Ban puts an end to Ollie’s Cup bid
FRANKIE Dettori will ride joint Melbourne Cup favourite Almandin after jockey Damien Oliver’s appeal to the Victorian Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board failed.
Dettori, who is yet to win the Cup and has endured a wave of controversies in Melbourne while chasing Australian racing’s most glittering prize, was snapped up by owner Lloyd Williams within minutes of a dejected Oliver leaving the hearing.
The Italian was fined $20,000 and banned for a month two years ago when second on Max Dynamite in an interference-marred Cup.
Last year, he was panned for his ride on Wicklow Brave.
For all that, he remains one of the foremost talents in the world and beat out a host of rivals for the prized ride.
The RAD Board sustained Racing Victoria’s improper riding charge – and 20-meeting penalty – against Oliver after the champion jockey shifted in on Happy Clapper in Saturday’s Cox Plate, causing interference to Dean Yendall on Royal Symphony.
Eager to win a fourth Melbourne Cup, Oliver was desperate to earn a reprieve to keep the ride on Almandin.
Oliver said he would not take the matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, as he did last year after being banned for 20 meetings for reckless riding.
“Being a competitive person is what’s made me be able to
sustain a long, successful career,” he said. “But the board felt that I overstepped this line today, which I accept.
“The main thing I want to put out there is that I have total respect for the riders I ride with and would never do anything to put them in danger.”
Judge Bowman said Oliver had deliberately ridden the “considerably larger” Happy Clapper into the “considerably smaller” Royal Symphony, taking Yendall off his rightful line. Oliver it was dangerous. His ride was condemned by Royal Symphony’s trainer Tony McEvoy, who blamed the champion jockey for wrecking the star three-yearold’s VRC Derby campaign.
Oliver’s latest ban ends on November 16, ruling him out of a string of spring features.