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Wellington RC 16 April 2011 – R 1 Request for a Ruling

ID: JCA17642

Stipend Steward:
Mr R Neal - Stipendiary Steward

Hearing Type:
Request Ruling

Rules:
330 (2)

Code:
Thoroughbred

Meet Title:
Wellington RC - 16 April 2011

Meet Chair:
NMoffatt

Meet Committee Member 1:
PWilliams

Race Date:
2011/04/16

Race Number:
R1

Decision:

The committee found that the engagement to SAVONT held precedence.

Facts:

Prior to race 1 today an information was presented to the committee for a request for a ruling. The information read that:

"Both F Finnegan and J Stenning claim they have an agreement for H S Tinsley to ride their respective horses in race 1, F Finnegan – SAVONT and J Stenning – MY GUY".

Submissions for Decision:

The summary of facts was somewhat complicated and convoluted but the essence of what has led to this rider dispute is outlined here.

With three race meetings scheduled around the country today there was a shortage of riders for trainers to choose from. Mr Finnegan wanted to engage a senior rider for his horse SAVONT because it can be difficult to ride. He arranged to use the services of Mr Tinsley through Mr Tinsley’s agent Mr Andre Neill. Being aware of the minimum weight that Mr Tinsley rides he contacted Mr Goodwin on Wednesday and asked for stewards’ approval to allow Mr Tinsley to rider SAVONT 1 kg over the carded weight. Mr Goodwin gave his “tacit” approval but suggested waiting until closer to race day to see if another suitable rider, who could make the correct weight, became available. Mr Finnegan rang the Racing Bureau and explained the situation.

At some stage Mr Tinsley’s name was entered on the website as the rider of SAVONT but was later removed by a staff member of the Racing Bureau.

Mr Stenning later rang the Bureau seeking assistance with a rider for his first starter MY GUY. He was told by Bureau staff that Mr Tinsley was available so on Friday he rang Mr Tinsley directly and asked him to ride the horse. Mr Tinsley accepted the ride after Mr Stenning told him what the Bureau had said.

On Saturday both Mr Finnegan and Mr Stenning arrived on course believing that Mr Tinsley was riding their respective horses.

Reasons for Decision:

The committee listened and had regard to all of the facts as presented. This was a particularly unfortunate incident for both parties exacerbated by the fact that there were no other riders available. This meant that one trainer was required to scratch his horse from the race. It was apparent that there were many factors that had led to the confusion and whichever trainer was to “lose out” could be forgiven for feeling extremely annoyed.

In coming to a decision the committee considered that Mr Finnegan had been the first of the two trainers to engage Mr Tinsley and he had gone through the correct channels to do so (i.e. his agent Mr Neill). He had also checked with the stipendiary stewards about Mr Tinsley riding 1kg overweight.
 

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: fdf60aa78a01b6eabc8d3bb55de4e7e3

informantnumber:

horsename:

hearing_racingtype:

startdate: no date provided

newcharge:

plea:

penaltyrequired:

decisiondate: 14/04/2011

hearing_title: Wellington RC 16 April 2011 - R 1 Request for a Ruling

charge:

facts:

Prior to race 1 today an information was presented to the committee for a request for a ruling. The information read that:

"Both F Finnegan and J Stenning claim they have an agreement for H S Tinsley to ride their respective horses in race 1, F Finnegan – SAVONT and J Stenning – MY GUY".

appealdecision:

isappeal:

submissionsfordecision:

The summary of facts was somewhat complicated and convoluted but the essence of what has led to this rider dispute is outlined here.

With three race meetings scheduled around the country today there was a shortage of riders for trainers to choose from. Mr Finnegan wanted to engage a senior rider for his horse SAVONT because it can be difficult to ride. He arranged to use the services of Mr Tinsley through Mr Tinsley’s agent Mr Andre Neill. Being aware of the minimum weight that Mr Tinsley rides he contacted Mr Goodwin on Wednesday and asked for stewards’ approval to allow Mr Tinsley to rider SAVONT 1 kg over the carded weight. Mr Goodwin gave his “tacit” approval but suggested waiting until closer to race day to see if another suitable rider, who could make the correct weight, became available. Mr Finnegan rang the Racing Bureau and explained the situation.

At some stage Mr Tinsley’s name was entered on the website as the rider of SAVONT but was later removed by a staff member of the Racing Bureau.

Mr Stenning later rang the Bureau seeking assistance with a rider for his first starter MY GUY. He was told by Bureau staff that Mr Tinsley was available so on Friday he rang Mr Tinsley directly and asked him to ride the horse. Mr Tinsley accepted the ride after Mr Stenning told him what the Bureau had said.

On Saturday both Mr Finnegan and Mr Stenning arrived on course believing that Mr Tinsley was riding their respective horses.

reasonsfordecision:

The committee listened and had regard to all of the facts as presented. This was a particularly unfortunate incident for both parties exacerbated by the fact that there were no other riders available. This meant that one trainer was required to scratch his horse from the race. It was apparent that there were many factors that had led to the confusion and whichever trainer was to “lose out” could be forgiven for feeling extremely annoyed.

In coming to a decision the committee considered that Mr Finnegan had been the first of the two trainers to engage Mr Tinsley and he had gone through the correct channels to do so (i.e. his agent Mr Neill). He had also checked with the stipendiary stewards about Mr Tinsley riding 1kg overweight.
 

Decision:

The committee found that the engagement to SAVONT held precedence.

sumissionsforpenalty:

reasonsforpenalty:

penalty:

hearing_type: Request Ruling

Rules: 330 (2)

Informant:

JockeysandTrainer:

Otherperson:

PersonPresent: Mr H Tinsley - Licensed Jockey, Mr A Neill - Agent for Mr Tinsley, Mr F Finnegan - Licensed Trainer (Savont), Mr N Goodwin - Stipendiary Steward, Mr J Stenning - Licensed Trainer (My Guy)

Respondent:

StipendSteward: Mr R Neal - Stipendiary Steward

raceid: 592b3617b42419845dae6fc295532b1c

race_expapproval:

racecancelled: 0

race_noreport: 0

race_emailed1: 0

race_emailed2: 0

race_title: R1

submittochair:

race_expappcomment:

race_km:

race_otherexp:

race_chair:

race_pm1:

race_pm2:

meetid: 35095e1a6aec94b9581953174051039f

meet_expapproval: approved

meet_noreport: 0

waitingforpublication: 0

meet_emailed1: 0

meet_emailed2: 0

meetdate: 16/04/2011

meet_title: Wellington RC - 16 April 2011

meet_expappcomment:

meet_km: [{"Comment": [], "kmprice": 186.0, "MemberID": "NMoffatt", "Member": "", "KMs": "300", "OtherExpenses": "0", "Total": "186.0", "MemberRole": "Chair ", "Approved": "on"}, {"Comment": [], "kmprice": 37.200000000000003, "MemberID": "PWilliams", "Member": "", "KMs": "60", "OtherExpenses": "0", "Total": "37.2", "MemberRole": "Panel member 1 ", "Approved": "on"}]

meet_otherexp:

tracklocation: wellington-rc

meet_racingtype: thoroughbred-racing

meet_chair: NMoffatt

meet_pm1: PWilliams

meet_pm2: none

name: Wellington RC