Sunday, November 10, 2019

I didn't fight the law and the law won

I really enjoyed watching the racing on TV yesterday afternoon.  One of winter's few advantages (from my totally subjective point of view, anyway) is that the racing ends so early, which is a big plus for me on a Saturday afternoon.  We start evening stables at 3.00.  In the summer all the best races take place after that so I have either to miss them or to keep nipping back into the house to watch them, and end up taking twice as long to get the work done as I should.  In the winter most of what I want to watch is finished by about then.  Anyway, one thing which caught my eye was Neil King nearly sending a horse down to the start at Wincanton without his cheekpieces, only remembering them after the horse had left the parade ring and was about to go out onto the course.  This reminded me of a little tale which I was going to tell.

I did something similar, if not congruent, when Das Kapital ran at Yarmouth on 14th October.  For once I was on the ball saddling and he was one of the first horses into the ring.  He had set off around the parade ring when I realised that I hadn't affixed the cheekpieces to his bridle.  I was going to call Jana back, but then thought that it would be easier to let her continue around while I ducked back into the stable-yard to collect them, meet her and the horse at the entrance when they had completed a circuit, and then affix them there.  Straightforward.  The photograph in this paragraph shows him wearing them in the parade ring prior to heading to the start.

As I was returning to the parade ring with the cheekpieces in my hand, the woman whose job it was to check that all the horses were wearing the right gear approached me and told me that Das Kapital was not wearing cheekpieces, having been declared to run in them.  I told her that the matter was in hand, that I had them in my hand (showing them to her) and said that I was about to put them on.  Which I then did.  There were still fewer than half of the runners in the parade ring by this time so Das Kapital completed maybe another five circuits, then went out and raced.  End of story (one might think).

Anyway, he ran well, finishing third.  All was good, until to my surprise I was called into the stewards' room.  Once there, I was told that Das Kapital had not had his cheekpieces on in the parade ring, as he should have done.  I explained that that was not totally correct, and ran through what actually happened, repeating what I have just written above.  I was told that the cheekpieces had to be affixed before the horse entered the parade ring, an assertion whose truth I queried.  I said that I was under the impression that horses had to wear any declared headgear in the parade ring, when cantering to the start and in the race.  I pointed out that the horse had done all that; and that, although he had completed one circuit of the ring without cheekpieces, he had then completed five with them.

I queried whether the rule specified that the headgear had to be on the horse before the horse arrived in the parade ring.  I also pointed out that I hadn't needed to be reminded to apply the cheekpieces, because I was walking towards the horse with them in my hand when I was pulled over by the official.  I raised the point that, in the days when the horses used to be turned into the middle of the parade ring and held there before the jockeys mounted, it used to be common for trainers to put the blinkers on at that point.  This didn't seem to cut much ice with the officials, bar making them look slightly confused.  In retrospect, I should have asked for one of the stewards to read me the rule which I was supposed to have broken, but didn't as I wasn't taking the episode very seriously.

Anyway, I was sent outside and then recalled to be told that I had committed an offence, for which I was being cautioned; and that if I committed it again in the next 12 months I would be fined £150.  The stewards' report confirms this: "DAS KAPITAL, trained by John Berry, had arrived in the Parade Ring without its declared cheekpieces, which were then located and fitted on the gelding before going to the start.  After being interviewed, Berry was cautioned."  (Similar wording was used in the Wincanton stewards' report yesterday after Neil King's horse left the parade ring without his cheekpieces but had them affixed at the end of the chute which leads to the course, which incident also resulted in a caution).

Anyway, it was slightly irking me that I now had a black mark on my disciplinary record (albeit no financial penalty) but wasn't irking me enough to make me dig out the rule-book.  We don't actually have a rule-book any longer (I would have had a look in it if we did have one) because everything is 'on-line' (the great god 'on-line' - it is all 'digital', notwithstanding that nobody knows what digital actually means.  Of or pertaining to digits, I suppose; and digits can be either number or fingers.  Which doesn't get us much closer to what digital actually means on the majority of occasions on which it is used, such as this one). 

Anyway, a few days ago I did eventually wrestle with the never-very-satisfactory search-engine in the on-line rule-book, and this is what I came up with: Part 8 of Section 3, which is the 'Equipment Code'.  "The Headgear that has been declared must be worn by the horse on the way to the start and during the Race.  If any Headgear that has been declared is not worn on the way to the start, or if any Headgear that has not been declared is worn on the way to the start, the horse will be withdrawn."  And that's all that there is applicable to this case.  So that was that.  October 14th, the day when I didn't fight the law, but the law won anyway.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Well I totally agree with you seems to me not many officials actually know all the rules and the "ins and outs" So this seems unfair

David Jones said...

you should contact the BHA and ask for the caution to be withdrawn

David Jones said...

You should contact the BHA and ask for the caution to be rescinded