“WILD scenes” unfolded at Lingfield racecourse on Monday morning as a 28-1 outsider finished “half the track” ahead of the four other runners – whose jockeys were all slapped with bans.
Certain Style, who has never won a race in all her sixteen starts, finished a staggering 22 lengths ahead of the field under Tyrese Cameron in the Apprentice Handicap.
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A stewards inquiry after the race confirmed the four jockeys’ in behind were “in breach of failing to take all permissible measures” to win the race.
They have been slapped with a ten-day ban, although former jockey Fergus Sweeney told Sun Racing Columnist Matt Chapman that, had they been more experienced, the ban would have bee much longer.
Chapman, who summed up the debacle during a Sky Sports Racing interview, said: “The other four jockeys clearly misjudged things.”
Sweeney replied: “We get all the jockeys in and listen to their evidence and ask the relevant questions.
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“We deliberate as normal.
“We found all four jockeys in breach of failing to take all permissible measures and as a result they all got ten days.
“But they are apprentices, and they are learning. Apprentice races are here for them to learn.
“With a more experienced rider we’d be going into the higher day bans.”
Despite the winning four-year-old, trained by Laura Mongan, having won less than £3,000 in his whole career, punters were blown away by the performance.
They took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to vent.
One said: “Group horse running in an apprentice handicap.”
Another added: “Is that Frankel?”
While other fans took the chance to rip into the four trailing apprentices.
One said: “An Apprentice Handicap – and the final four should remain apprentices for a long time!”
One commented: “This usually happens during the winter All-Weather races. An outsider storms ahead and the rest don’t make an effort until it’s too late. Should be investigated.”
Another said: “Absolute joke – those four behind should get a long ban and then go back to school.”
One added: “Embarrassing for the sport.”
The jockeys who made the “embarrassing” misjudgment can take slight consolation in the fact they are not the first to make this mistake at Lingfield.
The Surrey-track has seen a few unusual runnings of races in the the last few years.
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