalty in this case was a fine of $500.
penalty:
Mr Johnson was fined the sum of $500.
hearing_type: Hearing
Rules: 330(30(a)
Informant: Mr J McLaughlin - Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer:
Otherperson: Miss B MIddlewood - Agent for Mr Johnson
PersonPresent:
Respondent:
StipendSteward:
raceid: 411f2b9ab4c4cd66f1d8dae38c15fe4f
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R 1
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: 267be3c10e408eadfcc5b100490394aa
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 02/12/2016
meet_title: Canterbury Racing - 2 December 2016
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: canterbury-racing
meet_racingtype: thoroughbred-racing
meet_chair: SChing
meet_pm1: DAnderson
meet_pm2: none
name: Canterbury Racing