Newton Abbot 5.55 - Danny Cook

dvds2000

dvds2000

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http://www.racingpost.com/news/hors...ces-ban-after-newton-abbot-fiasco/707415/top/

Did anyone else watch this race?

Didn't have a bet so not talking through my pocket, but ATR showed a steward waving a flag and Danny Cook said he was waving the flag and shouting go round the hurdle (which seems to be partly supported at least by the jockey on the second)

A clearly shaken Cook said: "There was a flagman waving a big flag at the point of the incident and shouting at us to go round the hurdle. I could have jumped it if he had not been there."
Tabaran's rider Dayman added: "I could see the flagman and there were people shouting but the hurdle was not dolled off. I made a split-second decision to jump the hurdle as a result and I suppose I have been proved right."
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How on earth can they disqualify the horse and ban the jockey when the above happened? I mean, if they were meant to jump it, why was there a steward there waving a flag in the first place :confused:


Anyone else got views on it?

EDIT : bit more from the sporting life

"The fence steward was shouting at me to 'go by, go by' it would have been easier for me to jump the hurdle than go round. I should have just jumped the hurdle.
"There was a similar incident at Chepstow with Jimmy Derham when he was told to go round and then he joined back in and won the race. There is one rule one day and one rule another. There needs to be more consistency."
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and some more from puntinplay

Gaspara was sensationally disqualified this evening after the stewards deemed that Danny Cook had faild to complete the course after deciding to go around the second last in the handicap hurdle at Newton Abbott (5.55pm)
The David Pipe mare, heavily backed from 5-1 into 11-4 favourite, was cruising in the lead approaching two out when Cook spotted a flag being raised to the right of the hurdle and another being waved to his left just beyond the flight.
He decided that the flags meant the hurdle should not be jumped and took evasive action.
The mare then jumped the last to go on and score with tons in hand.
But after a lengthy stewards enquiry the horse was thrown out and the race awarded to Tabaran whose rider Oliver Dayman made the decision to jump the second last.
It was a farcical decision if precedent is anything to go by.
Only a month ago the same thing happened at Chepstow when the rider of Ringsend Rose went round the fence because a flag was being waved from the side of the flight.
Another horse in that race, the favourite Moulin De La Croix actually came to grief at the fence when trying to jump it.
Ringsend Rose was allowed to keep the race, beacuse the stewards said the flag being waved meant he did not have to jump it.
So if that was the case then how can it be totally totally different this time round?
If anything the race should have been void and all stakes returned.
It is yet another example of a the total disregard that racing has for the punter.
Racing For Change keep going on about attracting more people to the sport and coming up with some ludicrous ideas such as bigger numbers on saddle clothes.
They need to get the basics right first to make sure that those currently involved in the sport do not get sick and tired of events like this evening's and decided to turn their back on the sport.
The whole thing stinks, and tonight was yet another exmaple of a kick in the nether regions for regular punters who keep the sport alive.
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which is a pretty good article
 
I agree with the Puntinplay article entirely. I watched the race and all its multiple replays and what you don't see from the first, live race is that behind the screens (or in front of them, if you're the jockeys) attending the fatally-injured FUTURE VISION, is a man with a chequered flag to the runners left, waving it, AND a bloke running forwards pointing very clearly to the track as if meaning 'go here'. There'd already been a previous flagman as the field turned in, on the right, waving his flag. Now, frankly, if the riders couldn't see the huge double screening around FUTURE VISION, they shouldn't be riding - they should be at St Dunstan's. They didn't need any flagmen or blokes running and pointing at all. There weren't any dolls or arrows or flashing neon lights at the hurdle, true, but that we know is far from always the case, anyway.

A point was made by Tony Ennis/ATR that there wasn't a man with a flag in front of the hurdle - I should hope not! It's not the flagman's job to risk life and limb by standing in front of obstacles, facing the oncoming herd, ffs.

I also said elsewhere I thought the race should have been declared void (which would mean all stakes returned). Racing for Change could well reflect to the BHA the idiocy of today's balls-up. As for the giant numbers on saddlecloths - per-lease! What next? A coloured plastic abacus to count your stakes on? A colouring-in book and pencils so punters can draw their own silks?

