Favourite awarded race in stewards room after winner carries wrong weight
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A horse was disqualified at Lingfield on Wednesday after running without the correct weight. Hierarchy, a six-year-old gelding trained by Jamie Osborne with three wins to his name, lined up a 15-2 chance for the £7,100 6f handicap at the Surrey track.
He had been allocated a weight of 9st 9lb under jockey William Carver who went on to steer the horse to a comfortable win. Yet moments after the jockey weighed in, the clerk of the scales lodged an objection because of a discrepancy over the amount of weight Carver returned at.
A stewards inquiry found there was a 4.5lb difference with the jockey and his saddle showing 9st 4.5lb on the scales. Osborne’s representative told stewards that Hierarchy had been saddled in the stables on this occasion. The weight cloth had been put in the corner of the stable but subsequently not placed on the horse “as a consequence of the gelding being tricky to saddle”.
A BHA integrity officer later located the weight cloth in the stable and it was confirmed as weighing 4.5lb. Hierarchy was disqualified, placed last and the race awarded to second past the post and the 5-2 favourite Whenthedealinsdone, trained by Roger Teal and ridden by Elisha Whittington. Osborne was fined £1,500.
Teal, speaking to Sky Sports Racing, said: “It’s not the way you want it to happen. These mistakes happen from time to time. “Obviously there was a bit of an advantage with the weights by not carrying it so it’s a fair result in the end. “It would have been nice to win fair and square. I feel sorry for Jamie and his team because no one wants that to happen.
