I've zoomed in closer, to the stratum corneum of both horses, no gap, dead heat.

I must be marksman, like anyone with both eyes working!!

£11K profit over 2 races shafter, get over it!! ROFL

83yr old chelsea pensioner with aspergers sitting tying absolute and utter tripe on a daily basis.

TBF we all know you never served shafter, apart from that an accurate pen picture!!

any good?

Nice Bog Darking et al!!! Do you tell your carer you lived a blameless life?

Never claimed one unlike you but destroy you for proofs every time!!!

CagliariG 22 Aug 24 17:42
Any chance of a photo of your computer screen of the lifetime Portal?

Did well to get that home at Chelmsford just then.

2024 and we're using photo finish tech. that isn't fit for purpose.

probably coz they know the BHA is as weak as very weak pi$$ and there's a fair chance they will not be banned...

this is the problem when you have folk who are supposed to enforce the laws of the game but bottle it on an almost daily basis...

probably coz if they had everyone in they should have in there would be very few left imv.

its the same special sort of arrogance that doyle displayed the other night
"I didn't stop riding"
if it was up to me that's a licence suspension

Pos. (Draw)   
Horse / SP
Trainer / Jockey
Age    WGT    OR    TS    RPR    MR   
1 (3)

Runner Jacket
2. Smooth Silesie  (IRE) 7/2
Callum Shepherd
Lisa Williamson
3    97 b    62    46    –    –   
Prominent, headway over 1f out, hung right and bumped rival inside final furlong, kept on towards finish (op 4/1)

A bit of sanity from Dave Jennings RP



This nonsense needs to stop. Now. In less than three weeks we have had three jockeys who should have won races, but didn't. Well, the final part of the terrible trilogy was a dead-heat. One of the riders got a 28-day ban, another got 18 days and the other somehow got off scot-free.

The easing-down spree started at Bath on the first Friday of the month when Alec Voikhansky surged to the front on Power Of Twins, kicked a couple of lengths clear before deciding to sit motionless for five strides without ever looking left or right. He had his heart broken by Lovestruck Romeo. He got 28 days and deserved every one of them.

Next up was James Doyle. A terrific chap by all accounts and a superb ambassador for the sport. It turns out he has even more charm and charisma than I ever imagined as he managed to worm his way out of a huge holiday with a convoluted explanation as to why odds-on favourite No Retreat didn't win the 1m2f maiden at Windsor on Monday evening. He should have been off on a 28-day retreat.

In fairness to Doyle, he said all the right things. He pointed out that he was on an inexperienced horse having only his second run and introduced words like 'lugging', 'wobbling' and being spooked by the winning line. He reminded us that horses aren't machines. Fair point, James, hence you can't ease down on them as they might think they've done enough.

Anyway, the stewards must have believed every word he said as he escaped without any punishment whatsoever. It's lucky Aristotle died when he did, because if he had been alive in 2024 and not departed in 322 BC he would have met his match in the Doyler. This was applied equine philosophy, a language most of us will never understand.

Banning jockeys and stopping them from making a living for 28 days is not something I would ever promote, but the problem we have now is that Doylegate has opened up such a colossal can of worms that closing the can is going to prove an awfully arduous task.

If stewards start accepting excuses like the one given by Doyle, where does it all end? The next jockey who eases down and gets caught will have their tale of woe written and rehearsed and will be ultra-prepared for sitting in front of the stewards. Expect words like wobbling and lugging to form part of the script and you can bet your bottom dollar that being spooked by the winning line will be in there too.

That brings us to the concluding 7f handicap at Kempton on Wednesday night, a mere 48 hours after Doylegate. This time it was Callum Shepherd who dropped his hands for one single stride on Thorntonledale Max and got 18 days for that split-second.