Some time ago (like 5 years or more), Honest Tom suggested usefully that we dump owners' silks in favour of stall or draw colours, rather like the dogs. Okay, by the time you've got past 12 solid colours, you'll want to play around with sleeves and caps, but that would still take care of fields up to the max. If punters can't follow colours, can't see cloths, then Stall No.7 wears all yellow, everywhere, every race, should help them along. Numbercloths blow around in the wind, get blotted out by mud or rain, so they're one of the least useful changes. I can see where RfC is going with this - into Nurseryland, dumbing-down to really trivial and unnecessary levels.
 
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Hmmm, Danny Cook is making rather a habit of this little trick, isn't he? I don't reckon he's the sharpest tool in the box - three times in just over a year??
 
He was followed by at least one other, although the one who seems to go/not go/go again and then falls off wildly (I think it's Nick Schofield) was having saddle slippage probs. I don't think they should take Cook's other misdemeanours into the reckoning, though - to be honest, it was a damn confusing situation. And if they had wanted the horses to have swerved the hurdle, there was no way that they could all have done so without some serious pile-ups!
 
You're pretty much backing up my argument there Kri in pointing out that only one out of the remaining 11 runners in the race followed Cook in by-passing the flight of hurdles which wasn't dolled off, a flag being waved does not in itself mean that the flight or fence is to be omitted.

As for taking previous into account, surely it must be considered? Any jockey who buggers up over taking the wrong course once tends to come in for dog's abuse, let alone one who does it THREE times in the space of just over a year. The BHA will have to be seen to do something to educate the lad, it looks to me like he needs a spell in the classroom reading the rulebook.
 
So, as this is something I haven't been able to find out, what exactly does it mean when theres a flagman standing where he was waving a flag?
I mean, what exactly was he doing?

It's incidents like this that cause the bad press for racing. If it had been on a Saturday afternoon on channel 4 instead of the race it was, it would have created even more bad feeling, especially as it won easily, and if anything, not jumping the hurdle cost it ground rather than gave it an advantage. The fact it was a well backed favourite hasn't helped either.
 
I can't find any references to all the flags used in the BHA's old and new Rules of Racing, neither can I find the race card which indicated what all the flags mean! However, a yellow flag waved means 'stop race' and I am pretty darn sure that as the horses were approaching the second last, there's a chap on their right waving this flag. There's then the bloke with the black-and-white flag ("hazard ahead") beyond the hurdle, by the screens, waving his flag, which indicates a hazard. I remember an orange flag's for an injured jockey.

The BHA's website takes us to references to dolls and chevrons being stuck into jumps and saying they mustn't be jumped if they're there. It doesn't say anything about dolls or chevrons being mandatory if a jump's to be bypassed, though, and we know that in many races that that's not done, riders being waved past with just the b&w flag. However, it's very clear that if a yellow flag is waved, it's the 'stop race' flag and any horse which is approaching it must be pulled up. The BHA Rules of Racing clearly states that all races where yellow flags are deployed are to be declared void.

I've just found a reference to the yellow flag on the (British) RCA site for February 2008, saying that it will be deployed as a 'halt race' flag as well as be used as the recall flag at the start. The b&w was and remains a "hazard ahead" warning flag - somewhat redundant as it was next to an enormous green screen which only the unsighted might miss.
 
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There are different coloured flags for different signals, as Krizon says - one summons a vet, one summons a horse ambulance, one summons a doctor and so on; the black and white one simply means hazard ahead I believe, to warn the jockeys to be aware of an incident.
 
Yes, according to the rather measly Rules of Racing (BHA's own website), the b&w simply means 'hazard ahead', which could be anything. The BHA adopted the fluorescent yellow recall (false start) flag for 'stop the race' in February 2008. I think I'm wrong about believing I saw a yellow flag, though - ATR ran a replay again this morning and all I could see then was one b&w to the right of the riders prior to the second hurdle, and then another in front of the vet's screens.

However, it was fascinating to hear from an ATR e-mailer that he was at the course, and that the jumps attendants had rushed out chevrons to the LAST hurdle - then very quickly taken them away. So it implies that chevrons were going to be deployed, but someone realised they were putting them in the wrong place and then didn't have time to belt them down to the second last, where the attendants were too busy keeping up the sides of the double screen to attend to FUTURE VISION. If the plan was for chevrons to be in place, it rather sends the message that the officials did intend riders to not take the second last!

Be very interesting if Cook adds this info into any appeal - it's got to throw a shadow of doubt onto what the intention of bringing out chevrons was, hasn't it?
 
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