Havlin's ban today looks really harsh to me. The horse got held up at a crucial time but got going again and was flying. An unlucky loser and one to follow but not sure what the stewards thought Havlin could have done differently. Lingfield is a tricky track and that sort of incident is a regular occurrence.
he could have ridden it to win the race. Horrible ride and both he and the yard need examining alongside the pre race betting. Bent as ****.
That horse today could have won doing handstands and he put it in every position to keep it from getting out and running for the line. Watch it from 5-6f out where the front pair come about 2 or 3 off the rail (4f out) and Havlin has a double handful under him, sees Frankie going for his run out wide and he takes a pull on the horse onto the hind of the front one rather than going up the inside gap. If it was sheer confidence his horse was going to get there, that's fair enough, he misjudged it - but the good jockey's make it as uncomplicated as it needs to be, and he lost that horse the race today and I've saw that kind of ride numerous occasions from him over the years. Baffles the mind how he still gets rides on them calibre of horses, there's better chaps riding work out here each morning. Well done the nice winners today too lads not been able to watch much racing the past few weeks, catching up online most evenings and the odd peek in here. Good work.
I'm not a fan of the Rab fella. He has habit of riding races like today. I backed At A Pinch in the 4.30 at Newbury last Friday. The ride he gave it was shocking, getting needlessly into trouble twice toward the end of the race and only being beaten 3/4 of a length (one for anybody's tracker btw). In fact, reading the postscripts of his last seven rides is quite interesting. In four of them he has managed to get himself into trouble in running. His ride on Oaks Favourite ,Mehdaayih, in 2019 was also error strewn and explains why he rarely gets legged up on big race days. Race riding patently isn't an easy discipline but it needn't be as complicated as he makes it look on occasions.
Cracking stuff. You have a savant like ability in picking bumper winners at big prices. I wish I liked bumpers!
Some harsh words on here for Rab. A jockey operating at a 20% strike rate. If he wasn’t any good he wouldn’t have been employed by a man like Gosden for so long. Gosden actually uses him mostly for the difficult types that require a bit of strength. Regarding the race. This horse was having his first run. If you think it would have been sensible to go up the Inner running downhill into the home bend in a novice race then good luck when you are given the opportunity. The horse wasn’t given the whip and if that was on trainers orders then I don’t see how Havlin can be to blame.
He’s got a 20% strike rate because he rides for Gosden. I don’t rate him as a jockey but yesterday was far more than that. Question for you - did he ride to get the horse the best possible finishing position? For me he didn’t, and clearly didn’t. He didn’t even push the horse to try and pick up the leader when five or so lengths down on straightening and carried on letting the horse pick up itself inside the final furlong. The horse doubled in price during the day, wasn’t ridden to win the race and they let a more fancied stablemate win. The whole thing stinks and I am amazed that you don’t see it that way.
You can see him literally turning his head to keep an eye on what the other Gosden horse is doing whilst going round. As soon as Frankie made a move for the outside Havlin deliberately gets himself blocked in behind horses. Takes a pull. Then at the finish he was obviously not supposed to beat the other horse so didn't ride out the finish properly. As blatant cheating as you're likely to see in my opinion. 21 days is lenient although it probably can't all be put in him, he was likely just doing as he was told.
He absolutely was doing exactly as he was told, the man who gave him his instructions wasnt even there to face the music! If the jockey gets a ban then surely the trainer and the horse should too. I dont believe he gets the horse boxed in on purpose. If he chose to switch out and come four wide into the straight he would be getting slaughtered for doing that too. In essence, I think you are all actually blaming the wrong man!
What about his "effort" in the straight? When out in the clear he didn't ask the horse to pick up. Agree its more than just the jockey, who has now stated that he is going to appeal, and I think the BHA needs to do a proper investigation into it. It was a shambles and it was obvious that it was more than just a poorly judged ride. It was blatant that he didn't want to win, questions need answering on why it happened. I also think it is important now that the BHA acts and makes sure that trainers declare if a horse is going to be ridden hands and heels. It's not good enough for the public to have to work it out by how far the horse drifts in the betting. Gosden seems to be above the law, but now he's got one jockey who has admitted drug use, lied about it and was found out by hair testing, and now another done for a non triers. Not that it will matter one iota as he is part of the establishment.