Callum Shepherd: the Royal Ascot-winning rider has had a rollercoaster season
Callum Shepherd: 18-day ban after being caught napping at Kempton
Credit: Alan Crowhurst
To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure that split-second made any difference to the outcome as surely the momentum of the previous stride carried Thorntonledale Max to the line. The subsequently much-debated photo-finish revealed a dead-heat and you wonder whether Shepherd would have been suspended at all had the furore not unfolded at Windsor earlier in the week.

Harsh as it seems, the only way to stop this recent scourge on the sport is to issue lengthy bans for incidents like Shepherd's. That's the only way to curb this disturbing new trend.

Don't forget it was only April of last year when Pat Cosgrave's smooth flight on Concorde turned into the bumpiest landing of his life when he tried to showboat on George Boughey's gelding at Chelmsford and was made to look a right pillock by My Roxanne, who sneaked up his inner to score by a nose.

Four similar incidents in 16 months is four too many, never mind three in three weeks. It's gone beyond a joke. We need to create a culture where riding out to the line is one of the most fundamental aspects of being a jockey. And, by that, I don't mean hitting a horse when he or she is 20 lengths clear. It is merely a case of pushing every horse out until a stride past the line. Simple.

Talk to any young pony rider and they will tell you the two things that are instilled in them from day one is that the start is your problem and you ride out to the line. It is like five-year-old kids learning the alphabet in their first few weeks in school. It's A, B, C stuff and yet here we are with seasoned pros not getting the simplest things right.

It’s funny, there are all these recent cases in Britain of horses not winning when they should have because of showboating in the saddle, but it is hard to remember any incidents in Ireland. The only one that springs to mind was Davy Russell on Rebel Fitz in the 2012 Galway Hurdle. He began celebrating a stride or two before the line and was almost caught by Cause Of Causes. He held on by a head, and I’d say he still gets cold shivers down his spine when he thinks about it.

There was, of course, Roger Loughran on Central House in a Grade 1 chase at Leopardstown back in 2005, but that was different. He mistook the winning post for the end of the rail. That wasn’t showboating.

It makes you wonder whether this is a British problem rather than an Irish one. That said, there are a lot more races so it is only natural that it happens more often over there.

But, the thing is, it shouldn’t happen at all. This is one area of the sport where we should be adopting a zero-tolerance approach. It is hard enough to win races for an owner, a trainer, and a punter, and to throw victories away in the final few strides is unacceptable and should be treated as such.

My proposal would be to introduce a 40-day ban for any jockey who eases up in the closing stages and loses a race he or she should have won from the start of 2025. That would surely be a suitable deterrent. We need to do something drastic, that's for sure. It's becoming an all too common occurrence.

Some people just make mistakes.40 days loss of earnings with
prize money percentage,bit over the top to me.The D/Heaters
never actually lost their races.

Jennings should be made to apologise to those that keep him gainfully employed iso that his waistline is amply nourished while they are often suffering all kinds of problems least of which is often psychological issues that lead to all sorts of self imposed abuse.

absolute melt that ****

No great fan of Jennings, but at least he has tried to address the situation. If you put a number on something there's always someone who is going to get upset. It's either too harsh, or too lenient. It has to be strong enough to mean something.

Not banning Doyle was a clear mistake, and I'm not sure why that couldn't have been put right. The Stewards on that night clearly didn't know what they were doing and should be stood down themselves until they have a clear grasp of what is expected.

The Stewards in general just haven't been doing their job properly over many years, in fact have they ever done it properly? That's why it may seem like a sea change. All jocks should be riding through the line to the maximum number of places being offered. That shouldn't be impossible, but if it takes long bans to encourage them to do this then so be it, and all jocks should be treated equally with no get outs for the top dogs.

In my industry you get severe fines for an error. The only professional area where miscreants get away scot free (often promoted) is the public sector.

The only professional area where miscreants get away scot free (often promoted) is the public sector.

making an honest mistake definitely doesn't make you a miscreant [an unlawful, deliberate action]

The worst case for me this year of those victims of miscreancy was the Dill** pulling of a hoss that should have won IMO.


worlds apart from instances that fatboy Jennings wants classing as hanging offences.