‘So Severe’ - Down Royal Stewards' Bold Decision Sparks Doubts on Ruling In a controversial decision, stewards at Down Royal overturned the result of last Friday's seven-furlong handicap after the winner interfered with the runner-up and the third halfway through the race, some three furlongs from the finish. The stewards, who included the reverend Colin Hall-Thompson, made the controversial call to promote the runner-up to first place. "The winning margin was quite big and ultimately the stewards decided they were happy that the interference caused what should have been the result not being the result," explained Johnny Ward on irishracing.com’s YouTube show The Irish Angle. "They thought it was so severe that the first would have finished second and vice versa." 'I admired...' Ward admitted he had doubts about the decision: "I watched it back - I'm not confident that was the case at all." However, he praised the stewards' bold approach: "I admire the fact that the stewards basically rewarded the horse who was completely wronged against, badly wronged against by the first past the post." The incident created a "domino effect" as the winning horse "leaned so badly left under pressure," causing interference that rippled through the field. Ward called for more such decisive action: "I would like to see more of this where the horse who does nothing wrong in the race is given the benefit of the doubt by demoting the horse who caused all of the problems."
