FURY AS WRONG HORSE WINS
Punters were fuming and bookmakers out of pocket when the 50-1 winner of yesterday’s opening race at Yarmouth turned out to be her older stablemate.
racing officialdom once again looked incompetent when a post-race check showed Mandarin Princess, the winner by a neck from 4-6 favourite Fyre Cay, was in fact Millie’s Kiss, who had been due to run in the fourth race.
the mix-up occurred when the wrong horse was taken to be saddled by the groom of trainer Charlie McBride. It meant a two-year- old supposedly making her debut had actually run 10 times and won once and had the considerable advantage of being a year older.
there is no suggestion of skulduggery and the error was identified when Millie’s Kiss was checked at a post-race dope test. By then the ‘weighed in’ signal had long been given leaving Yarmouth stewards powerless to change the result or respond to angry calls from racegoers to void the race.
the matter will now be dealt with by the BHA with the inevitable promotion of Fyre Cay and sanction of McBride.
Most off- course bookmakers announced they would pay out on both Mandarin Princess and Fyre Cay. Coral estimated the error would cost them £ 50,000. spokesman simon Clare said: ‘We pay racing a lot of money via the Levy and media rights and are entitled to expect a sport which is run in a more professional manner.’
A BHA statement read: ‘ the responsibility lies with the trainer to present and run the correct horse in the race. Having said that, we will of course determine what steps need to be put in place to prevent it from happening again.’
John egan, who rode the ‘winner’, said: ‘ I’m surprised the stewards didn’t make the race void or disqualify the winner. It was the wrong horse in the wrong race and a very simple calculation.
‘At the end of the day we’re all human and mistakes happen. I feel most sorry for Charlie.’