THE Stipendiary Stewards panel of the Jockey Club should still be red-faced this morning after a slip-shod performance yesterday when inquiring into the dramatic fall of King Prawn at Happy Valley on Wednesday.
The original inquiry was adjourned so that evidence could be taken from Gerald Mosse, who ended up in hospital with a broken collarbone.
However, Mosse departed, with official permission, to France on Friday night for further medical treatment.
Whether that could have been delayed another day is not for us to say, but it is surely self-evident that a statement should have been taken from the rider.
As it was, the inquiry opened after the Stewards had asked the other riders involved if they were prepared to continue in Mosse's absence. They agreed but this definitely smacked of buck-passing.
Having viewed the patrol film, the Stewards then charged Declan Murphy with careless riding - much to the amazement and then annoyance of the Irish-American.