Should he get to ride in the Champion Hurdle? Maguire banned at Doncaster and is due to miss the biggest ride of his life….is it fair? Should common sense prevail?
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Jason Maguire is likely to miss the ride on Peddlers Cross in the Champion Hurdle, having earned a seven-day ban for abuse of the whip at Doncaster on Wednesday. Maguire finished second on Cool Mission in a beginners’ chase, after which he was found to have raised weals on his mount’s hindquarters and to have used the whip with excessive frequency.
“It’s very frustrating for me,” said the jockey, who intends to lodge an appeal with the British Horseracing Authority. If the ban remains at its present length he cannot ride for a week from 9 March, with the final day of that ban being the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival.
“I gave the horse a strong ride. It’s the marking that’s caused the problem,” Maguire said. “Once you mark a horse, there’s no comeback, but something has to be done about that rule. We are all interested in the welfare of horses but there has to be some leeway for the jockeys.”
Donald McCain, trainer of Peddlers Cross and Cool Mission, said he felt that runners from his yard were being singled out by officials. “The stewards in the north have been chasing us all year and now they’ve got us,” he said.
“This has happened an awful lot with my horses in the north and it’s becoming a joke. I don’t stop horses, we don’t abuse horses. They are always at the tough end of racing and all we do is our best. The horse has been marked, I can’t argue with that, but the horse is notoriously lazy. Jason is devastated, as they’ve cost him a Champion Hurdle ride.
“At least I’ve still got a Champion Hurdle horse. He hasn’t got anything and has put in so much work with the horse.”
McCain said it was not just Maguire who feels he has been victimised by stewards, adding “it’s all my jockeys”, though he was at a loss to offer any reason for this. “Maybe I’m saying the wrong thing. We’ve been concerned about it all winter.”
McCain said that, pending Maguire’s appeal, he would not consider a replacement jockey for Peddlers Cross, an 11–2 shot for the Champion Hurdle.
The stipendiary steward, Robert Earnshaw, said that five days of the penalty related to Maguire’s marking of Cool Mission, while two days related to his excessive use of the whip. The rider was noted by the stewards to have used the whip 18 times from the fourth-last fence. The BHA’s guidelines call for a caution where a jockey has used the whip 16 times during the whole course of a jump race, with a one-day penalty for each additional use.
The Midnight Club is the new Grand National favourite at no bigger than 12-1 after winning at Fairyhouse on Wednesday.
There was distressing news for backers of Diamond Harry, a 10-1 shot for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The horse is “not showing the same sparkle” as before winning the Hennessy in November, according to his trainer, Nick Williams, who added: “He’s possibly an autumn horse”.
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