A BUMPER Bank Holiday crowd saw the Jersey Race Club’s 2008 season end in controversial fashion with the first past the post in the feature race getting disqualified after his rider failed to weigh in.
The Charles Le Quesne (1956) Limited sponsored Clarendon Handicap is the most prestigious handicap on the Race Club’s calendar and seven runners went to post in this year’s renewal, with the season’s champion race horse Koka Fast going off as the 6/4 favourite.
Early pace to the race was set by Groomsman although his rider Vince Slattery had to be quite forceful to urge his mount into the early lead. Groomsman maintained his lead until Koka Fast was sent for home by Adam Jones three furlongs out and although Koka Fast was challenged by a renewed effort from the early leader and stablemate Sans Sa Dame, he had enough in hand to pass the post half a length in front of Groomsman with Sans Sa Dame a further two lengths back in third.
This appeared to finish off the season in style for the much improved Alyson Malzard six-year-old. However some ten minutes after the race had finished and with bookmakers paying out on the ‘winner’, a steward’s enquiry was announced after an objection by the clerk of the scales was made due to the winning rider failing to weigh in.
Disqualification as a result of Jones’s ‘oversight’ was automatic under the rules of racing, handing the race to Groomsman.
Pictured: Action from the Clarendon Handicap at Les Landes on Monday
Article posted on 27th August, 2008 - 2.59pm
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