BANS and another chilling fall yesterday marred racing at Sha Tin despite a stern pre-meeting safety warning. Senior stipendiary steward Bernard Hargreaves called all the licensed riders together before the first and told them in no uncertain terms just how they were expected to ride. Hargreaves' action followed an unprecedented spate of serious incidents in running culminating in three shocking falls at Happy Valley's midweek meeting which led to Lance O'Sullivan, Jackie Tse, Peter Ho and Eden Cheung all missing yesterday through injury. But by the end of the meeting, Jimmy Ting had been sent to hospital for chest X-rays following a fall from Mr Wonderful right in front of the public stands as the field for the sixth event galloped for home. Former triple South African champion Felix Coetzee was suspended for three meetings, having been found responsible for a careless riding incident in the eighth in which his mount Super Falcon was deemed to have caused interference to Grand Baron and Owner's Bliss coming off the bottom bend. And experienced apprentice Vickie Choi must face an adjourned inquiry before racing this Wednesday. Choi has already been charged with careless riding on Super Freighter in the final event and wants more time to present new evidence in his defence. Ting was clearly the author of his own misfortune as he drove Mr Wonderful on to the heels of Brave Ron leading to his mount stumbling, falling and firing him to the ground. The Jockey Club's vets later found that Brave Ron had returned with lacerations to a back leg. The incident led to director of racing Philip Johnston stressing after racing: 'All jockeys, but the less experienced ones in particular, will be warned about riding hard into where there simply isn't any room. 'When this happens again they won't just be having a fall they'll have a ban to go with it.' One of the territory's top trainers, who declined to be identified, agreed and even thought the stewards should have already acted and banned Ting. He said: 'Jimmy Ting should have been suspended. It was just by sheer luck that there was not another horse behind him or he would have fallen. All the jockeys must be responsible to and for each other.' The situation has become so bad that the wife of champion jockey Basil Marcus can hardly bear going to the races to watch her husband in action. 'These days I actually watch racing with my hands over my eyes,' said Debbie Marcus as she grimaced at the thought of some of the incidents witnessed this season. Marcus has himself suffered in three separate incidents, one of which led to him missing a week and the ride on champion galloper Mr Vitality. She added: 'At home [South Africa] we have racing five or six days a week and you might have five or six falls in a season. Here we're racing twice a week and we've must have had over 20 falls already this season.' Hargreaves has also questioned senior jockeys about the surface and the configuration of the $1 billion revamped Happy Valley track. Both are known to have come in for criticism because the riders feel that new circuit is too busy for the extra size - just 30 metres - that has been added during the remodelling. Club management has already reduced the maximum number of runners from 14 to 12 in the 1,200-metre events at the Valley and lengthened the 1,600-metre affairs to 1,650 metres for safety reasons. They will now recommend to Stewards of the Club that a similar reduction of 14 to 12 runners is implemented over 1,650 metres while one top trainer would be happy to see no more than 12 allowed in the 1,000-metre dashes, too.
