Upheld protest runs counter to long-held HK standards

THE decision to take the seventh race away from eased-down winner Speedstar yesterday was highly controversial and, in our opinion and in the light of long-established precedents in Hong Kong racing, wrong. Speedstar, who came well off a straight line and at least partially took the running of Increase Speed, won officially by a neck; but it was more like a half-length and would have been three-quarters of a length or more had jockey Eden Cheung ridden right out.

Decisions in these inquiries in the past have been governed by the one fundamental question: did the interference materially affect the result? In this case, surely the issue is: is it possible to argue that, beyond a reasonable doubt, Increase Speed would have won without the interference? From our viewing of the films this is an untenable position, and the benefit of a very large doubt should have gone to Speedstar.

But in America interference of this type results in the horse and rider responsible being taken down - and there are very few ifs and buts about it. Judging by the time it took for the decision to relegate Speedstar to be made, there was almost certainly a lack of unanimity in the Inquiry Room.

The worrying point that now arises must be under exactly what rules or guidelines are cases of interference going to be judged? Is any degree of interference - and there is no doubt that Speedstar and Cheung were guilty of causing some - now going to mean virtually automatic relegation? In the light of yesterday's shock verdict, it would seem that the tried and trusted Hong Kong formula of the result being materially affected may no longer apply. This is not good for racing as the horse and rider should be kept as two separate issues. By demoting Speedstar, his backers suffer. Allow him to keep the race and just suspend the rider for careless riding.

THE normally imperturbable and invariably polite Wendyll Woods left the weighing room an unhappy man yesterday - with a two-meeting suspension for dropping his hands on well-beaten Fortune World in race three. Woods follows Eden Cheung to the sidelines for the same offence, but the race-meeting stewards will be well advised to make sure the same action is taken from now on. There have been innumerable instances of jockeys dropping their hands on horses that have given their best and are finding no more.

It may be that the stewards considered Woods overdid it, but the fact is that the horse was finished. 'I could feel the jar in his legs. I was warned the other day for Woods Venture but I hit him 10 times and I don't think I have hit a horse that many times in my career,' he said.