Noel Callow was suspended on a busy day for stewards while a jockey admitted pilot error put him in all sorts of trouble at Caulfield on Saturday.
CALLOW SUSPENDED FOR 12 MEETINGS
Noel Callow was one of three jockeys suspended for careless riding at Caulfield and he copped time for causing interference on Samovare in the MRC Foundation Cup (2000m).
Callow pleaded guilty to careless riding after stewards alleged he allowed Samovare to shift in at the first turn, leaving insufficient racing room for runners to his inside resulting in three horses being tightened.
Callow’s ban begins at midnight on Monday and ends at the completion of the day meeting on October 6, meaning he can ride at the Moonee Valley night meeting.
Michael Walker said he wasn’t "in any trouble” in the incident but put that down to Brad Rawiller’s handling of Articus on his outside.
"Everyone should buy Brad Rawiller a slab,” Walker told stewards. "Somehow he kept his horse off me.”
MOLONEY PUTS HAND UP FOR ALMOST FALLING
Jockey Patrick Moloney shouldered the blame for an incident in which he almost fell at Caulfield.
The Mike Moroney-trained Lakhoni drifted from $21 to $51 but was closing late when he clipped heels and blundered at the 50m.
Moloney told stewards a gap opened but didn’t stay open long enough for his mount to capitalise.
"I pressed the accelerator too hard,” Moloney said.
"He accelerated too quickly and clipped heels. I ended up running myself into trouble.
"It was my fault.”
PRINCE OF BRUNSWICK TRIED TO SAVAGE RIVAL
Trainer Mick Price wasn’t overly surprised when Duke Of Brunswick tried to bite a rival runner at Caulfield.
Duke Of Brunswick was chasing the eventual winner Sircconi late in the Ladbrokes Supports the National Jockeys’ Trust Handicap (1400m) when the gelding tried to take a chunk out of the three-year-old.
"He tries to bite the clerk of the course pony sometimes,” Price said.
"He’s a gelding but he can do that sometimes but he has never done it in a race before.”
JOCKEYS ASSOCIATION UNHAPPY WITH NEW HANDICAP RULES
The Australian Jockeys’ Association isn’t thrilled with Racing Australia’s decision to give Principal Racing Authorities discretionary powers over whether to raise weights for Group I handicaps at acceptance time.
Under the new rules, PRAs have the option of keeping weights as they stand even if they topweight has less than 57kg at acceptance times.
Racing Victoria will only apply the rule for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. RV says the rule would provide certainty on weights to be carried in Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
But AJA chief executive Des O’Keeffe wasn’t happy when interviewed on the matter on Saturday.
"We’re not happy about a number of aspects of it,” O’Keeffe told Racing Victoria. "We’re not happy about the consultation process of it, which wasn’t in keeping with Racing Australia’s stated policy on consultation on rule changes.
"We’re not happy about the timing of it. It was in August that we first heard anything about it and it has to be rushed through for the first week of October.
"We’re not happy about its impact on the integrity of the handicap. It has the potential to see a race that previously was raised to 57kg at acceptance time, run off a 54(kg) topweight at acceptances.
"We think that is a real integrity issue. We call on Racing Australia to rescind the rule that has been proposed to the first of October and go back to the consultation process as it stood.”
