Equinties - Eclipse Saturday

Gm Equinauts

It’s overcast and dark today, weather fitting given it’s the Eclipse!

CITY OF TROY, PADDINGTON, ST MARKS BASILICA, GHAIYYATH, ULYSSES, GOLDEN HORN and the ill fated ROARING LION are all Daddie’s who have picked this race up on the way to the covering shed in recent years!

Want to be a top middle distance sire? They need to win this.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUND UP

TOO KEANE

We can guarantee that when Juddmonte were looking for a new retained rider, whether the jockey could stick to the UK whip rules was not on their requirements list!

Unfortunately for them, their new number one pilot, Colin Keane, used his whip eight times, TWICE above the permitted amount, during his winning ride on WINDLORD yesterday.

Thank goodness he did, because WINDLORD was our only bet of the day!

Anyway, why is this important? Well, there’s two reasons.

Firstly, and probably less importantly, we have to remember that this is a jockey who has been based in Ireland all his career. He’s had years and years of riding Irish rules, which include looser whip infringement penalties.

Of course, he has ridden in the UK before, but he’s doing it on a weekly basis now, so maybe it was overlooked at just how much adapting he would have to do with this new role. When he rode PUBLISH his inexperience on the track was quite evident.

Will this be a persistent issue? One would hope that, much like any walk of life, he will learn from the mistake he made.

However, the second point to bring up is just what penalty he could get for going two strikes over the limit? His case has been referred to the Whip Review Committee, and should he be given the maximum penalty of two weeks, he would definitely miss the King George (KALPANA, maybe) and potentially FIELD OF GOLD in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.

The committee sit on Tuesdays and Fridays, and usually bans come into play two weeks after the committee’s decision.

Nervous times for Keane and Juddmonte. Wouldn’t it be funny if they have to jock up Kieran Shoemark, ay!?

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