BHA saying they must find a way of preventing this in future. Currently it is the responsibility of the trainer to ensure the right horse gets saddled. Quite simple. Before they are allowed out of the paddock passports to be handed to a steward and microchip checked. Ain't difficult
The man is an idiot. You could show just about any trainer a snapshot of any of their horses and they would know who it is. It is the equivalent of you not recognising your wife in the supermarket. At the very least he surely must, absolutely must, have noticed it was the wrong horse in the winners enclosure!
Millie’s Kiss must be a pretty small three year old if the stable lad did not see that one horse was bigger than the other, even if the trainer was not present; and clearly they must look similar – not a bay and a chestnut! And it cannot be that good a horse to only win a two year old race by a neck when a stone well in at the weights. It is no good pointing out the bleeding obvious solution to the BHA, Ron. Reportedly the trainer had not arrived at the track yet; and I think most of us would not recognise your wife in the supermarket – post a picture and I will see if I can spot her on Saturday morning in ASDA.
Thats bullshit QM...he admits to putting the saddle on the filly. You would spot my wife..she is 6' 1"..!
Fair enough, I stand corrected. It was originally reported that he was not there. Is she an Amazon or does that include the high heels? I will probably run into her in the booze aisle, where I will be stocking up so I get my four a week to avoid diabetes and she will have a trolley full of wine to bring home to you.
It's not unusual for a 2yo to be bigger than a 3yo, or even an 8yo. Horses' heights range fro 15.2hh to 17.2hh (even bigger for NH horses). I have a job to tell a couple of ours apart sometimes (at first glance) but, I can be 100% certain the wrong one wouldn't go into the arena. Even if they are the same height and colour, there will be something distinctly different. For a start I'd be surprised if the behaviour of an experienced 3yo was the same as an unraced 2yo; also,expressions are quite distinctive. The stable groom is (possibly) even more likely to be able to spot the difference than the trainer. As stick says, there is no way they couldn't have realised in the winners' enclosure. I suspect some decent bets were placed on the course where they knew they would get paid out before it came to light
Never trust any trainer who blames the ‘error’ on somebody else. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more… I tell you what though, troops, if anyone wants to know why British Racing is such a laughing stock and/or suspected of being full of shysters just take a look/listen (delete as appropriate) to today’s media - the sport is being ripped to pieces. You pays your money and you takes your choice, people, but we are undoubtedly looking somewhere (and admittedly it’s a wide gap) between the parameters of gross incompetency or an evilly (boo-hiss…) plotted fraud.
At a midweek meeting at Great Yarmouth, they would have got next to nothing on a 50/1 shot without the price shortening (a tenner would have given a bookie a £500 liability), so I think we may be looking for skulduggery here where it is really just human error. I note that the trainer is co-owner of the two year old, so you would think he would have recognised it!
It was the only horse blue on betfair the night before, was keeping my eye on the race to see if there was anything against the fav as it looked like it only had 1 horse to beat, so someone was nibbling away
