Scudamore’s clear for Ascot after ban appeal

Jockey Tom Scudamore is free to ride this weekend at Ascot and on the prestigious Boxing Day card at kempton after successfully appealing against the five-day careless riding ban picked up at Aintree this month.

It means Scudamore will ride

TOWCESTER winner Waldorf Salad (5-1) was a sixth winning nap from the last seven selections for CAPTAIN HEATH (Marcus Townend).

colin Tizzard-trained 2-1 second favourite Thistlecrack in tomorrow’s Long Walk Hurdle.

The seven-year- old, a Grade one novice hurdle winner at Aintree in April, is one of the leading contenders for the Ladbroke World Hurdle in March after landing the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury’s Hennessy meeting in November.

The jockey will also ride Bidourey in the Ladbroke Handicap Hurdle at Ascot tomorrow, and his Boxing Day mounts could include Un Temps Pour Tout in the Grade one kauto Star Novices’ chase.

Scudamore (below) had been suspended after his mount Soll clashed with Tom Garnerridden Financial climate at Aintree. His solicitor Rory Mac Neice argued Scudamore had simply held his line.

Meanwhile, the BHA have reversed the result of the Bumper at Lingfield on Saturday after it was shown the judge wrongly called Mick channon’s The Blue Bomber the winner by a nose from Jonjo o’Neill’s Quarenta.

conditional jockey Paul John has been referred to the BHA following his ride on Missile Man in the Maiden Hurdle at Towcester. The six-year- old finished 13th of 14 in a race won by Que Sera, with local stewards ruling that John, who claims 7lb, had been ‘guilty of intentionally failing to ensure that his horse ran on its merits’. At Plumpton on Monday, John landed a 14-day ban for failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain the best possible placing on echo Brava. Tomorrow’s meeting at waterlogged Newcastle is in doubt. There is an 8am inspec

tion today.