‘Wrong horse’ trainer fined £1,500 for ‘honest mistake’

The ‘wrong horse’ that won a race at Yarmouth last month at odds of 50-1 has been disqualified and trainer Charlie Mcbride fined £1,500 by the British Horseracing Authority.

Mandarin Princess was declared the winner on July 27 after beating Fyre Cay – only for a scan to show the horse was three-year old stablemate Millie’s Kiss, which had been due to run later in the same meeting.

Mcbride declared the mix-up to be “an honest mistake” and he said he hoped the sanction would draw a line under the issue.

“It was simply an honest mistake,” said Mcbride. “I’ve been fined £1,500 and I hope that is the end of the matter now. We had a fair hearing, no complaints, and it won’t happen again.”

The BHA tweeted: “Mandarin Princess dq’d from race at Yarmouth on 27 July on grounds that the horse that ran was not Mandarin Princess but Millie’s Kiss. Trainer Philip [Charlie] Mcbride fined £1,500 for breach of (C) 37.2 by running a different horse in the race to the horse named at time of entry.”

Meanwhile, Spanish Steps could be seen next in the Great Voltigeur at York after causing a surprise when making all the running to give trainer Aidan O’brien a onetwo in the Grenke Finance Ballyroan Stakes at Leopardstown. O’brien said: “We always liked him and we thought he would be comfortable on nice ground. We were going to go to Goodwood and then the ground changed.”