A race was declared null and void following a dramatic incident at the start on Monday, resulting in five jockeys receiving bans. The second race of the evening card at Windsor, a 5f handicap for apprentice jockeys with a field of seven, was marred by chaos at the starting stalls.
The Martin Dunne-trained Master Zack, who had been blindfolded to enter the gate, reared up just before the gates opened. Jockey Ryan Kavanagh managed to stay in the stalls without his horse, who exited with the blindfold still over his eyes. Unable to see where he was going, he veered to his right and crashed through the plastic running rail before he was eventually caught.
He was reported to be uninjured. Another runner, Beaumadier, was also left in the stalls, losing many lengths once he started, with the rest of the field completing the race with Cabeza De Llave crossing the finish line first.
Sky Sports Racing presenter Alex Hammond described the incident, saying: “This is what happened. He’s got his hand on the hood as the horse goes up and then the horse gets stuck in the gates and Beaumadier doesn’t jump either.
“The starter was waving the flag but our eye was taken by Master Zack and him veering through the plastic rails there. The starter definitely was waving the flag there.”
Replays revealed the starter in the background waving the yellow flag after the runners had left the stalls, while a different angle showed an assistant standing in the middle of the track a furlong away, waving a flag at the approaching field to signal a false start. Despite this, the remaining riders seemed to ignore the warning and continued to race to the finish line, reports The Mirror.
Jockey Tommie Jakes, who was first past the post, told Sky Sports Racing that he saw no indication to stop before heading into a stewards inquiry. He said: “I wouldn’t have seen the flag. I don’t know why it would have been a false start anyway.
“I know the horse pulled up just as I left the gates and that was it. I didn’t see any flags waving down the track.”
However, the stewards penalised Jakes and four others – Jack Doughty, Jack Dace, Taryn Langley and Alec Voikhansky – with 10-day suspensions dished out. Chief steward Richard Westropp explained to Sky Sports Racing: “Stall two, the door flapped back into his path as the start was activated.
“On the basis of that the starter called a false start. His flag went up and was raised as it should be. All the horses ran. You can see from stall four that the horse got loose and went through the rails.
“The recall man was stood right in the middle of the track. He raised his flag and blew his whistle so procedures were followed absolutely to the tee. None of the jockeys tell us that they saw the recall flag or hear the whistle bar Mr Whiteley on horse number two which activated the false start in the first place.
“He made every effort to pull his horse up. The others rode a finish. All the jockeys bar Conor Whiteley and Ryan Kavanagh, whose horse went lose and went into the rails, have been banned. It’s a 10-day mandatory ban for failing to obey the recall flag.”