There was confusion at Huntingdon on Tuesday when the final race was declared void on safety grounds after a horse went the wrong way on the track.
Eight runners went to post for the concluding PricedUp Bet Handicap Hurdle, but the Alan King-trained Blues Singer was reluctant to start and the rest of the field jumped off without him.
However, the stop-race flag was shown at halfway and while it was not immediately obvious as to why, chief steward Tony McGlone explained Tom Bellamy and his horse Blues Singer were spotted heading around the track in the wrong direction and towards the field, prompting clerk of the course Kelly O’Boyle to call a halt proceedings.
Speaking to Racing TV, McGlone said: “At the start, Tom Bellamy’s horse was withdrawn because it was unruly and wouldn’t line up.
“So the race was then started and as the runners were coming round, Tom, because he couldn’t get his horse to go right-handed, he then decided to take it left-handed and back towards the runners coming round.
“I was upstairs in the side-on box and we could see the horse galloping, quite quickly, against the flow of the runners.
"So the clerk of the course in a split decision decided this could be a danger, because at the time he was on the hurdle bypassing area and there might be an accident, so she called a stop-race flag.
“He was in the bypassing area at the time the stop-race flag was called and at the time he was going pretty quick.
"Was he in control of his horse at that stage?
"We had no reason to say that he was in control of his horse, and as he was going at speed towards the runners the clerk of the course decided that the safest thing for horses and riders was do a stop-race flag.”
The stewards’ report read: “An enquiry was held to consider the circumstances surrounding the deployment of the ‘stop race’ flag as the withdrawn horse Blues Singer appeared to head the wrong way down the track into oncoming runners via the bypass lane.
“The clerk of the course, general manager, head groundsman, the starters, and all the riders involved in the race were interviewed.
After hearing the evidence, a report was forwarded to the head office of the British Horseracing Authority for further consideration.”
On what proved an eventful afternoon at Huntingdon, an enquiry was also held to consider the circumstances surrounding the auction held after the PricedUp BOG From 10am Selling Handicap Hurdle, won by the Jennie Candlish-trained Westerton.
There was a report from the clerk of the scales regarding the minimum bid and that matter too has been forwarded to the BHA.
Share