Eddery gets six-day suspension

Jockey Pat Eddery has been hit with a six-day suspension and trainer Ed Dunlop fined #1,000 at a Jockey Club disciplinary committee inquiry today over the running and riding of Well Chosen at Yarmouth last month.

Eddery`s ban, from October 31st to November 6th on days when Flat racing is scheduled to take place, means that he will miss Newmarket`s final meeting of the Flat season.

The two-year-old, who was making his debut, has been banned from racing for 30 days (October 31 to November 29).

Well Chosen, a 10-1 chance, was noted making steady late progress after running green in the early stages of the seven-furlong race when sixth of 15 to Samhari.

Although no formal inquiry was held on the day by the racecourse stewards, the decision to hold an inquiry was made following a review of the race by the Jockey Club`s monitoring system.

After hearing evidence from Eddery and Dunlop, who were both legally represented, as well as watching video recordings of the race the committee found both to be in breach of the rules.

Eddery was deemed to have failed to take all reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race to ensure that his horse was given a full opportunity of obtaining the best possible placing.

The jockey stated that his instructions were to be careful on a colt that was likely to pull hard for the first three furlongs.

Thereafter, he held the colt together because he was concerned the horse would roll about. Consequently, he had made no effort to ride the horse out in the last two furlongs.

However, the committee rejected this as in their opinion Eddery should have made more effort in the final two furlongs and if the horse had responded as he feared it might then he would have had a reasonable excuse to hold the colt together.

The committee was not satisfied that Eddery`s ride was a consequence of a failure on his part to comply with Dunlop`s instructions.

The trainer was found to be in breach of the rules regarding 'schooling in public'.