Mixed emotions for Snowden after fall
JAMIE Snowden has plenty of positives to take from Ga Law's Sky Bet Chase run after a late fall denied him success at Doncaster on Saturday.
The seven-year-old went into the race as the 3-1 joint-favourite, a status owed in no small part to his victory in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham in November.
That win saw him carry topweight of 12st on Town Moor for his first attempt over three miles, with Jonathan Burke in the saddle as he was at Cheltenham.
Ga Law was handling both the burden and the extended trip with aplomb when approaching the final fence level with eventual winner Cooper's Cross, but a slightly low jump saw him brush through the fence and fall.
Both horse and rider got to their feet and as Ga Law picked up a few nicks his trainer will take stock before planning his next outing.
"He's OK, he was coming to either win his race or finish a very good second, which would have been a great run off that kind of welter burden for his first time over three miles," said Snowden.
"He definitely stayed. It's always a shame to come down at the last and nobody knows what would have happened, but he certainly would have been either first or second. It's a great shame but it was a hell of a run under that kind of weight, we're pleased with how he ran but disappointed with the result.”
Meanwhile, jockey Sean Quinlan has called for trainers to support the riding ranks in pushing for further discussion with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) over imminent changes to the whip rules.
Revised regulation is due to be fully implemented from February 13, with the very worst whip offences resulting in disqualification of horses and riding bans of 20 days – a tariff which will be doubled in class one and two races.
The BHA had initially proposed to prohibit the use of the whip in the forehand position – but reversed that decision following discussions after outcry from jockeys, instead opting to cut permitted use of the whip to six and seven strikes in Flat and jump races respectively.
Using the whip above shoulder height will incur a four-day ban when the rules are properly introduced, with a soft launch currently in place with riders advised of what would constitute future breaches and what penalty they would have been given.
He said: "I'm trying my best. I've done it for 20 years and used my whip – but now with this new rule apparently I'm breaking the rules with my hand coming above head height. I am trying. I've had a few trainers and a few owners telling me I'm not actually riding to the best of my ability and it is affecting me a little bit. I actually threw my stick away in the last race as you're just thinking about it the whole time.
"It's playing on every one of us. Brian Hughes is champion jockey and very rarely gets a whip ban, he's been in and out of the stewards' room – we all have.
"We're trying our best, but something needs to be done. I would have got 51 days last week, I've been called in six or seven times.”